It doesn’t matter if you’re a red carpet regular with a prince on your arm… you shouldn’t have to deal with the racists.

You know Prince Harry is serious about a girl when he issues an official statement via the Palace.

And so any doubts we may have had about the Royal’s intentions with Suits actress Meghan Markle have diminished after the Prince did just that earlier in the week.

The 32-year-old has confirmed that 35-year-old television star Meghan is his girlfriend, and has also asked for the media to respect the privacy of her and loved ones.

Furthermore, Prince Harry has hit back at the ‘racial undertones’ being used by media outlets when speaking about his relationship with biracial Meghan, who describes herself on her own blog as ‘half black and half white’.

The statement refers to ‘the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments’.

More likely than not, one of those comment pieces being referred to could be a column which read: ‘the Windsors will thicken their watery, thin blue blood and Spencer pale skin and ginger hair with some rich and exotic DNA’.

Then there’s another opinion piece, titled ‘Harry’s an admirable chap. But to claim the publicity hungry Ms Markle is a hapless victim is preposterous’.

Commenting on Harry’s bold gesture to issue a statement, the author writes: ‘He speaks angrily of lines crossed, of “outright sexism and racism” towards Ms Markle, of “nightly legal battles”, of the “bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life”‘.

Yet later on in the piece, the same writer seems to believe that Meghan deserves what she gets.

The paragraph reads: ‘The fact is that both Harry and Meghan are public figures, one through inheritance, the other through choice — and that comes at a price.

‘What they gain in privilege and status they lose in privacy and the ability to lead a normal life — which, I hate to remind him, brings its own burdens like the tiresome necessity of going out to work every day to pay the bills.’

So I get it, losing some aspects of privacy comes with the territory of being a well-known figure.

But being famous doesn’t mean you deserve to be the victim of racism… and that’s the aspect of Harry’s statement that really stood out to me.

And the saddest part is that any racial taunts published by the media only mirror the opinions of so many of their audience, who have been taking a swipe at Meghan’s mixed heritage on social media.

Meghan is an incredibly popular actress, World Vision Global Ambassador, has her own fashion line, a successful blog and millions of Instagram followers.

But she doesn’t deserve the racial discrimination.

I’m yet to achieve a fraction of the professional success Meghan has, but I know what it’s like striving to forge a career in the entertainment and media industry, as a person of colour.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times that I love talking about my culture and bringing it to the forefront of my discussions. I choose to embrace my Indian heritage and even incorporate it into my journalism so some people could argue that I’m the one who ‘brings it up’.

But then there’s other times when you hear a random remark that’s just so unnecessary, and those moments make you realise that the colour of your skin certainly matters to certain people, when you really thought it wouldn’t (and honestly it shouldn’t).

Go Meghan Markle, for being an absolute game changer! It doesn’t matter if you’re a red carpet regular with a prince on your arm… you shouldn’t have to deal with the racists.

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