Meghan Markle was never compared to Nelson Mandela, as previously claimed in her interview with The Cut — at least that’s what a South African actor who worked on 2019’s “Lion King” had to say. For those who aren’t caught up to date, Markle made a pretty bold assertion during her chat with the publication, claiming that a male South African cast member who she met at the London premiere of the motion picture in 2019 had allegedly told her how her marriage to Prince Harry was celebrated to the same extent as Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990.
Dr. John Kani, who voiced the character of Rafiki in the Disney remake, was the only South African actor on the cast, which prompted him to speak out about the remark, insisting that those words certainly never came out of his mouth. He told the Daily Mail, “I have never met Meghan Markle. This seems like something of a faux pas by her. I am the only South African member of the cast and I did not attend the premiere in London.”
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He added that the Duchess of Sussex must be “misremembering” things that occurred on the night she attended the premiere where she had also crossed paths with Jay-Z and Beyonce, who played Nala in the box office flick. In her interview with The Cut, Markle expressed, “He said, ‘I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.’’
Further reacting to the “baffling” comment, Kani continued, “The only South African was me playing Rafiki. But I did not go to the opening in Leicester Square as I didn’t have the time to do that. It just may be a misremembering on her side. It is baffling me. I am the only South African in the cast.”
Mandela, who had spent 27 years in jail, single-handedly helped lay the foundation of a free South Africa by leading the transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy, which later led him to become the first black president of his country, serving between 1994 to 1999.
“In my memory, nobody would have known when she got married, when or what. We had no South African link to the wedding or to her marrying Harry,” Rafiki went on to say. “I am truly surprised by this. For me it is a non-event, the whole thing.”