Meghan and Harry stir up racism controversy
OPRAH WINFREY has said the Duke of Sussex told her it was not the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh who made an alleged racist comment about how dark their baby’s skin would be.
Speaking hours after the bombshell interview aired in the United States on Sunday, Winfrey said Harry had not told her which member of the royal family was involved in the conversation. She told the CBS show ‘This Morning’: “He did not share the identity with me but he wanted to make sure I knew, and if I had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother or grandfather that were part of those conversations. He did not tell me who was a part of those conversations.”
The claim that there had been “concerns and conversations” before he was born about how dark Archie’s skin tone might be, was among a series of shocking revelations during Harry and Meghan’s candid interview, with the couple also suggesting the family were jealous of Meghan and revealing that she contemplated taking her own life while pregnant.
Appearing vulnerable at times, the duchess revealed that working for The Firm – as the royal family is sometimes known – ultimately left her feeling that ending her life was an option, and how she had not been protected by the monarchy.
Asked explicitly by Winfrey if she was thinking of self-harm and having suicidal thoughts at some stage, Meghan replied: “Yes. This was very, very clear. Very clear and very scary.”
Harry suggested his family were jealous of Meghan’s popularity with the public – just as the appeal of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had reportedly been seen as a threat.
He said he has become estranged from his father, the Prince of Wales, saying: “I feel really let down.” But he added that he would make it one of his priorities “to try and heal that relationship”.
Describing how she had been misrepresented in the press, Meghan said the Duchess of Cambridge had made her cry ahead of her wedding – the opposite of reports circulating ahead of the Sussexes’ nuptials that Meghan left Kate in tears at Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress fitting.
Life behind palace doors has not been exposed to this degree since the days of the “War of the Waleses”, when the turmoil of Charles and Diana’s disintegrating marriage was laid bare in the 1990s.
Meghan told Winfrey she had got to the stage where she “just didn’t want to be alive any more”. When she turned to the institution of the monarchy for help, her request was turned down.
“I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help,” she added. “I said that I’ve never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.”
When Meghan brought up the subject of Archie’s skin colour causing “concern”, a stunned Winfrey was told it had been raised by a member of the royal family with Harry.
The duchess said: “That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations the family had with him, and I think it was really hard to be able to see those as compartmentalised conversations.”
When she was questioned by Winfrey on who had those conversations, Meghan did not give a name and said: “I think that would be very damaging to them.”
Harry was later asked about the episode and said: “That conversation, I am never going to share. At the time it was awkward, I was a bit shocked.” He said he was “not comfortable” sharing the question he was asked by the unnamed person, but said it happened “right at the beginning” of their relationship.