
There are many things I have in common with Meghan Markle; youth, beauty, wealth, a general ‘je n’ais se quoi’, and the burden of international fascination/obsession about me. Just for example.
Ahem.
And also, I’ve also been accused of ‘tainting the seed’ of the family I married into.
You see, it made international headlines this month when a UK politician’s girlfriend put his career in jeopardy after it was revealed she wrote a series of racist text messages about Meghan Markle.
The messages, published by The Mail on Sunday, were sent by 25-year-old Jo Marney, who UK Independence Party leader Henry Bolton recently left his wife for.
In the messages, Marney says she doesn’t like “black people” because they’re “ugly”. She specifically describes Markle as “wet as a scrubber” and a “dumb little actress no one has heard of”.
And then she says, “And her seed with [sic] taint our royal family. Just a dumb little commoner.”
She adds, “Not wanting other races and cultures to invade your own culture doesn’t mean I hate their race. Just means I don’t want their culture invading mine.”
Marney has since apologised for the texts, claiming she was “to an extent… taken out of context”.
Of course she was.
Whilst most of the world was outraged by the incident, this was my reaction:
YAWN. Meghan, you’re not that special. The same thing happened to me, girlfriend. And not by a stranger, by my own mother-in-law.
It all happened about twenty years ago, when I, like Markle, was young, carefree and dating my future husband. (Who sadly was not a potential future King of England.)
His parents lived in Sydney, so I didn’t have to worry about impressing them for at least six months. And when the time came, I was supremely confident there wouldn’t be an issue, because, well, I rock.
Which is why I was surprised to see my boyfriend nervous about the impending meeting.
Top Comments
I am surprised the age gap wasn’t far more of a shock. But if he is 20 years older than you his parents would be much older again. I would dismiss it as generational. Young people espousing these views are far more shocking.
My mother is mixed race and I’m obviously also mixed race and it is honestly the best thing I could have asked for. Being multiracial means I’m exposed to 3 different cultures, I eat sooooo much good food, I have a pretty killer skin colour (no fake tan Friday’s for me) and I’ve also had the lovely benefit of being brought up with parents that are of two different religions (and happily married for 45 years). It’s clear as day to me that skin colour, race and religion are all just things that shouldn’t ever need to divide us. I love the fact that all my cousins and all my nieces and nephews and I look so different. I love that we get to celebrate so many different types of cultural and religious events. I love being mixed race and I’m so proud of it and I’m sure Meghan is too.