Queen Elizabeth and her family said on Tuesday that they were saddened to learn of the experiences of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, saying they would address issues around race that were raised by the couple in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. Whilst 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.”
Harry and Meghan spoke of the pressures they faced as an interracial couple within the monarchy and their reasons to quit as working members of the Royal Family.
Meghan spoke of feeling suicidal and how their son Archie was apparently not given the title of Prince as there were concerns over how dark his skin would be. Harry spoke of Prince Charles refusing to take his calls and how he disliked the way the media hounded Meghan much like they did his mother.
They didn’t want him to be a prince
Meghan, whose mother is Black and father is White, said she had been naive before she married into the family in 2018, but that she ended up having suicidal thoughts and considering self-harm after pleading for help but getting none.
She added that her son Archie, now aged one, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family about how dark his skin might be.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince,” Meghan said in an interview with Oprah.
She said there had been “conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Meghan declined to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry, who said his family had cut them off financially and that his father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point.
SABC’s Sarah Walton reports…
