Meghan Markle's father helped her navigate her biracial childhood identity

Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle, is perhaps best known for staging paparazzi photos and ravaging the Duchesse de Sussex's new royal life, but their relationship has not always been so difficult. In fact, when Meghan Markle was a little girl, she was very close to her father, who has already helped her navigate her biracial identity.

Before her wedding in the royal family, Meghan Markle was an actress and founder of a lifestyle website called The Tig. Through her website, she shared all sorts of ideas about her life, covering topics such as her passion for cooking, traveling and, of course, style. But in July 2015, the current Duchess of Sussex took center stage Elle Magazine with a touching essay on the discovery of her identity as a biracial woman titled "I am more than" another "."

How Thomas Markle helped Megan Markle navigate her identity

Through her words, Meghan Markle described her experience as a Métis woman, not only in 2015, but also as a child She 's readers. "To describe something as being in black and white means that it is clearly defined. Yet when your ethnic group is black and white, the dichotomy is not so clear. In fact, it creates a gray area, "she noted. "To be biracial is a blurry line that is both amazing and enlightening."

She then explains how she grew up in a neighborhood devoid of diversity and that some would ask her mother, Doria Ragland, where her mother is, "since they assume that she is the nanny." And she notes that she does not know. exactly what it must have been for her parents but remembers what it was for her. "They created the world around me to make me feel that I was not different but special," she wrote.

At seven, Meghan Markle had her eyes on a set of Barbie dolls called The Heart Family, which included a mother, a father, and two children. "This perfect nuclear family was only sold in sets of white or black dolls. I do not remember having coveted each other, I wanted one, "she recalls. "On Christmas morning, wrapped in glitter-spangled packaging paper, I found my family's heart: a black doll, a white doll and a child of each color. [sic]. My father had dismantled the sets and customized [sic] my family."

This is not the only thing Markle did for his daughter as she grew up in her biracial identity. When she was in seventh grade, her English teacher had told her to check the Caucasian box during a mandatory census. "Because that's how you are, Meghan," she remembered her teacher. She decided not to check any boxes. "I put down my pen. Not as an act of defiance, but rather a symptom of my confusion. I could not bring myself to do that, to imagine the sadness that her mother would feel if she found out if she found out. So I did not check a box. I left my identity blank, "she said. After telling what had happened to his father, he told her something that would follow her all her life: "If that happens again, you draw your own box."

Despite their differences – and their public quarrel – Thomas Markle left a positive impact on Meghan Markle's character. From an early age, he helped her recognize who she was and find strength in the face of ignorance. "He wanted me to find my own truth," the Duchess remembered.

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