The Duchess of Sussex has revealed that her mixed-race heritage includes being “43 per cent Nigerian” in a brand new episode of her Spotify-exclusive podcast, Archetypes.
Meghan Markle instructed Nigerian-American actor Ziwe that she found her roots after having her family tree executed “a couple of years ago”.
Asked if she knew which tribe her ancestors had been from, the Duchess said she didn’t but is however planning to “start to dig deeper into all of this”.
Ziwe stated the information was “huge for our community”, including: “No, honestly, you do look like a Nigerian, you look like my aunt Uzo. So this is great.”
Meghan has previously spoken about being biracial – her mom is African-American and her father is Caucasian – however didn’t delve deeper into her roots till extra lately.
In a 2015 essay printed in ELLE Magazine, the duchess opened up about her mixed-race heritage and stated: “Being biracial paints a blurred line that is equal parts staggering and illuminating.
“While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that. To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.”
In September 2019, Meghan addressed her racial heritage for the primary time since marrying the Duke of Sussex 12 months earlier, in the course of the couple’s tour of Africa.
In a speech she gave whereas visiting a charity in Nyanga, she stated: “Just on a personal note, may I just say that while I am here with my husband as a member of the royal family, I want you to know that for me, I am here with you as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a woman of colour, and as your sister.”
Elsewhere within the podcast, Meghan referred to the “angry Black woman” trope and stated there’s a distinction between being “difficult” and being “clear”.
She instructed actor Issa Rae, who was additionally a visitor on the episode: “You’re allowed to set a boundary, you’re allowed to be clear. It does not make you demanding, it does not make you difficult. It makes you clear.”
