The birth of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's son isn't just a momentous occasion for the new parents – it's a symbolic moment for mixed race people across the UK.
For the first time, a member of the Royal Family is mixed race, which means that after decades of white English blood the royals are finally starting to reflect the situation in Britain.
Mixed race is the fastest-growing ethnic minority group in Britain. The census has only been recording mixed races since 2001 – it categorises them as white and black Caribbean; white and black African; white and Asian; other mixed – when 1.3 per cent of the population of England and Wales used them.
Meghan has spoken previously about her struggles growing up mixed race in the US where she saw her mother racially abused
By the time of the 2011 census, this had almost doubled to 2.3 per cent, but experts believe the real figure is double this, meaning there are more than two million mixed race people in England and Wales.
Dr Reenee Singh, director of the London Intercultural Couples Centre, who has a half-Indian, half-white 13-year-old son, believes that the rise of the mixed-race population shows just how much the UK is changing in terms of shifting social attitudes and greater integration.
She said: 'There has been progress but it's more complicated than people realise. Inter-racial families often struggle with discrimination and identity issues – about how difficult it is to express their identities in a mixed family.'
The new royal prince is one-quarter black as Meghan Markle was born to her white American father Thomas Markle and African-American mother Doria.
The new royal prince is one-quarter black as Meghan Markle was born to her white American father Thomas Markle and African-American mother Doria
In 2015, two years before she met Prince Harry, Meghan wrote a candid article for American Elle magazine in which described her experiences of growing up mixed-race.
While her dark-skinned mother was subjected to racist abuse, Meghan struggled to find her own identity as a child 'with a foot on both sides of the fence', and then later as an aspiring young actress desperate for her first break.
Meghan's parents met at a TV studio in Los Angeles, where Thomas was working as a lighting director and Doria was a temp in the studio.
Meghan said after marrying and having her they settled in a 'leafy and affordable' neighbourhood where Doria, 'caramel in complexion with her light-skinned baby in tow was asked where my mother was, because they assumed she was the nanny.
'I was too young at the time to know what it was like for my parents, but I can tell you what it was like for me – how they crafted the world around me to make me feel like I wasn't different, but special.'
She described a touching story of how Doria and Thomas, although they divorced when Meghan was six, worked hard to make sure their daughter felt included.
'When I was about seven I had been fawning over a boxed set of Barbie dolls. It was called the Heart Family and included a mom doll, a dad doll and two children.
'This perfect nuclear family was sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls.
'I don't remember coveting one over the other, I just wanted one. On Christmas
