EXCLUSIVE Nelson Mandela’s grandson slams Meghan Markle

On Aug 30, 2022

Nelson Mandela’s grandson today slammed Meghan Markle for suggesting her marriage to Prince Harry sparked scenes of joy in South Africa reminiscent of the 1990 release of the legendary anti-apartheid campaigner after 27 years in jail, telling MailOnline: ‘It cannot be equated to as the same’.

Zwelivelile ‘Mandla’ Mandela has said he was ‘surprised’ at her remarks in The Cut magazine when she claimed that three years ago a cast member of the Lion King had made the comparison between her royal wedding and Madiba’s historic walk to freedom.

Extract from Meghan’s interview in The Cut

She recalls a moment from the 2019 London premiere of the live-action version of The Lion King. ‘I just had Archie. It was such a cruel chapter. I was scared to go out.’ A cast member from South Africa pulled her aside. ‘He looked at me, and he’s just like light. He said, ‘I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.’ ‘ Of course, she knows she’s no Mandela, but perhaps even telling me this story is a mode of defense, because if you are a symbol for all that is good and charitable, how can anybody find you objectionable, how can anybody hate you?

In a 6,409-word article called ‘Meghan of Montecito’, the former Suits star recalled an encounter she had at the 2019 London premiere of a live-action version of the Disney classic. She said an actor from South Africa pulled her aside and told her: ‘I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison’.

But MailOnline has learned that the story has astonished the Mandela family. ‘Mandla’ Mandela, an MP and Chief of the late South African President’s Mvezo tribe, said he was ‘surprised’ at her remarks.

He told MailOnline: ‘Madiba’s celebration was based on overcoming 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. So It cannot be equated to as the same.’

His grandfather served 27 years in prison before being released and re-uniting opponents and going on to lead his country.

Zwelivelile said when the people of South Africa expressed their joy at his grandfather’s release and danced in the streets, it was for a far more important and serious reason than her marriage ‘to a white prince’.

The African National Congress MP added: ‘We are still bearing scars of the past. But they were (Mr Mandela’s celebrations) a product of the majority of our people being brought out onto the streets to exercise the right of voting for the first time.’

Meghan’s claim has sparked rage and ridicule with critics telling her to ‘get lost’ and accusing her of showing ‘utmost disrespect’.

Harry and Meghan have built up quite a relationship with the Mandela family in recent years – following in the footsteps of Harry’s parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Just last month, Harry gave a speech at the UN General Assembly for Nelson Mandela Day in New York City on July 18.

The Sussexes met Graca Machel, widow of Mandela, on the last day of their tour of Africa in 2019. Harry also met Ms Machel when he visited South Africa in 2015.

And in 2018, Harry and Meghan met Mandela’s granddaughter Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela during a visit to the Nelson Mandela centenary exhibition at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

Charles and Diana were also close with Mandela. The late Princess of Wales met him in Cape Town in March 1997, while she was in South Africa visiting her brother Earl Spencer.

And Charles took Mandela to Brixton in South London when he visited Britain in July 1996.

In addition, Mandela visited Diana’s ancestral home at Althorp in Northamptonshire in November 2002 to see where she was buried.

Nelson Mandela’s grandson today slammed Meghan Markle for suggesting her marriage to Prince Harry (together in 2019 at the oldest mosque in South Africa in Cape Town) sparked scenes of joy in South Africa reminiscent of the 1990 release of the legendary anti-apartheid campaigner after 27 years in jail

‘Mandla’ Mandela, the great man’s grandson, told MailOnline that when the people of South Africa expressed their joy at his grandfather’s release and danced in the streets, it was for a far more important and serious reason than Meghan’s marriage ‘to a white prince

Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie, walking hand in hand, raise clenched fists upon his release from Victor prison, Cape Town, in this Sunday, February 11, 1990