‘Black Beverly Hills’ delighted about its princess

IN the upscale Los Angeles community known as the “Black Beverly Hills”, where Meghan Markle’s mother lives, the neighbours are delighting in the frenzy around the upcoming royal wedding.

“This has probably been the number-one topic for a long time in this neighbourhood,” Windsor Hills resident Earl Hutchinson, an author specialising in African American rights and history, said.

Markle was born and raised an hour’s drive north in the San Fernando Valley, where her father worked as a lighting director for TV shows, and she was educated at exclusive Hollywood private schools.

But in the streets where her mother Doria Ragland has a Mexican-style colonial house, residents see Markle as one of them.

“A bit like a native daughter, she’s known here, she’s been here. We feel like we have a vested interest in [the wedding] too, almost a bonding,” Hutchinson said.

The future Duchess of Sussex brings the modern touch to the British monarchy as a successful actress who played a tough, sexy lawyer in the US series Suits.

An American divorcee like Wallis Simpson, whose intended marriage to Edward VIII led to his 1936 abdication, the 36-year-old is a committed feminist and philanthropist.

She will be the first mixed-race member of the royal family, a fact not lost on the Windsor Hills-View Park area, the country’s wealthiest African American enclave.

Real estate developer Jimmy Thurgood said the people of the area were elated that Prince Harry was marrying a local girl.

“That means the prince she’s marrying is colour-blind. He only believes in love, which is what we need not only in America, but in the world,” Thurgood said at his home, opposite music legend Ray Charles’s mansion.

Preparations for watching the wedding are well under way across Los Angeles, with celebrations planned at Hollywood’s iconic Chinese Theatre and at big-screen projections in British-themed bars.

PLATES, teaspoons, mugs and anything with pictures of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are flying off the shelves in Los Angeles as the city’s actress prepares to marry into Britain’s royal family.

At Ye Olde Kings Head gift shop, next to a traditional British pub in the beach city of Santa Monica, demand for memorabilia has far exceeded expectations.

“It is absolutely unbelievable,” store manager Dympna Madeley, who moved to California from the English manufacturing town of Luton 23 years ago, said.

“We brought stuff in and thought we might not sell it, but it was gone in the first week.

“We were like, ‘oh my God’, so we bought more and then we bought even more. “It is overwhelming,” she said. Madeley said British and Americans alike were snapping up souvenirs ahead of Saturday’s wedding in London.

Markle was born and raised in Los Angeles, which has added to the fascination.

In the small store, life-size cardboard cutouts of Markle and Harry stand amid Union Jack flags, commemorative plates and teacups from England.

Royal-themed teaspoons, coasters, key rings and shopping bags are displayed among British favourites like Marmite, PG Tips tea bags and Cadbury chocolate. – AFP