Meghan Markle today used her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview to accuse the Royal Family of having ‘concerns’ about ‘how dark’ Archie’s skin would be before he was born because she is mixed-race and Harry is white.
The Duchess of Sussex also described her ‘pain’ that officials had denied him the title of prince and accused Buckingham Palace of failing to protect their son Archie by denying him 24/7 security.
Meghan refused to say which royal had the conversation with Harry about Archie’s skin colour, claiming it would be ‘damaging’ to the person in her husband’s family who raised it.
She told Miss Winfrey that it was ‘a pretty safe’ assumption to suggest that the royal family member was ‘concerned’ that Archie being ‘too brown’ was ‘a problem’.
When Oprah asked if she was denied the title because of he is mixed-race, Oprah asked if the palace had concerns Archie would be ‘too brown’, Meghan said: ‘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 going to be given a title,” and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born’.
In the most anticipated royal interview in decades, Meghan and Harry also revealed:
- Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, made Meghan cry ahead of the royal wedding – but ‘owned it’ and apologised;
- She described meeting the Queen for the first time and having to learn to curtsy
- Meghan claims she was ‘naive’ when she joined the Royal Family – and never researched what it would be like, or Harry. She said that she was initially welcomed by the royals, but was later ‘silenced’ and felt trapped;
- She described being cradled by Harry after feeling that she no longer wanted to live; Meghan claimed she begged for help from Palace but denied it because she wasn’t a ‘paid employee’;
- The Sussexes choose to reveal the gender of their baby to Oprah;
Meghan Markle today used her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview to accuse the Royal Family of having ‘concerns’ about ‘how dark’ Archie’s skin would be before he was born because she is mixed-race and Harry is white. Pictured: Archie with his parents in South Africa in 2019
The Duchess of Sussex also described her ‘pain’ that officials had denied him the title of prince and accused Buckingham Palace of failing to protect their son Archie by denying him 24/7 security. Pictured: Harry and Meghan in an earlier-released trailer for the interview
Meghan refused to say which royal had the conversation with Harry about Archie’s skin colour, claiming it would be ‘damaging’ to the person in her husband’s family who raised it. Pictured: The Queen and Prince Philip meeting Archie
Oprah then interrupted and said: ‘Hold on. Hold up. Stop right now. There’s a conversation… about how dark your baby is going to be?’
Meghan replied: ‘Potentially, and what that would mean or look like’.
‘And you’re not going to tell me who had the conversation?’, Oprah asked.
Meghan replied: ‘I think that would be very damaging to them. That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations that family had with him’.
Oprah asked if ? Are you saying that?
Meghan replied: ‘I wasn’t able to follow up with why, but if that’s the assumption you’re making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand, right?’
In he most extraordinary royal interview in decades, Meghan also revealed in her Oprah interview that the Duchess of Cambridge made her cry before she married Harry – but insists she has forgiven Kate who bought her flowers to apologise.
Ms Markle, who said she was ‘silenced’ by Buckingham Palace officials and felt lonely in London, she was asked about a row with Kate that made headlines around the world after a falling out over dresses for the flowergirls.
Meghan refused to say which royal had the conversation with Harry about Archie’s skin colour, claiming it would be ‘damaging’ to the person in her husband’s family who raised it
Speaking hours before the couple’s ‘tell all’ with chat show legend Oprah Winfrey was aired in the US, Her Majesty and senior royals – including Charles, Camilla, William and Kate – put on a show of unity as they took part in a pre-recorded Commonwealth Day service.
Harry and Meghan’s TV interview with Oprah Winfrey has started in the US and began with Meghan Markle showing her growing ‘baby bump’ and revealed she and her husband will tell Oprah its gender on the show. The Sussexes also showed Oprah around their new mansion in LA, which has chickens.
Meghan then denied making Kate cry before her wedding in 2018 – and said the opposite had happened. Oprah asked the Duchess: ‘Was there a situation where she (Kate) might have cried? Or she could have cried?’
But the Duchess of Sussex replied: ‘No, no. The reverse happened. And I don’t say that to be disparaging to 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, apologising. And she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right, to just take accountability for it.’ Meghan added that it was ‘shocking’ that the ‘reverse of that would be out in the world’.
She continued: ‘A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.
‘And I thought, in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, that it didn’t make sense to not be just doing whatever– what everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive, knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot.’
Meghan also said: ‘It wasn’t a confrontation, and I actually think it’s… I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that, because she apologised.
‘What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do but that happened to me. And the people who were part of our wedding were going to our comms team and saying: ‘I know this didn’t happen. I don’t have to tell them what actually happened’.’
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s TV interview with Oprah Winfrey has started in the US and began with Meghan Markle showing her growing ‘baby bump’ and revealed she and her husband will reveal its gender on the show.
The Duchess of Sussex had claimed she entered the Royal Family ‘naively’ and didn’t do any research about her husband or the institution before entering it.
Describing meeting the Queen for the first time at Windsor and that she was shocked when she was told by Harry would need to curtsy to Her Majesty.
Meghan said: ‘That was when the penny dropped. We just practiced and then walked in. We went in and i met her and apparently I did a very deep curtsy, I don’t remember it. then we just sat there and chatted. I grew up in LA, I see celebrities all the time. it’s not the same. This is a completely different ball game’.
Ms Markle said she was welcomed by the royals, but then claimed it became more difficult in the run up to the wedding.
She said: ‘Everyone in my world was given very clear directive from the moment the world knew Harry and I were dating to always say “No comment.” That’s my friends, my mom and dad.
‘I did anything they told me to do. Of course I did, because it was also through the lens of “And we’ll protect you.” So, even as things started to roll out in the media that I didn’t see but my friends would call me and say, “meg, this is really bad,” because I didn’t see it, I’d go, “Don’t worry. I’m being protected.”
‘And everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family, but they weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.’
The couple’s decision to speak to the queen of US interviewers on CBS has caused a transatlantic row with Buckingham Palace after Meghan accused the royals of smearing them.
The Duchess of Sussex, who brokered the interview, has already accused ‘The Firm’ of ‘perpetuating falsehoods’ about her and Harry and said they refused to be ‘silenced’ any more.
The Sussexes have been branded ‘selfish’ and ‘disrespectful’ to go ahead with the shown when Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather Prince Philip is in hospital recovering from heart surgery.
The interview, expected to be viewed by tens of millions of people in the US and millions more around the globe, is considered the most important piece of royal TV since Harry’s mother spoke to the BBC’s Martin Bashir in 1995 after she separated from Prince Charles.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have today insisted that their Oprah interview would be the ‘last word’ on their rift with the Royal Family. The couple, who will have their second child later this year, said they felt they ‘needed to have their say’ but now want to ‘move on’.
Hours before the broadcast the Queen spoke to the UK in a TV address to mark Commonwealth Day, where Her Majesty stressed the importance of staying in touch with family and friends during the ‘testing times’ caused by coronavirus. In her speech, the Queen said: ‘We can all live a life of service. Service is universal’.
In audio, played over new footage of the 94-year-old sovereign walking past the flags of the ‘family of nations’ at Windsor Castle, the head of state referred to ‘friendship and a spirit of unity’ – all qualities currently absent from her relationship with her grandson.
She said the Commonwealth – which she had keenly hoped Harry and Meghan would play a significant role in before they quit – had shown throughout the pandemic ‘courage, commitment and selfless dedication to duty’.
In a show of solidarity she was backed by her son Prince Charles and Prince William and Kate, who praised the bravery and selflessness of health workers during the pandemic.
Harry is said to want to concentrate on his relationship with Prince William, which has been under strain since the Sussexes quit the UK for Los Angeles.
he brothers will have to display a united front when they unveil a statue in honour of their mother Princess Diana in London later this year.
The Duke of Sussex and Duke of Cambridge will reunite once more as they unveil the commissioned statue of their mother at Kensington Palace on July 1 on what would have been her 60th birthday. Meghan is not expected to attend.
Meghan and Harry’s interview has sparked the biggest crisis faced by the Royal Family since Princess Diana gave her infamous interview to Martin Bashir in 1995. During the Panorama exclusive, the princess famously said: ‘There were three of us in this marriage’ when asked about Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The build up to two-hour interview, which aired overnight, sparked a toxic transatlantic war of words between supporters of the Sussexes and defenders of the British monarchy.
With the gloves now off, pitting Windsor v Windsor, palace sources last night said they were refusing to be goaded into a ‘tit for tat’ with the Sussexes.
‘We are just not going to get drawn into the circus that is being created around this media interview,’ said one. ‘It helps no-one.’
Senior royals sources have made clear to the Mail that it is the Sussexes who have declared war on the palace, not the other way round.
A palace insider said the feeling was that courtiers ‘couldn’t have done any more for the couple than they did.’ ‘Not everything was handled brilliantly,’ said one. ‘But they were supported and given everything they demanded. And certainly nothing was done that warrants this.
In extracts of the Oprah Winfrey interview released over the last few days, Meghan has criticised the constraints she faced as a working royal, and said it was ‘liberating’ to be able to ‘say yes’ to a request for an interview with the US chat show host.
Prior to the interview’s broadcast, the Duchess of Sussex claimed royal aides blocked her from having a personal conversation with Oprah Winfrey in the months leading up to her wedding to Prince Harry.
Oprah revealed she called Meghan in February or March 2018 – two or three months before the royal wedding at Windsor Castle in May that year – to ask for an interview, but she declined because it was not ‘the right time’.
The Duchess said she remembered this talk with the US chat show queen ‘very well’ and ‘wasn’t even allowed to have this conversation with you personally’ because there had to be other people in the same room.
Last week the Sussexes were urged to postpone their tell-all interview with Oprah after Prince Philip had major surgery after more than a fortnight in hospital.
Harry’s grandfather had the operation at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London – Britain’s top heart hospital – after being transferred there from the private King Edward VII Hospital in Marylebone where he was being treated for an infection.