Genealogy test shows I’m from Nigeria, says Meghan Markle

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, revealed that she is partly Nigerian in the last episode of the Archetypes podcast, which she hosts. 

Ms Markle told her podcast guests Nigerian-American comedian and writer Ziwe Fumudoh, Senegalese-American actress and comedian Issa Rae, and professor Emily Bernards that she took a genealogy test which revealed that she is 43 per cent Nigerian.

“I just had my genealogy done a couple of years ago,”  Ms Markle said to Ms Fumudoh, who asked: 

“What are you?”

“43 per cent Nigerian,” she responded.

The Duchess of Sussex then said she will start exploring her roots because “anyone that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are just like, what?”

The sixth episode of the Archetypes podcast, which bears the revelation of her lineage, went ahead to deconstruct the labels that hold women back. In the episode, Ms Markle tackles the “angry” label that is “often pinned” on Black women.

She revealed that she felt “like a Black Woman” for the first time when she started dating Prince Harry.

Meghan and Harry had signed a deal with Spotify to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth about £18 million, in late 2020.

The podcast, Archetypes, was set up to investigate the “labels that try to hold women back” through conversations between Meghan and historians, experts and women who have gone through being typecast.