Meghan Markle Delivers Commencement Speech To LA Alma Mater On George Floyd: 'Absolutely Devastating'

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – "I'm so sorry you have to grow up in a world where this is still present."

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and a Los Angeles-native, posted Thursday a graduation speech to her former alma mater addressing the death of George Floyd.

"What is happening in our country, and in our state, and in our hometown of L.A., has been absolutely devastating," Markle said in a virtual address.

The 38-year-old Markle delivered a nearly six-minute speech to the Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School, an all-girl private Catholic school in Los Feliz where she attended and graduated in 1999.

Markle explained why she decided to speak out, knowing doing so might garner criticism.

"I wanted to say the right thing. And I was really nervous that I wouldn't and that it would get picked apart. And I realized, the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing. Because George Floyd's life mattered and Breonna Taylor's life mattered and Philando Castile's life matter and Tamir Rice's life mattered, and so did so many other people whose names we know and whose names we do not know."

Markle described being an 11-year-old when the Rodney King riots broke out in 1992.

"I remember the curfew, and I remember rushing back home, and on that drive home and seeing ash fall out of the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing the smoke billow out of buildings and seeing people run out of buildings carrying bags and lootings. And I remember seeing men in the back of a van holding guns and rifles," she said.

After famously choosing to step back from their royal duties back in January and try and become financially independent, Markle, her husband Prince Harry and their young son relocated to L.A. in March.