Meghan Markle Looks Forward to Using Her Voice: ‘I Haven’t Been Able to Of Late’
Meghan Markle is glad to be home in the United States and is looking forward to using her voice—something she says she hasn’t been able to do “of late.”
On August 14, the Duchess of Sussex closed out a virtual summit on representation and politics by interviewing Emily Ramshaw, the CEO cofounder of The 19th*, a “nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy” (the name comes from the 19th Amendment, which gave the right to vote to women—though not all women, hence the asterisk).
During the 25-minute conversation, Ramshaw did not pass up the opportunity to ask Markle some questions as well, including about returning to the U.S.—specifically during this moment in time—after living abroad in Canada and the U.K. for nearly a decade.
Markle, who just moved into her new California home with husband Prince Harry and their one-year-old son, Archie, acknowledged how difficult it was to come back home to see the country’s “state of affairs" following the death of George Floyd and ongoing Black Lives Matter protests.
“I’m being honest, it was just devastating,” Markle said. “It was so sad to see where our country was in that moment. If there’s any silver lining in that, I would say that in the weeks after the murder of George Floyd, in the peaceful protests that you were seeing, in the voices that were coming out, in the way that people were actually owning their role. It shifted from sadness to a feeling of absolute inspiration, because I can see that the tide is turning.”
Markle went on to say that she’s excited to be part of a positive change. “From my standpoint, it’s not new to see this undercurrent of racism and certainly unconscious bias, but I think to see the changes that are being made right now is…something I look forward to being a part of,” she explained. “And being part of using my voice in a way that I haven’t been able to of late.
“So, yeah, it’s good to be home,” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, the duchess also discussed the significance of the next election and shared her thoughts on the importance of voting—something her husband has never been able to do. “People are craving a change,” she said. “In the place we’re all in right now, there’s such a moment where people are starting to question the systems we’ve always believed in.
“When I have these conversations about encouraging people to go out and vote, I think it’s often challenging for men and women alike, certainly for people to remember just how hard to was for people to get the right to vote,” Meghan Markle continued. “And to be really aware of not taking that for granted.”
She added, “My husband, for example, he’s never been able to vote. And I think it’s such an interesting thing to say the right to vote is not a privilege, it is a right in and of itself.”
You can check out the duchess’s full interview with The 19th*, above.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
