The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle has revealed that she is 43 percent Nigerian. She made the discovery after her genealogy test, she said on the latest episode of her bombshell podcast, Archetypes.
Newsweek reports that Meghan while unpicking the “Angry Black Woman” stereotype in a thought-provoking discussion with Nigerian American actress and comedian, Issa Rae, writer, Ziwe Fumudoh and professor Emily Bernards, told listeners that she took a genealogy test which revealed that she is 43 percent Nigerian.
“I just had my genealogy done a couple years ago,” she said, to which Fumudoh asked: “What? What are you?”
“Forty three percent Nigerian,” Meghan responded. “I’m going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are like ‘What!'”
Meghan, who was excited, opened up about her roots during the major podcast moment as Fumudoh who was desperate to know more about the Duchess asked, “Are you serious? This is huge. Igbo, Yoruba, do we know?”
In her response, the Duchess of Sussex then said, “I’m going to start to dig deeper into all of this because anyone that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are just like, what?”
A strong advocate for fighting against racism and prejudice, this is the first time that Meghan has opened up about her ancestral background on the public stage.
It was also reported that on this week’s episode, the Duchess of Sussex opened up about the stereotypes of Black female roles in TV as she draws on her experience as a former actress.
The revelation comes after her explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, where she and Prince Harry alleged that a member of the royal family made racist remarks about their son, Archie’s skin colour when they were working royals.
Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant Spotify to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around £18 million, in late 2020.
Archetypes was launched with the aim of investigating “labels that try to hold women back” through conversations between Meghan and historians, experts and women who have experienced being typecast.
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