Meghan Markle Speaks Out About 'Devastating' George Floyd

Meghan Markle moved back to the United States with her husband, Prince Harry, earlier this year, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and just before the country erupted in protest following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Markle, an outspoken advocate for justice and equality, mentioned Floyd’s name in a graduation address in June, but is now speaking more extensively about the protest movement Floyd’s death sparked this summer, and how she plans to use her voice against racism.

“To come back and to just see this state of affairs, I think at the onset, if I’m being honest, it was just devastating. It was so sad to see where our country was in that moment,” she said to Emily Ramshaw during a virtual summit on race and gender this past Friday (August 14).

“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,” she continued. “It shifted from sadness to a feeling of absolute inspiration, because I can see that the tide is turning.”

“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 really — it’s something I look forward to being a part of,” Markle said. “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.”

See her full remarks, beginning at the 1:47:00 mark, below: