Royally rankled! Meghan Markle has a bone to pick with photo editors.
For Allure magazine's "Beauty of Diversity" story, Prince Harry's girlfriend, who is biracial, said that while she has always embraced her look, her skin has "created quite the conundrum" for magazines.
"To this day, my pet peeve is when my skin tone is changed and my freckles are airbrushed out of a photo shoot," she said. "For all my freckle-faced friends out there, I will share with you something my dad told me when I was younger: 'A face without freckles is a night without stars.'"
In the story, the "Suits" actress recounted her memories of growing up as the daughter of a Caucasian father and an African American mother.
"I have the most vivid memories of being 7 years old and my mom picking me up from my grandmother's house," she told the magazine. "There were the three of us, a family tree in an ombré of mocha next to the caramel complexion of my mom and light-skinned, freckled me. I remember the sense of belonging, having nothing to do with the color of my skin."
It was more difficult to find a sense of belonging in Hollywood though.
"I took an African-American studies class at Northwestern where we explored colorism; it was the first time I could put a name to feeling too light in the black community, too mixed in the white community," she said. "For castings, I was labeled 'ethnically ambiguous.' Was I Latina? Sephardic? 'Exotic Caucasian'? Add the freckles to the mix and it created quite the conundrum."
Soon, castings may not be an issue for Harry's lady love. On March 17, a source told E! News that Meghan is "ready to be done with 'Suits'" and with "acting in general."
Her desire to retire from acting has been a long time coming, the source said, adding that she began to shift her attention elsewhere before she started dating Prince Harry.
"Even before Harry, she was starting to think about transitioning out of acting," the source added. "She wants to focus on other worldly endeavors she is passionate about, like her philanthropy."
Friends close to the "charming" royal and Meghan have said this romance is the real deal, and at least one of Harry's pals said he will put a ring on it within months.
"They will be engaged by the end of summer," the friend told Us Weekly. "Meghan feels a move to London is inevitable," the source said. "It's not like Harry can uproot!… She's started thinking of the bigger picture."