Mandla Mandela claps back at Meghan's comparison of her wedding with his grandfather's release

The grandson of late former president Nelson Mandela, Mandla Mandela, has slammed Meghan Markle for comparing her wedding celebration with his grandfather's release from prison.

Markle, who married Prince Harry in 2018, compared her wedding celebration in the UK to the joy when Mandela was released from prison after 27 years for opposing SA's apartheid system.

In an interview with The Cut, Markle said a South African actor at the premiere of the Lion King in 2019 had told her: “I just need you to know, when you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same as we did when Mandela was freed from prison.”

Mandla told MailOnline he was “surprised” by Markle's claims.

“Madiba’s celebration was based on overcoming 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in SA. So It cannot be equated as the same,” he said.

Mandla said the celebration of his grandfather’s freedom was far more important than Markle's marriage 'to a white prince'.

“We are still bearing scars of the past. But they (Mandela's release celebrations) were a product of the majority of our people being brought out onto the streets to exercise the right of voting for the first time,” said Mandla. 

“Everyday there are people who want to be Nelson Mandela, either comparing themselves with him or wanting to emulate him. But before people can regard themselves as Nelson Mandelas, they should be looking into the work that he did and be able to be champions and advocates of the work that he himself championed,” he added.

Earlier this week, the hashtag #VoetsekMeghan trended on social media after her comments about her trip to SA in her debut podcast series Archetypes.

Markle dropped the first episode of her podcast last week, recalling her time in the country as part of her and Harry's Sussex Royal Tour of Africa.

She said after their visit to Nyanga in Cape Town they had to rush back to a “housing unit” where they were staying because “the heater in the nursery” where their son Archie was “caught on fire”.

“There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say, 'There’s been a fire at the residence. There’s been a fire in the baby’s room.'

“We get back. Our amazing nanny, Lauren, who we had [brought] all the way from Canada to here, was in floods of tears. She was supposed to put Archie down for his nap and she just said, ‘You know what? Let me just go get a snack downstairs.'

“Lauren is from Zimbabwe and we loved that she would always tie him on her back with a mud cloth, and her instinct was like, 'Let me just bring him with me before I put him down.'

“In that amount of time she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire,” Markle recalled.

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