Meghan Markle Revealed How These Heartbreaking Stories Shaped Her Life

Meghan Markle is no stranger to racism, and a look into her history proves her strong stance against it. Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, is African American, while her father, Thomas Markle, is Caucasian — simply put, she is the offspring of a “mixed” relationship. This brings some heartbreaking stories about being raised by a “black” woman.

The 37-year-old revealed in her now defunct blog, The Tig, how racism and discrimination had a part in her childhood. She recalls fondly of road trips filled with “Are we there yet?’s, the license plate game, the drive-throughs for filler food, photo ops by signs welcoming you from one state to the next, and stops at local restaurants to stretch your legs.” Things were not as easy for her mother, who grew up in a time when segregation was the norm in America.

Meghan recalled her grandfather, Alvin, telling her when he and Meghan’s mother went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for a meal. They could not eat at the drive-through and instead were forced to go to the back to have their meal in the parking lot.

“On our road trip, when we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken, we had to go to the back for ‘coloreds,’” Meghan wrote in her former blog, relaying the story her grandfather told her. “The kitchen staff handed me the chicken from the back door and we ate in the parking lot.”

The Duchess of Sussex also wrote about a recent time at a concert, where her mother was discriminated against. After taking some time to pull their car out of the parking lot, someone shouted out a racial slur at them — calling her mother the “N” word. “I remember how hot my skin felt,” Meghan had written about her anger at the time. “How it scorched the air around me,” she described.

Meghan also recalled how her roommate in college had reacted when her parents had divorced. Her roommate said that the separation “made sense” because her mother is “black” and her father is “white.”

Despite these very hurtful memories brought about by her mixed ethnic heritage, Meghan embraces it as it made her the strong woman she is today. “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,” wrote Meghan on Elle. “To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.”