'She Had Privilege': Don Lemon 'Shocked' By Meghan Markle's Admission That She 'Understands What It’s Like To Be A Black Woman' After Dating Prince Harry

Flabbergasted over Meghan's revelation, Lemon commended the duchess for speaking her truth, regardless of how shocking it was to the world.

"I commend Meghan Markle for going there, even though it is a bit shocking that at 30-some years of age, she is just understanding what it’s like to be a black woman in America," the CNN host said on New Day Wednesday.

During her podcast, Meghan told Mariah that she was inspired when the musician stepped out on the scene, revealing she thought, "Oh my gosh. Someone who looks like me. She's mixed like me." Speaking openly about their mixed background, Meghan explained, "Because we're light-skinned, you are not treated as a black woman. You're not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between."

That's when she spoke about being treated differently once she began dating Harry. "If there is any time where there was more focus on my race it was when I started dating my husband," Meghan said. '

"Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a black woman because up until then I was treated as a mixed woman and things really shifted."

Mariah jumped in, adding, "But that's an interesting thing, a mixed woman, because I always thought it should be OK to say I'm mixed, like it should be OK to say that, but people want you to choose."

Lemon couldn't help but be astonished by both women's experience.

"In some ways, she’s saying that she had privilege and so therefore it didn’t apply to her because it never happened to her. Right?" he said about Meghan.

"She was a mixed woman. People didn’t really know how to react to her. They didn’t know if she was black or white, but she didn’t get the full Black treatment because people weren’t sure that she was, you know, black.

"I think most African-Americans probably looked at her and said, 'Oh, I know that’s a Black woman,' but I think the larger culture may not have realized that," Lemon continued.

"But [...] she is coming from is a place of privilege where she did not have to deal with racism until she married a white man. And she’s got all this criticism and all this attention," he added.

"And suddenly she understood or understands what it’s like to be part of a group of people, especially women in this country or in Europe, who are discriminated against. So I think it was it was eye-opening for her. It’s certainly real."

He didn't just address Meghan's experience. Lemon also touched on Mariah's story of coming up in the music business as a mixed-race singer.

"In their podcast, she talks about even people not knowing how to do her hair. And the people who were in charge of her [who were] trying to establish her as an artist didn’t really know how to market her," the CNN anchor stated.

"Do they market her as a Black woman? Do they market her as a mixed woman? Do they or as a white woman? They didn’t really know how to do it.

'So [...] I think it’s an eye-opening podcast and I commend Meghan Markle for going there, even though it is a bit shocking that at 30-some years of age, she is just understanding what it’s like to be a black woman in America. It’s a bit surprising to me," Lemon concluded.