Meghan Markle Shared She Was “in Tears” Over Her Black Lives Matter Graduation Speech
Meghan Markle spoke during Fortune’s Most Powerful Women virtual summit last night.
During the summit, Meghan explained that her Black Lives Matter speech left her feeling very emotional.
If it seemed like Meghan Markle was emotional while giving her Black Lives Matter speech back in June, that’s because she was. Now, three months later, Meghan is reflecting on how she felt while delivering her speech during Fortune’s Most Powerful Women virtual summit. Last night, Meghan spoke with senior editor Ellen McGirt about using her voice to bring change and shared that she was “in tears” while speaking to the graduating class of her former high school, Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles.
During their conversation, Ellen told Meghan, “You’re not the only powerful woman who has had a sitting president take a shot at you, mobs come at you, powerful people and powerful forces try to take you down or try to disparage your message.” Meghan replied and explained how important authenticity is to her and gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what was going on while preparing the grad speech.
She said:
“That high school graduation speech, I had done it a week or so before, I had pretaped it for the most part. It was for high schoolers, for 17-year-old girls, so the tone and the sentiment—while it was of course going to be a call to action—it was certainly lighter than where we landed after the murder of George Floyd. I knew I couldn’t use that tape, and I really struggled, if I’m being honest, about what to say.
“I didn’t sit down and write anything, and I didn’t ask anyone for help with how I should word this. I was just in tears thinking about it, and I was explaining to my husband why I thought that it was so heartbreaking. Certainly for me to be back in Los Angeles and it feeling so reminiscent to the state of Los Angeles with the riots after the Rodney King beating. And so for these girls to be graduating from high school, what should be a very celebratory time, to be plagued with that unrest felt troubling to me.
“So I just spoke from the heart, and that’s probably why it doesn’t look polished and that’s why it doesn’t feel perfect but that’s also why it’s authentic.”
And here we are with yet another reason to stan.
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