The second episode of Meghan Markle‘s podcast Archetypes was released on Tuesday (August 30th), featuring none other than the legendary Mariah Carey. Markle and Carey discussed the word “diva,” as well as their experiences as biracial women.
Carey shared that she moved more than a dozen times as a child. “I didn't fit in. I didn't fit in. You know, it would be more of the Black area of town or then you could be where my mom chose to live, were the more, the white neighborhoods. And I didn't fit in anywhere at all,” she said.
Markle let the “Always Be My Baby” singer know how much it meant to see her rise to fame. “You were so formative for me. Representation matters so much. But when you are a woman and you don't see a woman who looks like you somewhere in a position of power or influence, or even just on the screen — because we know how influential media is — you came onto the scene, I was like 'Oh, my gosh. Someone kind of looks like me, ' ” the Duchess of Sussex said.
Markle continued, “And I think for us, it's very different because we're light-skinned. You're not treated as a Black woman. You're not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between.”
The Suits actress added that people had never been so focused on her race as when she began dating Prince Harry. “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. 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,” she said.