Meghan Markle has phone call with woman who suffered alleged hate crime

Getty Images

The Duchess of Sussex has reached out to a black woman who was the victim of an alleged hate crime, sharing a lengthy phone call over the weekend.

Last week, Althea Bernstein, an 18-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, reported that she had suffered an attack, which is being investigated by police as a hate crime.

According to local media, Ms Bernstein said she was attacked by a group of white men who threw lighter fluid and a lighter on her, in addition to “yelling racial slurs”. The young woman suffered burns on her face and neck.

Following the attack, Ms Bernstein’s family requested that the CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, an organisation that supports young people in Madison, speak on her behalf.

After speaking to a news channel about the incident, CEO Michael Johnson was contacted by Meghan Markle, who wished to be put in touch with Ms Bernstein.

Mr Johnson told Channel 3000 that the pair spoke on the phone on Saturday afternoon for around 40 minutes.

“Her and Meghan talked about the importance of self care and allowing herself to heal,” the chief executive said, adding that the pair also spoke about staying off social media so as to steer clear from negative messages. They also spoke about being mixed race.

“And she [Meghan] applauded her for the way that she responded and pretty much said, ‘Hey Michael, give me her cellphone number. I want to stay in touch. And let me know when you want me to come back and talk to people in Wisconsin,” he said.

Mr Johnson stated that Ms Bernstein’s conversation with the duchess “lifted her spirits”, having previously been “struggling”.

“It’s a challenge for her, it’s very, very emotional,” he said. “I talked to her three or four times today, and I’ll tell you Meghan lifted her spirits.”

Mr Johnson stated that Prince Harry also joined the phone call for around 10 minutes, saying that Meghan sounded “almost like a seasoned high school counsellor” while speaking to Ms Bernstein.

In a post shared on Facebook, the CEO said that the duchess has “agreed to talk with girls in Wisconsin and we will be scheduling that soon”.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently backed a campaign calling for businesses to pause their advertisements on Facebook, in response to the social media platform’s failure to combat online hate speech.

The Stop Hate For Profit campaign is urging firms to boycott Facebook throughout July, stating on its website that the platform “allowed incitement to violence against protesters fighting for racial justice in America”, in addition to naming one outlet as a “trusted news source” and another as a “fact checker” despite having previous connections with “known white nationalists”.

In the aftermath of George Floyd‘s death in Minneapolis, US on 25 May, Meghan and Prince Harry have been holding talks with several organisations about how online platforms enable hate speech and violence to continue, a source who works closely with the couple said.