Posing on the glossy cover of ELLE France in a denim shirt and billowing midi skirt, Meghan Markle is the picture of elegance.
However, mixed raced Meghan’s skin appears much smoother and her freckles look a lot less visible than usual, suggesting the magazine could have airbrushed them out.
Meghan has previously revealed how her ‘pet peeve’ is having her skin tone lightened and her freckles airbrushed out of photos.
The actress revealed to Allure the difficulties she’s faced in the industry due to her ‘ethnically ambiguous’ appearance.
Newly engaged Meghan Markle is the picture of elegance as she poses on the cover of ELLE France’s December 2017 issue but her freckles appear to be missing
Speaking of casting directors attitudes to her, she said: ‘Was I Latina? Sephardic? ‘Exotic Caucasian’?’ she said. ‘Add the freckles to the mix and it created quite the conundrum.’
Meghan, who stars in popular US drama Suits, was born to an African-American mother and Caucasian father.
The United Nations Women’s advocate gave advice to young ‘freckle-faced friends out there’ who might be struggling to embrace their identity to listen to the advice she received from her father: ‘A face without freckles is a night without stars.’’
Growing up, Meghan says she remembers being seven years old and her mother picking her up from her grandmother’s house.
Meghan’s skin appears much smoother and her freckles look a lot less obvious, suggesting the magazine could have airbrushed them out
Meghan’s freckles are clear in this image from fashion week back in 2015
She told Allure: ‘There were the three of us, a family tree in an ombré of mocha next to the caramel complexion of my mom and light-skinned, freckled me.
‘I remember the sense of belonging, having nothing to do with the color of my skin.’
It was only as she got older and left home to attend classes at Northwestern where they explored colourism that she discovered for the first time a name to feeling ‘too light in the black community, too mixed in the white community.’
MailOnline has contacted ELLE France and is awaiting comment.
The image, which was shot before she announced her engagement to the royal, sees the Suits star donning a denim skirt and white midi skirt.
Her brunette locks are pulled back into a chic bun and she accessorised with dazzling chandelier earrings for the December issue.
Prince Harry and Meghan have been busy celebrating the happy news of their engagement
Prince Harry and bride-to-be Meghan have been busy celebrating their happy news, which they shared with the world on Monday.
The couple are ‘very caught up in the moment’ of their engagement, the Duke of Cambridge said yesterday.
William, who was on an official visit to Finland, spoke of the joy his family feels for Harry and Meghan and wished them ‘all the happiness in this very exciting time’.
But he could not resist poking fun at the prince and quipped that he now expected his fridge to be safe from raids by his younger brother, who lives close to the Duke’s Kensington Palace apartment
Prince Harry and Meghan shared their news with the world in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace
Speaking to the Press Association during a visit to a Helsinki-based charity, William said the family were ‘all very excited, delighted for them both and wishing them all the happiness in this very exciting time.
‘And for me personally I hope it means he stays out of my fridge, it will stop him scrounging off all my food, he’s done over the last few years.’
Harry and Meghan will be married in the historic surroundings of Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel next May and are planning a day which will ‘reflect their characters and personalities’ and be a moment of ‘fun and joy’, Kensington Palace has said.
Prince Harry will marry his US actress girlfriend Meghan early next year after the couple became engaged earlier this month
Harry’s communications secretary Jason Knauf said the newly-engaged pair ‘want the public to feel part of their day’ – and are looking at ways to achieve that.
The prince and Ms Markle could be taken on a carriage ride through the streets as the Earl and Countess of Wessex did when they married in 1999.
William added: ‘It’s a fantastic process you go through, the engagement and the build up to the wedding and things like that.’
‘So they’ve got a lot of happy times ahead of them and I think they’re very caught up in the moment and I wish them all the happiness and success in planning the wedding, I hope it goes really well.’
Kensington Palace is yet to confirm the exact date of the nuptials, who will be Harry’s best man or Ms Markle’s bridesmaids, and how many guests will attend.
The royal family will pay for the wedding, including the church service, the music, the flowers and the reception. But the security costs for the high-profile celebration will fall to the taxpayer.
The Queen will be there, as will the rest of the royal family, along with Ms Markle’s parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland.
William’s children Prince George and Princess Charlotte are expected to take on the roles of pageboy and bridesmaid. The palace revealed that Ms Markle has met them on many occasions.