I was 10 years old when Lady Diana Spencer stepped out of a carriage in a froth of white taffeta outside St Paul’s Cathedral and walked in to marry Prince Charles. Like many of my friends caught up in the myth of the fairytale, I was completely swept up by the occasion.

But as a young black girl growing up in the Midlands, there was very little to connect me to the event: even though Diana was described as a commoner, from where I was sitting it was no more than a mix of toffs.

We have travelled a long way since 1981. There have been many royal weddings since then – Fergie and Andrew, Sophie and Edward, Kate and William – but this one feels and looks very different from the rest.

I am disappointed that Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, did not accompany her daughter down the aisle. Seeing Markle and Ragland on the front pages of the newspapers, fresh from tea with the Queen and sporting neat twists, was a deeply affecting moment. And to see the two of them driving to St George’s Chapel together was a sharp contrast to that 1980s carriage.

The feeling only grew as the guests arrived – Oprah Winfrey looking glorious and behatted in pink, entering the chapel with Idris Elba and his partner not far behind; Serena Williams was among the guests, too, and there was a far more diverse range of talking heads and presenters on the television coverage than we typically see.

It was also striking to see and hear the powerful words of the Rev Michael Curry, whose stirring address on the power of love, in which he quoted Martin Luther King Jr, marked a definite departure from royal weddings of yore. It seemed to take some of the guests, used to a more staid delivery, by surprise – but the US bishop’s cry of “We’re going to sit down, we gotta get y’all married!” would not have been unfamiliar to anyone who has stepped inside a black church.

Play Video 2:02 US minister Michael Curry captures world's attention with powerful royal wedding sermon - video

Turns by young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the first black musician to win the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year, and a gospel choir singing This Little Light of Mine (a staple in African American churches), as well as an address by Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the first black woman to hold the role of Queen’s chaplain, also marked this out as a royal wedding of a different hue.

The moment is a special one, but that is also a sorry reflection of the lack of diversity we currently see in the media for big events like this – let alone on TV in general. Only 26% of BAME people say they see people from black ethnic groups daily on TV, while 32% of people from black ethnic groups feel they are portrayed “fairly negatively” and 19% “very negatively”, compared with 14% and 2% respectively for all public service broadcast viewers.



There has been much debate about whether Markle will actually make a difference to the monarchy and the future of race relations in this country. But this royal wedding is very different from the ones we have had before. And for any little girls watching today as I watched Diana all those years ago, that has got to be a good thing.