So, yes, so when we come out of here,
we'll go all the way to the West Side Highway.
But as soon as we get on it,
if you can grab me the lane all the way to the left against the center median.
-Not a problem. -Um, southbound.
They're gonna be waiting when you get in, you'll see.
Oh yeah, they're camped out now.
Yeah.
You're late.
Unfortunately.
Thank you.
-Okay. Hello! -Weee!
-Hey man, how are you doing? -How are you guys?
I'm well. Good morning.
-Never a dull moment. -Oh no.
-Mm?
Do you know how long the drive is?
Maybe like, um,
I don't know now with our detour…
Brad, how long is the drive gonna be?
I looked before, 20-something minutes.
Okay.
Can we just double check cause I wasn't getting good service?
-Do we have that pap on the scooter again? -Yes, ma'am.
-Oh we do, really? Same guy? -Same guy.
Oh my gosh.
Watched him going to this park.
He's going to be with us?
Yes, sir. He was just ahead.
There's a lot of people who think,
"They've got such a problem with paparazzi."
There was um, the guys in the basement of the building too,
as we were doing that walk, they were recording
just so you're aware.
Back in my mom's days, it was physical harassment.
They had cameras in your face, following you, chasing you.
-Still following us? -No.
This pap. The worst case scenario, our safety first.
Worst case scenario, we are going from one garage to another.
Like this route.
Paparazzi still harass people.
The harassment really exists more online now.
Once the photographs are out and the story is then put next to it,
then comes the social media harassment.
To see another woman in my life who I love,
go through this feeding frenzy. That's hard.
It is basically, the hunter versus the prey.
We'll be with friends in less than ten minutes.
Yeah.
Sorry, do you mind leaning forward just one second. Thank you.
Can you just start off by introducing yourself to us?
Sure. My name is Doria and I'm Meghan's mom.
And um, the last five years has been challenging.
Yeah.
How does it feel to be here talking about that today?
I'm ready to have my voice heard, that's for sure.
A little bit in my experience, you know, as her mom. Yeah.
Do you remember, when Meg told you she was dating Harry?
I do. And when she told me, we were on the phone and she says,
"Mommy, I'm going out with Prince Harry."
And I started whispering,
"Oh my God."
She says, "You can't tell anyone." And so it was from the beginning, it was sort of,
"Oh my God. Nobody can, you know…"
Mm-hmm and I remember when I first met him too.
You know, he was just like six one, handsome man with red hair.
Really great manners. He was just really nice.
And they looked really happy together.
Yeah, like he was the one.
Once it was announced that they were together,
it seemed kind of, like a novelty.
It's official…
…American actress, Meghan Markle, is the new girlfriend of Prince Harry.
Prince Harry, it seems like he's fallen for something rumored.
Her name is Meghan Markle.
She's on the show Suits
in case you are wondering like, "How do we know her?"
She's the brainy beauty who's captured Prince Harry's heart.
Actress Meghan Markle has reportedly won the heart of royal bad boy, Prince Harry.
I'm so excited!
Right when the news broke, I think we both felt tremendous relief.
And the people that I hadn't told I was dating H
were just texting me, "Is it true? Oh my gosh! What?!"
And people were just overjoyed.
When I saw the headlines, I was happy for her.
It looked like a fairy tale.
My sister called me and said, "Do you know who Meghan is with?"
I think she's with Prince Harry.
And I said, "What?!"
My phone just started going crazy.
I was like "What is happening?"
And then, it was like this tidal wave.
This young lady though is very philanthropic.
She's also a part of the UN.
She does a lot of charity work,
which was probably their original connection.
I remember we discussed this, "Wouldn't it be great
if somebody already had their identity, some successes
and had carved their role in the world?"
If there is a problem out there
and we have the means to really find the call to action
and do something about it,
then I completely believe that it's our responsibility to do it.
All eyes are on that new transatlantic alliance.
A British Prince and his American sweetheart.
There was a frenzy happening.
It almost felt like all the things we were nervous about, of it getting out.
Okay, don't worry. It's fine.
And then that very quickly changed.
I remember going to get flowers, coming out of the flower shop.
And there must have been nine or ten paps
standing in the middle of the street
and they are all sort of blocking the car
and saying "Hey, how are you doing, Meghan?"
And I was like, "Oh, thanks. Stay warm, guys!"
And I remember H the next day saying, you can't talk to them.
And I was like, "I'm just trying to be pleasant. I don't know what to do.
I've never dealt with this before."
He says, "Right but the UK media are saying you love it."
You're smiling, you love it.
I remember saying to her, "When this goes public,
it is not gonna be easy."
The UK media are notorious for doing whatever they can
to get a story.
And that they go through rubbish bins, they'll try and break into accounts.
They will do whatever they can to get an exclusive and make money.
I remember she was quite shocked.
And she was like "Really? They would do that?"
I said, "Well, yeah. When it's going to make them millions."
It felt like all of the UK media descended upon Toronto.
My house was just surrounded.
Just men sitting in their cars all the time.
Waiting for me to do anything.
I was hearing all of this from thousands of miles away.
And trying to do something about it but being completely helpless.
Then my neighbors said they are knocking on everyone's door,
-trying to find you.
They had paid certain neighbors to put a life stream camera into my backyard.
Suddenly, it was like everything about my life just got so much more insular.
Like, all the curtains were pulled, all the blinds were pulled.
It was scary.
My face was everywhere, my life was everywhere.
Tabloids had taken over everything.
Long distance relationships are work, no matter what way you slice it.
Then you add this layer?
And look, bearing in mind you're still discovering things about each other.
There were things said and things written
that I had to go to her to ask.
And, that was the hardest piece.
And so it really accelerates the learning curve
in a relationship.
Tongues are wagging needless to say,
let's find out more about her,
what people are saying.
What do we know about this mysterious woman, Paula?
-Such a sweet neighborhood. -Yeah.
I remember you came home one day from the Immaculate parties
and said "We live over a garage."
-I was like, "Yep, it's a great spot." -It was a great--
-We walked down the driveway. -That was our driveway.
-It was private. -Oh, my gosh.
-We had our parties back there.
I remember I would take a little wagon
and come down the driveway and be able to come back up the other side.
I grew up in LA,
and I remember my mom telling me stories about taking me to the grocery store
and women going "Who's child is that"?
"You must be the…" She's like, "It's my child."
They are like, "You must be the nanny. Where's her mom?"
Because I was really fair-skinned and my mom darker.
My parents lived in the valley until I was about two.
When their relationship ended, she and I moved to a 40-minute drive from there.
At the time it was mostly a Black community where my mom and I were living.
We were close to my mom, her grandma.
And my sister was close by.
And my girlfriends were close by.
So we had a nice network of women
who really helped me raise Meg.
She was always so easy to get along with, very congenial, making friends.
You know, she was a very empathic child.
Very mature.
I remember asking Meg if I feel like her mom.
And she told me that I felt like her older controlling sister.
I never forgot that.
Oh!
Ms. Debby.
You know the mass, our Grand Duchess!
Oh my gosh!
How are you?
I'm very well.
So happy to see you!
Nice to see you.
Love you.
My goodness. It's amazing.
What a great choice this was to start Meg here.
When we went back to, Hollywood School House.
I was there from ages two to 12.
It was so nice to be back.
I want you to see what you wrote to me.
Oh my gosh! Show me.
Your penmanship was fantastic.
Go ahead and read that. But I want you to pay attention to the PS.
"Dear Ms. Debby, you've helped me so much
since I was two years old.
I knew I could count on you to be there for me as a principal and also a friend.
I can't thank you enough. Even though I was at this school for ten years,
I wish I could have stayed for ten more.
This school will always have a special place in my heart. Much love, Meghan.
When I am rich and famous and I write my life story,
I will talk about you and the school, so you will be known worldwide."
That's true.
-Say's the 11-year-old.
Oh my God.
I was a big nerd growing up.
This is an important part that people don't understand about me.
Like, I was not the pretty one.
My entire identity was wrapped up in being the smart one.
There are those catalyzing moments in your life and from my standpoint,
I had this commercial changed when I was young because I found it to be sexist.
Women are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivory Clear…
I was eleven.
"Dear sir, last week at my school,
we decided to watch news for social studies.
While flipping through the channels,
we saw a commercial for the new Ivory Clear dishwashing liquid.
In the commercial they said women are battling grease,
meaning only women do dishes.
When I heard this, the boys in my class started saying,
"Yeah, that's where women belong… in the kitchen."
So I was wondering if you'll be able
to change your commercial to people all over America."
The gloves are coming off.
People are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivory Clear.
I changed that commercial, from my little handwritten letter.
And it was a big deal because I was going to middle school after that. So I was like
I was the little activist.
I met Meghan in the seventh grade.
We were walking into all of our new classes
and she was holding the door open, tap dancing.
We became fast friends. We were both into the same extracurricular activities.
And spent a lot of time in leadership roles at school, volunteering.
When I ran for Student Council, she was like my campaign manager.
And took it so seriously.
After school, I'd go see my dad who was a lighting director.
Sometimes I'd go on the set of this TV sitcom called Married With Children.
I loved being on set. I loved it.
And I loved the camaraderie of a crew.
Tom did a lot for our school,
being a lighting director and Meghan being so involved with performances.
-You could not. -I could too.
You could not, little liar!
I'm not lying!
Meghan loved the theater.
I would go to all of her musicals, performances.
She was so passionate about it.
And very driven to be successful.
I couldn't help her with her home work. She was way smarter.
She got straight A's, very disciplined.
I would say that Meg is an old soul.
We will always dedicate ourselves to making it a better world. Thank you.
This is where I had my high school graduation. The Hollywood Bowl.
Hundred and three girls on the stage, all wearing white gowns.
Not like cap and gowns, like beautiful white gowns.
There it is. The last concert I went to there, I went with my mom.
And we were in the parking lot leaving
and my mom honked, this woman was taking a long time to figure out how to get out.
And the woman turned around and screamed the N-word at my mom.
I just remembered my mom like, the grip her hand had on the steering wheel.
And you could see her fist was so tight, like the knuckles got all white.
And she was just silent the rest of the drive home, we never talked about it.
I had never in my life heard someone say the N-word.
Very different to be a minority
but not be treated as a minority right off the bat.
I'd say now, people are very aware of my race
because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK.
But before that…
most people didn't treat me like a "Black woman."
So that talk didn't have to happen for me.
As a parent,
in hind sight, absolutely, I would like to go back
and have that kind of real conversation
about how the world sees you.
Can you imagine if he… You be Harry and I'll be the Queen.
-Grandmother, I met this beautiful woman, -Yeah.
she just happens to be mixed-race.
I said to her. I remember this very clearly, that this is about race.
And Meg said "Mommy, I don't wanna hear that"
And I said, you may not want to hear it but this is what's coming down the pike.
At that time I wasn't thinking about how race played a part in any of this.
I genuinely didn't think about it.
Within that first week that it became public knowledge,
the first story was, 'Harry's new girl straight out of Compton.'
I was like, "Whoa!"
Well firstly, I'm not from Compton, I've never lived in Compton.
So it's factually incorrect. But why do you have to make a dig at Compton?
The direction of the palace was, "Don't say anything."
No comment. Everyone just say, "No comment."
But what people need to understand is
as far as a lot of the family were concerned,
everything that she was being put through,
they'd been put through as well.
So it was almost like a rite of passage.
Some of the members of the family were like, but "My wife had to go through that.
So why should your girlfriend be treated any differently?
Why should you get special treatment. Why should she be protected?"
And I said, "The difference here is the race element."
They would take pictures of different parts of, say, skid row
and say that was where I lived and that was where she was from.
It was horrible.
But I continued to hold the line, say nothing.
Eight days after the relationship became public,
I put out a statement,
calling out the racist undertones of articles and headlines
that were written by the British press,
as well as outright racism from those articles across social media.
Kensington palace issuing a statement
about the harassment being experienced by Meghan Markle.
Now, he says that she has suffered
abuse and harassment with racist undertones.
Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle's safety and is deeply disappointed
that he has not been able to protect her.
This is not a game, it's her life.
It is a very clear message to the British press, "Back off."
She was a princess straight out of Compton.
It was, brutal but it was also in some ways unsurprising.
The UK tabloids have a very unique role to play in British life.
On one hand they have the real sensationalized element
that loves the gossip.
But equally, it's not just entertainment
because the tabloids have been arbiters of public opinion for such a long time.
A number of the tabloids could sway governments.
At election time, they are the popular press for a reason.
The British tabloid press exists both as a series of publications
but also as a mentality. And it's toxic.
We have to recognize that this is a White industry.
Black people are about 3.5% of the population
and about 0.2% of the journalists.
So, people who come up with these headlines,
they are doing so in a newsroom that's almost entirely White.
And they get to decide whether something has crossed the line of being racist.
And, anyone who steps into the public eye,
particularly someone who's female and someone who is Black,
is fair game in their minds.
This is everything on our list.
I'll take it from here.
Whoop!
They are gonna take you in just a few minutes here.
I've come a long way from Little Red School House.
Is it tight?
-Are you nervous? -Yes.
-Just go with the flow.
Urgh!
People don't talk about what it's like to be mixed race.
So much of my self-identification
was, trying to figure out where I fit in.
And I think a lot of that is, you're not White enough or you're not Black enough,
but I don't see the world that way.
-Nice to meet you. -You too. My mom's here tonight.
-Mama! Meghan Markle's mom is here too. -What?
Hey, brother. Anthony. Nice to meet you.
One thing I've learnt is that
we don't see the world as it is. We see it as we are.
By the time I met Meghan, I think I had traveled half the Commonwealth.
I met people and communities all around the world.
And through that, I thought I knew.
I thought I had an awareness to issues, ways of living,
unconscious bias. Like, all of it.
And now, it is my honor to present
the NAACP President's Awards to
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
But hearing her talk
and having seen her have conversations and chats,
I was like, here you are just blissfully, like, I guess, sleepwalking through life.
It's safe to say, I come from a different background than my incredible wife.
Yet our lives were brought together for a reason.
We share a commitment to a life of service.
A responsibility to confront injustice,
and a belief that the most often overlooked
are the most important to listen to.
And I couldn't be prouder that we are doing this work together.
We moved to California, my home state, shortly before the murder of George Floyd.
And for Black America, those nine minutes and 29 seconds transcended time,
invoking centuries of our unhealed wounds.
My son, my daughter, my children
are mixed race and I'm really proud of that.
When my kids grow up and they look back at this moment
and they turn to me and say, "What did you do in this moment?"
I want to be able to give them an answer.
I think it's such a responsibility as human beings.
That if you bring a small person into this world,
you should be doing anything you can to make the world a better place for them.
We won't get a chance to be this close to hummingbirds ever again.
-Why? -Just watch.
Because they're scared of humans.
These guys, look at them!
Archie!
I've got a dirty foot, mama!
Because I was with you.
Oh my God!
I've got a dirty foot.
You've got a dirty foot, sweetheart.
Papa is a bird watcher, so this is a big moment for him.
But equally, what's most important for the two of us
is to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes that our parents made.
"Who's that?
That is the centipede."
There's so much from anyone's childhood
that you bring with you into the present.
Especially when you are the product of divorce.
I think most kids who are the products of divorced parents
have a lot in common, no matter what your background is.
Being pulled from one place to another or maybe your parents are competitive
or you're in one place longer than you want to be
or another place less than you want to be. There's all sorts of pieces to that.
Even though my parents co-parented well,
if you think about how that informs what you grew up to be and what you want…
It's so funny, when I was 12, I was at Immaculate Heart,
and one of the assignments was to write a poem about your life.
And I remember this poem till this day, which was,
Two houses, two homes Two kitchens, two phones
Two couches where I lay Two places that I stay
Moving, moving here and there From Monday to Friday, I'm everywhere
Don't get me wrong, it's not that bad But often times it makes me sad.
I want to live that nuclear life With a happy dad and his loving wife
A picket fence, a shaggy dog A fire place with a burning log
But it's not real, it's just a dream I cannot cry or even scream
So here I sit with cat number three Life would be easy if there were two of me
I was with my mom during the week
and with my dad on the weekends.
And my dad lived alone, he had two adult children
who had moved out of his house.
Where's Daddy?
Woah. I gotta zoom back on you.
Gotta push that button on the back.
-Oh yeah. -See? If you hit that button
you go forward, right?
Okay. Alright. Am I there? I wonder.
Okay, see you later. Bye-bye.
I was a daddy's-girl my whole life.
Okay, I gotta press the button there.
And I was with him a lot.
Go ahead.
Daddy's pictures.
We're gonna catch fish for dinner, right?
Fish for dinner.
That's our goal. Yes it is.
But I do remember also feeling lonely when I was a kid.
And wanting to have more people around.
-Determined. -What?
Determined.
She had a whole life before she met H.
She had a core group of friends
and, Meg was very outgoing, super social.
Living in Toronto.
She was very openhearted.
I lived in a great little residential community. I had my two dogs.
And it was great. It was easy, low-key.
Go for hikes and walks. You go to set.
I loved my job.
Here they come. Get ready with the slates please. Lock it up.
I feel Toronto was kind of a safe haven
for actors who were working in the city.
Meg would go to the grocery store and get recognized.
And people would say, "Aren't you that girl from Suits?"
When we were out on the streets, she would always
interacting physically with the fans.
And like, let's take a selfie. And putting their arms around her.
Of course! What's your name?
Other than that, she had so much freedom.
She had such a beautiful life
before everything exploded.
-Hey! Hi!
Get a hold of that.
Yeah, of course.
It really did take a dark turn quickly.
There is like a baked-in level of curiosity and
opinion, dealing with royals that I have not seen before.
The paparazzi started coming out to try to get eyes on her.
And, there were people trying to buy call sheets
from production assistants on our show,
so they could find out when she was shooting.
They'd get this really long lenses and like hide on hills
so that they could get a view of her.
There were people breaking into the area where their trailers are,
and trying to get pictures of her coming in
and out of her trailer. Started feeling a little bit dangerous for her.
At a certain point, we had to cage in all the trailers.
And that was really challenging
logistically because she was on a TV show
and her nature is to never make things more difficult for anyone.
But I don't think anyone knew how to
manage that new normal.
I was terrified somebody was gonna just be in her trailer waiting for her.
So I would say to the police,
if any other woman in Toronto right now said to you,
"I have six grown men who are sleeping in their cars around my house
and following me everywhere that I go and I feel scared,
wouldn't you say it was stalking?"
And they said "Yes, there's really nothing we can do
because of who you are dating."
So like, I'm just supposed to live like this?
And then I got a death threat,
then things changed because I needed to have security.
I was hired by NBC to take over the security for Meghan.
And this has been the most intense situation
with the media. I mean, I've worked with A-list celebrities before,
high net-worth families before…
This blew the meter right out the water.
Meg, c'mon!
The paparazzi that would do what they have to do to get a picture.
My job was to make sure they didn't really know where we were going
-and when we were going there.
We had a special driver taking myself and Meghan to the studio all the time.
He was trained in evasive driving.
And we used to have to take different routes to the studio
to get away from the paparazzi that were chasing us.
And when we were coming back down to the residence after the studio,
there were people on radios letting people know
we were coming back down to the area.
So we had to go down in alleys
and bring Meghan to the back of the house, open the garage door,
make sure no one was there so we could sneak in.
It was scary.
There were people constantly at her door. Or trying to get into her house
or trying to get around so that they can find her.
Mail was screened, it was coming into the studio.
There were some things that came in that were a little bit out of the ordinary
and we used to send those over to Harry's security detail in the UK
and they used to take care of those situations and monitor what was going on.
When all of that started happening,
my friends and people in my life who love me and care about me are like,
"Is he worth this?"
Like, we know that you're happy and we know that you love him.
Is he worth this? Look at what's happening to your life.
We just did everything we could to be there for each other.
We had to stay connected.
We wouldn't have survived it if we weren't.
I don't know how we did it but we did it.
Most of the times, we were on the other side of the Atlantic.
She was in Canada working.
I would try to get over and see her
and she would get over and see me more.
I would go straight from set to the airport. Get there,
land. Get harassed.
Try to get to him discretely, hunker down.
And then fly right back and go to set.
Just rinse and repeat. Constantly.
Dating became the combination of car chases,
anti-surveillance driving and
disguises.
Which isn't a particularly healthy way to start a relationship.
But we always came at it with as much humor as possible.
So whenever we saw each other
we would just give each other a massive hug and
try and have as much of a normal life as possible.
So I'd go away and have a weekend with her with a group of friends.
It's so funny if I look back at it now
because now I know so much, and I'm so glad I didn't then.
Because I could just authentically be myself without so much preparedness.
Even when Will and Kate came over
and I had met her for the first time… They came for dinner.
I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot.
I was a hugger, always being a hugger.
I didn't realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.
I guess I started to understand very quickly
that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside.
That there is a forward-facing way of being.
And then you close the door and you are like
"Oh, great. Okay, we can relax now."
But that formality carries over on both sides.
And that was surprising to me.
My grandmother was the first senior member
of the family that Meghan met.
She had no idea what it all consisted of.
So it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.
I mean, it's surreal.
There wasn't like some big moment of, "Now you're gonna meet my grandmother."
I didn't know I was gonna meet her until moments before.
We were in the car and we were going to Royal Lodge for lunch,
and he was like, "Oh, my grandmother is here, she's gonna be there after church."
We were in the car, driving and he's like, "You know how to curtsy, right?"
And I just thought it was a joke.
How do you explain that to people?
How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother?
And that you would need to curtsy, especially to an American. That's weird.
Now I'm starting to realize this is a big deal.
I mean, Americans would understand this.
We have Medieval Times, dinner and tournament.
It was like that. Like, I curtsied as though I was like…
Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty.
Like, was that okay?
It was so intense.
And then when she left, Eugenie and Jack and Fergie say
"You did great!"
Thanks. I didn't know what I was doing.
I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed.
Some of them didn't quite know what to do with themselves.
So I think they were. They were surprised.
They were surprised that the ginger could land such a beautiful woman.
And such an intelligent woman.
But the fact that I was dating an American actress,
was probably what clouded their judgment more than anything else in the beginning.
Oh, she's an American actress, this won't last.
Hi, Meghan!
The actress thing was the biggest problem, funny enough.
There was a big idea of what that looks like
from the UK standpoint. Hollywood and…
It was just very easy for them to typecast that.
-Hi. -Hi.
I first met Meghan, it was 2007.
At that point she had already gotten cast in a few things.
I got a phone call from executive.
You know Fox, the man said we cast this girl
and she was amazing and she needs an agent and we love you
and whatever. You should meet her. I was like, "Great."
She had to just go in and meet and audition
and start from the ground up.
It is very hard on your confidence
to be an auditioning actor, especially when you don't fit into any box.
I did not know she was biracial.
I thought she was sun-kissed California, freckly.
I don't even remember the point at which I found out she was biracial.
And I think once I found out, I would send her out for Black roles.
Sometimes I'd pitch her for those roles, the casting would ask, "What do you mean?"
And I'd be like, "She's biracial, her mom is Black."
And they'd say, "No, she doesn't look it."
When you hear, "No" all the time,
you go, "What's wrong with me? I'm not good enough for this or this."
It triggers the same stuff for me when I was a kid.
It's like, where do I fit in?
She was auditioning
and getting close to roles but not getting them.
I was just so amazed and proud of her
that like, you know, you fall down, you get back up.
She just kept going and going.
All I wanted was to be on a TV show with longevity and consistency.
She was relentless, which was amazing,
that she didn't throw in the towel.
And then finally, the universe said yes.
Mike Ross?
Hi. I'm Rachael Zane, I'd be giving you your orientation.
Wow! You're pretty.
Good. You've hit on me. We can get it out of the way that I'm not interested.
I always loved that picture.
Me too.
Rachael Zane was really in some ways
one of the first representations I'd seen
of a real identified biracial woman.
You know, seeing her family and how it fits together.
I was a child.
Most children let things go.
Once they knew who she was, to their credit they wrote to it.
She'd just bring this, like, lightness.
And for a director, she is such a simple actor
in that she is always natural but is absolutely trusting.
She didn't overthink it, she just did it.
And I think it put a lot of people at ease.
Hi. Welcome to the Suits blooper reel, Season Five.
All the cast really cared for each other.
And that was the glue for a lot of those cast relationships.
Blooper reel.
I think she liked being part of something.
But I don't think acting was actually her true passion.
She just seemed like boiling over with ideas.
That's how I would describe her at that time.
I think she was on a track to do bigger things.
Now, we are in Beverly hills and we're gonna pass the, um,
Beverly Hilton Hotel, where I'll be on Sunday meeting other Northwestern people.
At Northwestern, I had double-majored
in Theater and International Relations.
And I just, I loved writing. And I minored in English.
So there is the brainy part.
There is the care about how the world functions.
Oh my god!
-That is proper… -That is really fun!
I've never really been the type of person to do only one thing.
I guess that's how my website was born.
When she first was describing it to me,
she was like, "It's your bestfriend telling you all the fun things
that you wish you knew about, in one place."
There was fashion. There was tons of food and travel.
It was all the things I loved.
And TheTig wasn't just a hobby,
it became a really successful business.
I always said to her, I'd say, "I think you are a producer.
I think you are a producer. I think you are an activist."
I was writing op-eds about your self worth.
And about being biracial and about volunteer work.
When I would do Suits, I would in hiatus go to India.
Go to Rwanda and do cause-driven work.
That's what I was excited about.
I wasn't trying to find, like the great Indie film
that's gonna get me an Oscar. No.
I just wanted to go and volunteer.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I am tremendously honored
to be UN Women's advocate for political participation and leadership.
I am proud to be a woman and a feminist.
She's fed through service. And I think H is like that too.
And that's rare.
Welcome and thank you all for being here, truly.
We're very grateful. This is something we've been…
A lot of what H and I connected on
in our courtship was that H and I have so many parallel interests
even though our world and our lives were so different.
For us, what's deeply important is this
idea of equity. Be it racial equity,
gender equity and in this sense, vaccine equity.
To just be equipped with the information that we need to be able to
better serve this larger purpose.
From my perspective, I fell head over heels in love with her…
because my heart told me
that she was the one that I was gonna spend the rest of my life with.
And then, once I got to know even more,
my head then told me, "Well, she's absolutely perfect for the role as well."
When it came to Meghan,
that was, I guess the case of finding a needle in a haystack.
Tell me about the proposal, please.
Are you looking at me? You tell it.
I wanted to do it earlier.
Like, I was… because I had to ask permission from my grandmother,
I couldn't do it outside of the UK.
I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was greasing the chicken
and that kind of slightly gave the game away.
She was like, "You don't drink champagne. What's the occasion?"
I was like, "I don't know. Just had it laying around here, whatever."
It was a magnum.
Wasn't that I knew she'd say yes,
but she'd already moved Guy over. So I had Guy as a hostage.
My dog, yeah.
He was using stilts, so he couldn't run away.
And then in the North garden being over looked by the staff flats,
I got 15 of those electric candles.
Oh my God, Jess. It's happening.
Oh my God.
He told me not to peek.
-Oh my God. -What position were you in?
Downward dog.
-You're doing good. That's really clever. -Doing good?
You see, he's funny.
Of course I got down on one knee.
Of course I did.
He's down on one knee and I was just like, "Yes!"
I was so joyful and excited.
I was like, "Ah, we're doing this."
They were so happy.
And they were gonna keep it quiet because it was gonna be announced few weeks later.
We had a little engagement party
and everyone was dressed in animal onesies.
And Meghan and Harry were in matching penguin onesies
because penguins mate for life. And they were so sweet.
And we had so much fun.
She felt like they could take on the world.
Breaking royal news.
Prince Harry officially engaged to American actress, Meghan Markle.
The announcement putting weeks of speculation to rest.
Lots of people are very excited
that she's gonna bring this fresh sparkle, if you like,
into the Royal Family and it's all seen as good news.
I can't tell you how excited we are. The whole world is.
It just shows how much more in touch with the general population
the Royal Family is becoming.
Raise your hand. Does everyone know
-who Meghan Markle is? -Yeah.
I think it would make a difference slightly
because some people are really racist to other people because of their color.
And because Meghan Markle is joining the Royal Family,
I think it might make them change their minds.
The union of Harry and Meghan,
for lots of people of color and the UK Black community
possibly for the first time, made a lot of people feel seen.
Like everyone else,
a lot of Black people were standing, getting swept up
in this romance and they sort of, they're gonna wonder in this moment.
I wanted it to work, just like many people wanted it to work.
But this fairy-tale is embedding itself
in a nation that is having a pretty toxic debate about the European Union.
Now, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
We have to take back control of this country.
-Can you hear me in the back? -Yeah!
Immigration is the number one issue.
The people are very upset, they are very unhappy.
If you go back and look at the social media of that moment,
immigration was in the absolute center of those debates.
And immigration is very often, in this country, a cipher for race.
Everybody should feel concerned about illegal immigration.
We don't know who these people are.
Go back to Africa!
Send them back home.
So the EU commissioned a report in 2016, exactly the same time
that our relationship became public.
It warned that if the government isn't going to do something
or if the media aren't going to sort themselves out,
then a culture war, that already existed,
was going to become huge and become a real problem.
It was a perfect storm,
that gave credence to jingoism and nationalism.
And gave people with really horrible views of the world,
a little bit more strength and confidence
to say what they wanted to say, to do whatever they wanted to do.
So it was an inauspicious moment
for Britain to try this fairy-tale story, with a fairy-tale princess in this
diverse modernizing country.
You were slightly watching it with your hand in your mouth.
Could the tabloids control themselves?
Could the Palace persuade the tabloids to control themselves?
Could we as a nation wean ourselves off wanting to intrude into the lives of
the Royal Family far more than is reasonable?
Congratulations from all of us. How are you guys feeling?
-Uh, yeah, thrilled.
Also we're very glad it's not raining, as well.
Hi Meghan, how are you feeling?
So happy, thank you.
At that point, I was still very much believing what I was being told.
Which was, 'It will pass. It will get better.'
It's just what they do right at the very beginning.
This promise of once you're married, don't worry, it would get better.
Once they get used to you, it will get better.
Of course, it will be better.
But truth be told, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was.
No matter what I did…
they were still gonna find a way
to destroy me.
Subtitle translation by: Regina Njoku