BUCKINGHAM PALACE BREAK SILENCE OVER HARRY AND MEGHAN INTERVIEW

Wed 10 March 2021:

Buckingham Palace on Tuesday issued its first statement since Prince Harry and Meghan’s shocking interview with Oprah Winfrey. In it, Queen Elizabeth says, “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.”

In a statement released on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, the palace said various issues raised during the two-hour interview, including that of race, were concerning and that the family was saddened to hear of the struggles faced by the couple.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the statement said.

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning,” the statement continued. “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.”

The palace has been under mounting pressure to respond to the allegations of racism after Markle, the first mixed-race member of the royal family, revealed that questions were asked on “how dark” their son Archie’s skin might be and “what that might mean” for the palace.

During the interview, which took place on Sunday in California, Meghan revealed that she was having suicidal thoughts due to a racist onslaught of lies and deceit by British tabloids and how she was being treated by certain individuals within the palace.

Among the bombshell revelations in the interview, Meghan and Harry also revealed what appeared to be other rifts within the family. Meghan decried an effort to change royal protocols that automatically gave the grandchildren of the monarch a title, starting with their son, Archie. While their son is the great-grandchild of the queen, he is the grandson of the next king, Charles.

“Even with that convention I’m talking about — while I was pregnant, they said they wanted to change the convention for Archie. Well, why?” Meghan said. She said she was never given an answer.

In January 2020, the royal couple officially stepped back from their senior positions in the royal family and are no longer using their official titles, His/Her Royal Highness (HRH), which are usually given to senior members of the House of Windsor.

The decision was a result of intense media scrutiny of the couple by British tabloids who were accused of bullying and intruding in the personal lives of the royals. It is understood that Buckingham Palace was disappointed with the decision and were not even consulted beforehand.

In September 2019, Meghan sued the Associated Newspapers after their affiliates, the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, published a private letter that Meghan had written to her estranged father and sought damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright and infringement as well as a breach of the Data Protection Act.

Last month, the Duchess of Sussex won a high court privacy case against the Mail on Sunday after a two-year legal battle.

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