Meghan Markle, 39, has claimed that conversations were had within the royal family about the darkness of her unborn child’s skin. The heartbreaking comment came during her interview with Oprah Winfrey, in Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special, which aired on CBS on March 7.
During the conversation the Duchess of Sussex also claimed that neither she nor her husband Prince Harry made the decision that their son Archie would not receive a royal title. She also claimed that their child was denied security protection.
Asked by Oprah if she had any “suspicions” about why the royals didn’t want “Archie to be a prince,” specifically if it was “because of his race,” Meghan offered to give “an honest answer.” “In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time… we have in tandem the conversation of, he won’t be given security, he’s not gonna be given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might when he’s born,” she said about her son who turns 2 in May.
Meghan is biracial – the daughter of an African-American mother, Doria Ragland, and white father, Thomas Markle. The Duchess refused to reveal to Oprah exactly who mentioned her baby’s skin color and “what that would mean and look like.” She would only say that “several conversations” took place, conceding that it would “be very damaging” to reveal the person or persons’ identity.
“That was relayed to me from Harry,” she said, “Those were conversations that family had with him. It was really hard to be able to see those as compartmentalized conversations…”
“The Commonwealth is a huge part of the monarchy and I lived in Canada, which is a Commonwealth country, for seven years. But it wasn’t until Harry and I were together that we started to travel through the Commonwealth… 60, 70 percent of which is people of color,” she added. “Growing up…as a little girl of color, I know how important representation is. I know how you want to see someone who looks like you in certain positions.”
Referring to race she said, “I could never understand how it wouldn’t be seen as an added benefit and a reflection of the world today, at all times, but especially right now. To go, how inclusive is that you can see someone who looks like you in this family, much less one who’s born into it.” HollywoodLife has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment on the Duchess’s allegations.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to speak to Oprah has sparked backlash against the couple in the U.K. where Prince Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip is recovering from heart surgery. In the few weeks since CBS announced the primetime special the 99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh has been transported between two London hospitals while battling an infection.
On Feb. 20 he was visited by his oldest son, Prince Charles, who is Prince Harry’s father. The heir to the throne had tears in his eyes as he left the hospital. The situation has garnered sympathy for the monarchy back in the U.K. and prompted calls for the broadcast to be delayed on both sides of the Atlantic.
Going ahead with the “no holds barred interview” with Oprah “makes them appear heartless, thoughtless and supremely selfish,” royal commentator and author Robert Jobson told the MailOnline.
Meanwhile, on March 5, the co-hosts of Loose Women (the British equivalent of The View) deemed the Oprah tell-all as being “a bit unsavory” and accused Meghan, Harry and the royals of washing their “dirty linen in public.”
However, in the U.S. the couple has won a lot of support, especially from Meghan’s fans, friends and former work colleagues. On March 5, Patrick J. Adams – who worked with the Duchess on the series Suits – tweeted a thread wholeheartedly defending her. “It sickened me to read the endless racist, slanderous, clickbaiting vitriol spewed in her direction from all manner of media across the U.K. and the world but I also knew that Meghan was stronger than people realized or understood and they would regret underestimating her,” read one of his tweets.
https://twitter.com/halfadams/status/1367882074032508928
Before the Oprah special aired on CBS, Prince Harry spoke to The Late, Late Show host James Corden. In a segment that aired on Feb. 25, the dad-of-one told the fellow Brit why he and his wife decided to leave the royal family as working members. “It was never walking away,” the redhead said. “It was stepping back rather than stepping down. It was a really difficult environment as I think a lot of people saw. We all know what the British press can be like and it was destroying my mental health. I was like, this is toxic.”