Many Americans would send Windsors to the Tower

IT is said Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language.

But today, after millions tuned in to Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey last night, more than words affect the “special relationship”.

In detonating a diplomatic eruption, the Sussexes cast Britain as a nation where African-Americans should fear to tread.

Their claim that the Royal Family is institutionally racist gave many in the US a crumb of comfort that they are not the only western nation steeped in bigotry.

Ironically, as the pair made their claims, the trial of George Floyd’s alleged killer got under way yesterday – a white policeman charged with the death of a black man under his knee, which led to riots across the US.

The crossroads where America finds itself over race is now, for some, superseded by the treatment of one of their own in the UK.

During my eight years here, I have found Britain and America often poles apart in many ways.

Despite our nations’ closeness, I cover events thinking, ‘This would never happen back home’. Whether it be politics, policing or princes, Americans have usually seen Britain’s standards as far higher.

Today that bar is so low it touches the ground.

Whether Meghan’s claims are true or not, many in the US who watched the interview side with her. Now they see Harry as her prince in shining armour and love him as one of them – while the rest of his family should be sent to the Tower of London.

Floyd’s death