Prince William has defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched by millions across the world.
“We’re very much not a racist family,” William told reporters during a visit to a multi-racial school in a deprived area of East London, becoming the first royal to directly address the explosive interview.
The Duke of Cambridge, son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, added that he had yet to speak to Harry in California since the interview first aired in the United States on Sunday.
“No, I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I will do,” he said, as his wife Kate Middleton walked by his side.
Clear answers from Prince William this morning responding to my questions. Not spoken to Harry, and that his family is not racist. Watch it here ⬇️ https://t.co/Y1OA8YRxgD
Harry and Meghan’s allegations of racism and mistreatment have rocked the royal family, and though Buckingham Palace tried to diffuse the situation saying that they will address the couple’s grievances privately, it has failed to quell the controversy.
Meghan, who is biracial, said in the interview she was so isolated and miserable as a working member of the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts. She also said Harry told her there were “concerns and conversations” by a royal family member about the color of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with their son, Archie.
Meghan and Harry’s comments have touched off conversations around the world about racism, mental health and even the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.
Meanwhile, Charles has yet to comment on the controversy but was filmed on Tuesday touring a Nigerian Christian church in London whose pastors are promoting a drive to vaccinate more black people against the coronavirus.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s explosive, tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey has stirred up a meme fest on social media.
In the interview, the couple made several shocking revelations including harrowing discussions in the royal family about the colour of their son’s [Archie] skin, losing royal protection and the pressures that led the Duchess of Sussex to contemplate suicide.
While the Queen, in a statement, has said that “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members,” and that the Palace will be addressing their grievances privately, social media has been flooded with memes. If you haven’t seen any, check them out below:
The face you pull when you’re watching the Harry & Meghan interview on catch up and you can’t believe what you’re hearing They said whaaaaaatt???#HarryandMeghanonOprahpic.twitter.com/ERiFmstDAQ
— Albert the Pug (account now run by Betty) (@Oh_Alby) March 9, 2021
me muted on Zoom, but still doing the most with my expressions to show that I’m listening pic.twitter.com/SzOUrPj0h6
Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday responded to explosive racism claims from her grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, voicing deep concern and sympathising with their troubles with royal life.
“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” said the head of the monarchy in a statement.
“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.
“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members,” it added.
Buckingham Palace has come under mounting pressure to respond to the claims made in an Oprah Winfrey interview first broadcast on Sunday, which triggered a crisis unseen since the anguished days of Harry’s late mother, Diana, in the 1990s.
It set off a whirl of speculation about the identity of the senior royal who asked how dark their child’s skin would be before he was born.
Meghan, whose mother is black and father is white, also spoke about how she had suicidal thoughts, but failed to receive any support during her time in the royal family.
Winfrey was left open-mouthed by the racism claim, which reportedly left the palace in turmoil and scrambling how best to address it. The host later clarified that the racist comment was neither made by the Queen nor her husband, Prince Philip.
Prince Charles, Harry’s father and the heir to the throne, earlier ignored a question about what he made of the interview, as he made his first public appearance since the row erupted.
The level of controversy about the royals has not been seen since the 1990s, during the very public collapse of the marriage of Harry’s parents. His mother, princess Diana, collaborated with the author Andrew Morton in a revealing 1992 biography and gave a bombshell BBC television interview in 1995.
In it, she said both she and Prince Charles had been unfaithful, how he was unfit to be king, and that she felt isolated, struggling with self-harm and bulimia.
Harry and Meghan dramatically quit royal life last year and now live in California with their young son, Archie, and are expecting their second child, a daughter, this summer.
Meghan Markle has revealed that she and Prince Harry had a secret wedding before their official ceremony at St. George’s Chapel on Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018.
“You know, three days before our wedding, we got married – no-one knows that,” Meghan told Oprah in a bombshell interview that has created waves across the world and raised some serious concerns on the way the Firm works.
“[It was] just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury,” she added.
Talking about the official wedding ceremony Meghan said: “I’ve thought about this a lot because it was like having an out of body experience I was very present for.”
“That’s the only way I can describe it because the night before I slept through the night entirely, which in and of itself is a bit of a miracle. And then woke up and started listening to that song Going to the Chapel. And just tried to make it fun and light and remind ourselves that this was our day — but I think we were both really aware, even in advance of that just, this wasn’t our day. This was the day that was planned for the world,” said Meghan.
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan talked extensively about their relationship with the Palace, including conversations around Archie’s skin colour and revealed how damaging it was for them. Harry claimed that he had discussed his family’s decision to step away from royal duties with the Queen and did not “blindside” her as various reports had suggested.
“I’ve never blindsided my grandmother, I have too much respect for her,” said Harry. When asked where that story came from, Harry said: “I’d hazard a guess that it probably could have come from within the institution.”
“I had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, can you put this all in writing?”
“By that point I took matters into my own hands, it was like, I needed to do this for my family,” said Harry. “This is not a surprise to anybody. It’s really sad that it’s got to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, my wife’s and for Archie’s as well.”
Prince Harry said that he felt let down by his father Prince Charles and that his late mother Diana would have been angry and upset at the way the British royal family had treated his wife Meghan.
“My family literally cut me off financially,” Harry said. “But I’ve got what my mum left me and without that we would not have been able to do this.”
While talking about his relationship with elder brother Prince William, Harry said: “Much will continue to be said about that … as I said before, you know, I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together and we have a shared experience. But we’re on different paths.”
“The relationship is space at the moment, and you know time heals all things, hopefully.”
Later, responding to another question on whether he would have stepped away from the royal family if it had not been for Meghan, Harry said: “The answer to your question is no … I wouldn’t have been able to, because I myself was trapped.”
“I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped. Like the rest of my family are, my father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave and I have huge compassion for that,” said Harry further. “It’s a very trapping environment that a lot of them are stuck in. I didn’t have anyone to turn to.”
He continued: “For the family they very much have this mentality of ‘This is just how it is, this is how it’s meant to be, you can’t change it, we’ve all been through it.”
“What was different for me was the race element, because now it wasn’t just about her. It was about what she represented.”
Meghan Markle, in a tell-all interview with Oprah, has given a rare insight into her relationship with Kate Middleton, admitting to the fact that their relationship has been tense.
When Oprah asked her to share details on media reports which stated that the Duchess made Kate cry in the days leading up to her wedding with Prince Harry in April 2018, Meghan said: “The reverse [of what was reported] happened. And I don’t say that to be disparaging toward anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding. And she was upset about something, but she owned it and she apologised and she brought me flowers and a note apologizing and she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right? To just take accountability for it.”
“What was shocking was, six or seven months after our wedding, that the reverse of that would be out in the world,” she added.
In November 2018, it was reported that Meghan had driven Kate to tears over dresses to be worn by the flower girls at the wedding.
Meghan told Oprah that it was actually Kate who’d been upset about “something pertaining to the flower girl dresses” and that the Duchess of Cambridge’s actions, which she refused to disclose, had made her cry.
“It really hurt my feelings,” Meghan said. “And I thought in the context of everything else going on in those days leading to the wedding that it didn’t make sense to not just be doing what everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot.”
Meghan asserted that it wasn’t a “confrontation” with Kate and that she has forgiven her sister-in-law. However, she said that it was hard for her later to be blamed by the media for something she didn’t do.
Meghan said she still doesn’t understand why the wedding communications team didn’t defend her.
“Everyone in the institution knew it wasn’t true,” she said.
When Oprah asked why the palace didn’t go on the record to dispel the story, Meghan responded, “That’s a good question. I would hope that [Kate] would’ve wanted that corrected. Maybe in the same way that the palace wouldn’t let anybody else negate it, they wouldn’t let her. Because she’s a good person.”
It is pertinent to add here that Kate’s youngest son Prince Louis was born less than a month before Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding.
‘I didn’t want to be alive anymore’
Meanwhile, Meghan also said that she contemplated taking her own life after joining the royal family, and raised allegations of racism in the monarchy during an explosive television interview.
Explaining the couple’s dramatic exit from royal life, Meghan said she was denied help during her mental health crisis, was targeted by lies, and that there was official concern about the skin colour of her unborn son.
“I… just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me,” she told Winfrey, describing the impact of a torrent of vitriol from hostile tabloids and social media.
“I went to the institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help … And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.
“I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, because they said, my heart goes out to you because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do to protect you because you’re not a paid employee of the institution.
“This wasn’t a choice. This was emails and begging for help, saying very specifically I am concerned for my mental welfare.”
Asked if she had had suicidal thoughts while pregnant, Meghan replied “Yes. This was very, very clear.”
Meghan, 39, also told of royal “concerns” about “how dark” her son’s skin would be, saying Harry revealed to her official conversations over Archie’s appearance, as well as the security he would be entitled to, ahead of his birth on May 6, 2019.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince or princess, not knowing what the gender would be, which would be different from protocol and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” said Meghan.
“In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, you won’t be given security, not gonna be given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Asked who the conversation was with: “I think that would be very damaging to them. That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations the family had with him.”
Meghan and Harry welcomed their first child Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in May 2019. They are currently expecting their second child. In the interview, the couple revealed that they are expecting a girl and that she is due sometime in the summer.
Later, when asked if she was not supported by the powers that be, she said: “There’s the family, and then there’s the people that are running the institution, those are two separate things and it’s important to be able to compartmentalise that because the queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.”
The two-hour interview with the queen of US television was the biggest royal tell-all since Harry’s mother Princess Diana detailed her crumbling marriage to his father Prince Charles in 1995.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s tell-all interview with Oprah, scheduled to air on Sunday, has already kicked up a storm across the world. Right after the first teaser was released, formers members of her staff stepped forward and accused her of bullying after which Buckingham Palace said they will investigate the claims. With the world divided over Meghan, her Suits co-star Patrick J Adams stepped forward to defend the Duchess and has hit out at the Palace describing it as “archaic and toxic”.
“Meghan Markle and I spent the better part of a decade working together on Suits,” wrote Adams on Twitter. “From day one she was an enthusiastic, kind, cooperative, giving, joyful and [a] supportive member of our television family.”
He continued: “She remained that person and colleague as fame, prestige and power accrued. She has always been a powerful woman with a deep sense of morality and a fierce work ethic and has never been afraid to speak up, be heard and defend herself and those she holds dear. Like the rest of the world, I have watched her navigate the last few years in astonishment.”
“She fell in love, moved to a new country, became a household name across the entire globe and began the difficult work of trying to find her place in a family dynamic that can at best be described as complicated and at worst, seemingly archaic and toxic,” added Adams.
“It sickened me to read the endless racist, slanderous, click-baiting vitriol spewed in her direction from all manner of media across the UK and the world but I also knew that Meghan was stronger than people realised or understood and they would regret underestimating her.”
He further said: “And then they welcomed Archie. And on any sort of decent planet that would be a time to stop sharpening the knives and let these two people enjoy the magical early months and years of starting a family. But we don’t live on that planet and instead, the hunt continued.”
“It’s OBSCENE that the Royal Family, whose newest member is currently GROWING INSIDE OF HER, is promoting and amplifying accusations of “bullying” against a woman who was basically forced to flee the UK in order protect her family and her own mental health. IMO, this newest chapter and its timing is just another stunning example of the shamelessness of an institution that has outlived its relevance, is way overdrawn on credibility and apparently bankrupt of decency.
“Find someone else to admonish, berate and torment,” concluded Adam. “My friend Meghan is way out of your league.”
Meanwhile, Chrissy Teigen also extended her support to Meghan, saying: “This Meghan Markle s**t is hitting too close to home for me. These people won’t stop until she miscarries. Stop it.” Meghan has earlier miscarried in July.
this meghan markle shit is hitting too close to home for me. these people won’t stop until she miscarries. fucking stop it.
Before they moved to California, the couple had complained about the British tabloids’ treatment of Meghan, whose father is white and mother is African-American, some of which they said amounted to bullying or racism.
Earlier this month, Buckingham Palace announced that the couple would not be returning to their lives as working members of the royal family, adding that Harry will give up his honorary military titles.
Meghan Markle has suggested that Buckingham Palace was “perpetuating falsehoods” about her and her husband Prince Harry, in a clip from an upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey released by CBS late Wednesday.
When asked by Winfrey how she felt about the Palace hearing her speak out, Markle replied: “I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there’s an active role that The Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.”
“And, if that comes with risk of losing things, I mean, I … there is a lot that has been lost already,” she says in another scene.
The clip was released after Buckingham Palace said it would investigate newspaper reports that Markle faces a bullying complaint from her time living in Kensington Palace — although the interview was recorded before the allegations were made public.
“We are clearly very concerned about allegations in The Times following claims made by former staff of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Our HR team will look into the circumstances,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
“Members of staff involved at the time, including those who have left the Household, will be invited to participate to see if lessons can be learned,” said the palace. “The Royal Household…does not and will not tolerate bullying or harassment in the workplace.”
Markle had earlier denied the report with her spokesman saying “The duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself.
Meghan and Harry’s “explosive tell-all” interview with Oprah is due to air on Sunday. They are expected to lift the lid on life inside the royal family following their fairytale wedding and the reasons for their split.
It comes as Harry’s grandfather, the queen’s husband Prince Philip, has been in the hospital for several weeks under treatment for an undisclosed infection, sparking fears for his health. The 99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh was transferred to a specialist cardiac unit on Monday for tests on a pre-existing heart condition.
Days before Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey is scheduled to go on air, areporthas accused Meghan of bullying two senior members of her staff during the time she was staying at Britain’s Kensington Palace.
The news publication has claimed to have seen an email sent by Meghan’s former Kensington Palace communications secretary raising concerns about Meghan’s “bullying” behaviour.
In one alleged incident, a royal aide who had been anticipating a confrontation with Markle told a colleague: “I can’t stop shaking.”
Responding to the allegations, Markle’s spokesperson said: “The Duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself.”
“She is determined to continue her work building compassion around the world and will keep striving to set an example for doing what is right,” the statement add.
The couple also accused the publication of “peddling a wholly false narrative” before the television interview, which is being touted as shocking and explosive.
There was no immediate comment from Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace on the issue.
Meanwhile, Meghan has also stirred controversy for wearing earrings gifted to her by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, just three weeks after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. According to details, the pair of drop earrings which Meghan wore to a formal state dinner in Fiji were a wedding gift from MBS. At the time, Kensington Palace said the earrings had been “borrowed” but did not reveal from whom.
The Duchess of Sussex had allegedly told aides who were prepping to brief the media about her outfit that the earrings were lent to her by a jeweller. But lawyers for Markle countered that she wasn’t aware then of rumours that the prince was involved in Khashoggi’s murder, and said that every relevant staffer knew whom the earrings were from.
Earlier, the CBS broadcast network releasedtwo brief clips from Winfrey’s interview with the couple, which is scheduled to air on March 7. It is the first TV interview the couple, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have given since quitting royal duties and moving to California.
Last month, Buckingham Palace announced that the couple would not be returning to their lives as working members of the royal family, adding that Harry will give up his honorary military titles.
Prince Harry, who shocked Britain last year when he and his wife Meghan stepped back from royal duties, told Oprah Winfrey that he had worried about history repeating itself, according to excerpts released on Sunday.
The CBS broadcast network released two brief clips from Winfrey’s interview with the couple, which is scheduled to air on March 7. It is the first TV interview the couple, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have given since making their homes in California last year.
“My biggest concern was history repeating itself,” Harry said, apparently referring to his mother Princess Diana, who was hounded by the British press and died at age 36 in a car crash in Paris after her divorce from Prince Charles.
In the second clip released by @cbs of this Sunday’s @Oprah interview, Harry talks of how things were “unbelievably tough for the two of us” and spoke of his mother’s battles: “I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself” pic.twitter.com/GYQY4qAqn8
Harry, 36, was seated next to Meghan, 39, and holding her hand. The couple announced last month that they are expecting their second child.
“I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side,” said Harry. “Because I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her (Diana), going through this process by herself all those years ago.
“It’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other,” Harry added.
In the clips, Winfrey, who is also one of Meghan and Harry’s neighbours in their Montecito neighbourhood in California, said that no subject was off-limits and at one point tells the couple “you have said some pretty shocking things here,” including that their situation had been “almost unsurvivable.” At another point, she questions: “Were you silent or were you silenced?”
As seen in the preview, Meghan and Harry will have individual interviews with Winfrey as well as a joint sit-down. According to a statement issued by the network, Winfrey, who attended the couple’s May 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle, “will speak with Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, in a wide-ranging interview, covering everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure,” the network said in a statement.
“Later, the two are joined by Prince Harry as they speak about their move to the United States and their future hopes and dreams for their expanding family,” it adds.
Before they moved to California, the couple had complained about the British tabloids’ treatment of Meghan, whose father is white and mother is African-American, some of which they said amounted to bullying or racism.
Earlier this month, Buckingham Palace announced that the couple would not be returning to their lives as working members of the royal family, adding that Harry will give up his honorary military titles.
Prince Harry, in his first interview after moving to North America, has revealed that he stepped down from royal duties and away from the spotlight because of the “toxic” British press adding that it was negatively affecting his mental health.
“I did what any husband and what any father would do,” said Harry. “It was like, I need to get my family out of here.”
The royal further went on to clarify that “it was never [about] walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down.”
“There was a really difficult environment as I think a lot of people saw,” he added.
When asked about his thoughts on Netflix’s The Crown, Harry said: “[The Crown doesn’t] pretend to be news.”
“It’s fictional, but it is loosely based on the truth. It gives you a rough idea of what that lifestyle and the pressures of duty and service over family and what can come from that. I am way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family and my wife or myself because it’s the difference between [The Crown] is obviously fiction.”
“Take it as you will, but [the tabloids] have been reported on as facts because you’re supposedly news. I have a real issue with that,” said Harry further.
Harry also revealed that his and Meghan’s relationship went from “zero to 60” in the first two months because they were forced to spending so much time alone together.
“It’s kind of flipped upside down. All the dates become dinners or watching the TV and chatting at home, then eventually once you become a couple, then you venture out for dinners, the cinema, and everything else,” said Harry.
“Everything was done back to front with us. So we got to spend an enormous amount of time just the two of us … And that was great, an amazing thing.”
Earlier this month, Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle made a final split with the British royal family, telling Queen Elizabeth that they will not be returning as working members of the monarchy.
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan sent shockwaves across the world by suddenly announcing they were splitting from the family and embarking on a new future across the Atlantic – one of the most extraordinary royal exits in decades.
It is pertinent to mention here that Harry and Meghan are expecting their second child. The couple announced the newson Valentine’s Day.
