On an episode of her Spotify podcast, Meghan Markle talked to Mariah Carey about growing up biracial. And the Grammy-winning singer confessed there was a time when “nobody” knew what to do with her natural hair, including the people in her home.
For her part, Meghan recalled similar moments in her youth when having hair that was “so curly and so thick” left her gripping the sink while her grandmother brushed it.
However, though the stars had much in common to talk about, Meghan said Carey called her a name that stopped her in her tracks and made her sweat. Before their chat was over, she wondered if her “girl crush” on the singer was coming to “a quick demise.”
Mariah Carey revealed she wore natural curls in the ‘Dreamlover’ music video because ‘they didn’t know how to do her hair’
On an episode of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast, Carey said racial ambiguity led to her getting a “girl next door” label from the “Dreamlover” music video “and those curls” (People).
“Here’s the thing,” she told Markle. “They didn’t know how to do my hair, because if it was a white hairdresser that had never dealt with textured hair, they would tend to do a different thing. And my hair would be like, ‘You’re not doing that!’”
“And then [with] somebody that had only dealt with ethnic hair, it would become too much product and too much weight,” she added.
Carey added that it was an experience she also had at home with a white mom and a Black dad where “nobody” knew what to do with her hair. She guessed if it were “the other way around,” she would have had the “benefit of someone who’s dealt with textured hair.”
Meghan Markle said her natural hair is ‘so curly, and so thick,’ she would hold onto the sink to let her grandmother brush it as a kid
Meghan said it was a dream come true for her to host Carey on the podcast. “When I was a young teenager, I wanted to dress, look, be, sing, do everything like Mariah Carey,” she shared.
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“She was so glamorous and fabulous and talented. She was successful,” Meghan listed before adding, “And she was mixed, like me.”
But they had something more in common. Meghan also had a story from her Hollywood childhood of having limited options for family members who could help her with her natural hair. She said it was “so curly and so thick” that only her grandmother, Jeanette, could do it.
Meghan recalled, “She’d go, ‘Just hold on to the sink,’ and I would grip my little hands on both sides.’”
Mariah Carey stopped Meghan Markle ‘in her tracks’ when she called her a diva
Meghan revealed on that Archetypes episode that Carey, who once shared a memorable gaze with Princess Diana, pointed out her occasional “diva moments.”
The Duchess of Sussex said the label left her “stopped in her tracks,” as she’d initially taken some offense. She told her listeners she started to “sweat a little bit,” adding, “I just kept thinking … was my girl crush coming to a quick demise? Does she actually not see me?”
Meghan clarified that she had misunderstood. Carey was talking about things like fashion, posture, and “the ‘fabulousness’ as she sees it.”
“She meant diva as a compliment, but I heard it as a dig,” Meghan confessed. And Carey explained on Twitter, “Yes! I called her a diva, in the most fabulous, gorgeous, and empowering meaning of the word!!!”
