In the latest episode of Meghan Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast, the Duchess of Sussex was joined by Mariah Carey to discuss their individual upbringing with mixed race identities. While Carey has never made it a secret that her childhood was plagued by racism in the New York neighborhood she grew up in, Markle says she was never treated like a Black woman until she began dating her now-husband Prince Harry.
The famous ladies tackled the topic of discussing the obstacles they have faced as light-skinned biracial women, with Markle acknowledging that she slowly but surely started to see life from a different perspective when her skin color became a huge talking point after joining the royal family. “You sort of fit in between. I mean, if there’s any time in my life that it’s been more focused on my race, it’s only once I started dating my husband,” the mother of two told Carey.
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“Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a Black woman. Because up until then, I had been treated like a mixed woman. And things really shifted.” The “Caution” singer then interjected, saying people often want biracial people to choose between whether they want to identify as being black or white, which has often put them in uncomfortable positions as “it should be okay to say I’m mixed.”
Elsewhere in the interview which was released on Tuesday, Markle reacted to Carey saying the new podcast host had shared some “diva moments” of her own — a remark which appeared to have caught her off-guard. While the 41-year-old former “Suits” actress said she doesn’t connect to the diva persona, Carey jokingly begged to differ.
“You give us diva moments sometimes, Meghan. Don’t act like [you don’t].” Markle was heard breaking out a burst of nervous laughter while seemingly sounding flustered by the comment, asking, “What kind of diva moments did I give you?”
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But Carey wasn’t referring to Markle’s personality, she then clarified, explaining that it was her “visuals” that often give off the idea that she has diva-like tendencies, referring to her dress sense and not her character.
“She must have felt my nervous laughter, and … she jumped right in to make sure I was crystal clear that when she said diva, she was talking about the way I dress, the posture, the clothing,” Markle said in the podcast episode. “She meant diva as a compliment, but I heard it as a dig. That moment, as she explained to me, she meant it as chic, as inspirational.”