Watching a particular scene from Netflix’s The Crown made me feel that pain again: when Prince Philip (played by Matt Smith) made fun of the headdress of an African chief, I grasped the basic racist reasoning that the Empire, and by extent the monarchy, founded its system on. My disenchantment with the royal family was cemented.

But things changed when Meghan Markle came on the scene – an American actress with a black mother and a white father, who has a strong and unapologetic understanding of who she is. As the royal wedding drew closer I rekindled my interest in the royals, reading every piece written by other women of colour about what a biracial princess meant for “us”.

And even though it wasn’t quite as overwhelming as when Barack Obama became president, my feelings watching Meghan Markle walk down the aisle came very close to the excitement and the hope for change that I felt in 2008. For me, the most powerful moment was hearing the gospel choir sing Stand By Me inside Windsor Castle. It left my mum and I with goosebumps. This wasn’t just a white royal wedding – it was also a proud dual heritage wedding.

Why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s baby means so much to people of dual heritage