Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter today appeared to back down in panic after she furiously accused Harry and Meghan of using her grandfather’s name and legacy to ‘make their millions’.
Ndileka Mandela had said The Australian newspaper that she was angry with the duke and Duchess of Sussex seemed to compare their battles in the Royal family with his grandfather’s long walk to freedom calling it “shattering and tedious”.
But in an extraordinary descent, she has now insisted that she “honestly doesn’t find anything wrong with them using this inspirational opening thing with a grandfather quote” – and accused critics of the couple of “making a mountain out of a molehill”. without reason’.
She said FoxNews: ‘Meghan has always been an activist, and it was in his activism work that my grandfather was, he was, a social justice campaigner through and through.
Harry says in the trailer for their latest film, part of their $100m (£83m) deal with the streaming giant: ‘It was inspired by Nelson Mandela’
Ndileka Mandela (left), pictured with her sister Nandi Mandela (right) and son Luvuyo Madasa in London last month, has hammered the Sussexes for their use of their surname She seems to have since backtracked
And her entry point into politics was through social activism, which is exactly what Meghan and Harry do.
“As I said at the start, a lot of people use Grandpa quotes, and nobody’s been as big a rah-rah as they make Harry and Meghan using that quote.”
MailOnline has contacted the Nelson Mandela Foundation for comment.
In the trailer for the couple’s latest Netflix film, Live To Lead, as part of their £83million deal with the streaming giant, Harry said: “It was inspired by Nelson Mandela.”
Ms Mandela had previously said: It’s chalk and cheese, there is no comparison. I know the Nelson Mandela Foundation supported the initiative but people have been stealing grandfather’s quotes for years and using his legacy because they know his name sells – Harry and Meghan are no different of them.
“I admire Harry for having the confidence to break away from such an iconic institution as the Royal Family.
“Grandpa rebelled against an arranged marriage to find his own way in life,” she told The Australian. “But it comes at a price, you then have to fund your own life, I’ve made peace with people using Grandpa’s name but it’s still deeply upsetting and tedious every time it happens.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet Graca Machel, widow of the late Nelson Mandela, on the last day of their 2019 Africa tour
South African President Nelson Mandela and Princess Diana at Mandela’s home in Cape Town, South Africa, March 17, 1997
Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie, walking hand in hand, raise clenched fists as he is released from Victor Prison, Cape Town, this Sunday February 11, 1990
In the Live To Lead trailer, co-produced by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Harry quotes Mandela: “What matters in life is not the mere fact that we have lived…”
Meghan then appears and finishes the quote: “…It is the difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
The pair served as executive producers, according to the credits, and present each of the series’ seven episodes. With Harry Spare’s book published next week, Ms Mandela warned: ‘Harry needs to be authentic and stick to his own story, what relevance does grandfather’s life have to him?’
“I don’t believe he and Meghan ever met Grandpa properly, maybe when Harry was young at Buckingham Palace, but they use his quotes in the documentary to draw people in and make millions without the Mandela family don’t take advantage of it.” The Mail has asked a spokesperson for Sussex to comment.
The couple have already been criticized by the Mandelas.
Zwelivelile ‘Mandla’ Mandela told MailOnline he was “surprised” at her remarks in The Cut magazine when she claimed that three years ago a cast member of The Lion King told her that ” we rejoiced in the streets in the same way as when Mandela was released”. ‘from jail’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the premiere of The Lion King at Odeon Leicester Square in London on July 14, 2019
Questions were raised in August over Meghan’s suggestion that her marriage to Harry sparked celebrations in South Africa. The Duchess told The Cut magazine that while attending the London premiere of The Lion King in 2019, a South African actor told her his country had “rejoiced in the streets as we did when Mandela was released from prison.
The interview sparked anger in the country, where Mandela’s grandson said his release from prison should not be compared to a royal wedding.
Zwelivelile Mandela said: “Madiba is [Mandela’s] The celebration was based on the coming of over 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. It therefore cannot be equated with the same thing.
And an actor who claimed he was the only South African actor in The Lion King said he was ‘baffled’ because he had not attended the premiere in London and had never met the Duchess.
Dr John Kani, 79, who voiced monkey shaman Rafiki in the film, said: ‘I’ve never met Meghan Markle. It looks like a faux pas on his part.
The actor, a friend of Mr Mandela, said the moment the anti-apartheid campaigner was released from prison could not be compared to a royal wedding.
He said: “It lives on in our memories forever in the world. It’s kind of like, “Where were you when JFK was shot…where were you when Nelson Mandela was freed”? You can’t quite say where you were when Meghan married Harry.
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