Prince Harry's girlfriend Meghan Markle shares her family's heartbreaking experience with racism

Meghan Markle has opened up about her struggles of growing up with racism by sharing a family story on TheTig.com to mark Martin Luther King Jr Day. The Suits actress, who is currently dating Prince Harry, is biracial — her mother is African-American while her father is a Caucasian.

The actress recounts a story her grandfather told her when she was 11 years old, and wrote, "Road trips to me were a collection of 'Are we there yet?'s, the license plate game, the drive-throughs for filler food (where McDonalds was less of a treat and more of the norm), photo ops by signs welcoming you from one state to the next, and stops at local restaurants to stretch your legs."

The 35-year-old continued, ""Things were different then," my grandfather said. "Meggie, on our road trip, when we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken, we had to go to the back for 'coloreds.' The kitchen staff handed me the chicken from the back door and we ate in the parking lot. That's just what it was.""

Revealing that the story still haunts her, Markle continued, "That story still haunts me. It reminds me of how young our country is. How far we've come and how far we still have to come. It makes me think of the countless black jokes people have shared in front of me, not realizing I am mixed, unaware that I am the ethnically ambiguous fly on the wall.

"It makes me wonder what my parents experienced as a mixed race couple. It echoes the time my mom and I were leaving a concert at The Hollywood Bowl, and a woman called her the "N" word because she was taking too long to pull out of the parking spot. I remember how hot my skin felt. How it scorched the air around me," the actress added.

She concluded her essay by saying, "To Martin Luther King Jr., to Harvey Milk, to Gloria Steinem and Cesar Chavez, to my mom and dad for choosing each other not for the "color of their skin but the content of their character," to all of you champions of change: Thank you."