The eldest daughter of Nelson Mandela has blasted a newspaper in Austria following her accusation of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle of ‘profiteering’ from her family’s legacy to promote their Netflix film
Ndileka Mandela, eldest grand daughter of Nelson Mandela has slammed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for using her grandfather’s name for personal benefit.
According to Danielle Gusmaroli, the newspapers’ Europe correspondent, Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter was ‘deeply upset’ with both Harry and Meghan.
Ms. Mandela was quoted by the Australian newspaper that she admired Prince Harry for having the guts to break away from the royal family but was ‘deeply upset’ that the couple are using her grand father’s legacy for their own gain.
‘I don’t believe he nor Meghan have ever properly met granddad, maybe when Harry was young at Buckingham Palace, but they are using his quotations in the documentary to draw in people and make millions without the Mandela family benefiting,’ Ms Mandela quoted as saying by the newspaper.
‘I know the Nelson Mandela Foundation has supported the initiative but people have stolen grandfather’s quotes for years and have used his legacy because they know his name sells – Harry and Meghan are no different from them.’
‘But it comes at a price, you have to then fund your own life, I’ve made peace with people using granddad’s name but it’s still deeply upsetting and tedious every time it happens.’
In response to the quotes being published, Ms. Mandela insisted she ‘honestly doesn’t find anything wrong with them (the Sussexes) using that opening thing inspirational with a quote of granddad’ – and accused the couple’s critics of ‘making a mountain out of a mole hill… for no reason’.
‘Meghan has always been an activist, and this is in her activism work which my grandfather was, he was, a social justice activist through and through,’ she told Fox News at the beginning of the month.
‘Like I said early on, a lot of people use granddad’s quotes, and nobody has been made such a big rah-rah as they are making out of Harry and Meghan using this quotation.’
Ms. Mandela wrote an opinion piece on London newspaper and said that the Australian newspaper is ‘weaponising my name.
She said that she has never ever accused the Prince and his wife of ‘profiteering’ from Nelson Mandela’s legacy. She was actually shocked by the claims.
‘(Meghan and Harry’s) critics … falsely exploited my grandfather’s name to attack them.
The statement was wrongly attributed to me, criticising them for quoting my grandfather, are not mine at all – they belong not to me, but to those who have amplified these falsehoods all over the world.
‘I am mortified to have seen how my words were twisted in such a way as to distort my genuine concerns about the commercial exploitation of my grandfather’s legacy.’
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