Meghan Markle has opened up in the past about being bi-racial and the racism she has faced because of it.
And now the Suits actress has revealed that her skin tone is often altered in photo-shoots and her freckles air-brushed out.
“For castings, I was labelled ‘ethnically ambiguous’” she told Allure magazine. “Was I Latina? Sephardic? ‘Exotic Caucasian’? Add the freckles to the mix and it created quite the conundrum.
“To this day, my pet peeve is when my skin tone is changed and my freckles are airbrushed out of a photo shoot.”
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Meghan says she embraces her freckles, and credits her family with helping her accept them along with her appearance, growing up.
“I will share with you something my dad told me when I was younger: “A face without freckles is a night without stars,’” she said.
“There were the three of us, a family tree in an ombré of mocha next to the caramel complexion of my mom and light-skinned, freckled me,” she recalled of growing up with her mother and grandmother.
“I remember the sense of belonging, having nothing to do with the colour of my skin. It was only outside the comforts of home that the world began to challenge those ideals”.
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In December, Meghan penned a powerful open letter about the racism she has faced in her career.
“I remember the tweets when that first episode of the Zane family aired, then ran the gamut from: ‘Why would they make her dad black? She’s not black’ to ‘Ew, she’s black? I used to think she was hot.’”
“The reaction was unexpected, but speaks of the undercurrent of racism that is so prevalent, especially within America,” she continued.
Meghan also opened up about a question she receives almost every day of her life: “What are you?”
“‘Well,’ I say, as I begin the verbal dance I know all too well. ‘I’m an actor, a writer, the Editor-in-Chief of my lifestyle brand The Tig, a pretty good cook and a firm believer in handwritten notes.’ A mouthful, yes, but one that I feel paints a pretty solid picture of who I am,” she explained.
“But here’s what happens: they smile and nod politely, maybe even chuckle, before getting to their point, ‘Right, but what are you? Where are your parents from?’ I knew it was coming, I always do … I give them what they’re after: ‘My dad is caucasian and my mom is African-American. I’m half black and half white.’”
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