Meghan Markle has said that not looking “cookie cutter” affected her ability to find work during her career as an actor.
The 43-year-old shot to fame for her role as Rachel Zane in the popular legal drama Suits, starring in the series from 2011 to 2018 before leaving following her relationship with Prince Harry.
However, the entrepreneur says that her appearance, including her freckles, race, and not fitting what was considered the industry beauty standard at the time, affected the opportunities she was presented with.
Speaking to IT Cosmetics’ founder Jamie Kern Lima on Duchess of Sussex’s new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, Markle related to the rejections Lima faced due to her rosacea, a skin condition that causes redness and bumps on the face, and passion for including more diversity in advertising campaigns.
“I was an auditioning actor, auditioning for commercials and I remember my commercial agent could not submit me for beauty or skincare ads because I had freckles,” said Markle.
“They were like: ‘No, no, it’s just never going to work because freckles aren’t a sign of beauty’. It was just, you couldn’t see yourself reflected there.”
Markle, who is of African-American and Caucasian heritage, also explained her challenges finding work as a mixed-race woman in the industry.
“What was I doing before? I was acting,” she continued, reflecting on her career.
“Oh my gosh, oh please. I heard ‘No’ all the time, especially because I wasn’t cookie-cutter for a specific type.
“And, at the start of my auditioning career, you were either the Black girl or the white girl or the Latina girl. Everything was typecast so being mixed I could get into a lot of rooms that meant as a numbers game I heard ‘no’ even more.”
On Tuesday (29 April), representatives for the Duchess of Sussex were forced to deny that she was using the title “Her Royal Highness” after stepping back from royal duties in 2020 amid a fallout with the royal family.
The denial came after a gift card bearing the HRH title was shown in an interview with Lima on her own podcast, The Jamie Kern Lima Show.
During the interview, a gift basket sent by Meghan was seen on screen. A card on the basket read, “With Compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex”.
Kern Lima said the gift, which included homemade strawberry sauce and ice cream, was sent to her home “about a year ago”.
A spokesperson for the Sussexes said that the couple do not use HRH titles.
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