The much awaited interview of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Oprah Winfrey was finally aired on Sunday. The Duchess made headlines after she opened up about her pregnancy to be hard and how Palace was a place causing dejection for her. She openly accused Royal Family of being racists and discussing the color of her baby’s skin before birth.
She said that her son Archie, now aged one, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family about how dark his skin might be.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince,” Meghan said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS late on Sunday. She said there had been “conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Meghan said with teary eyes,
“He needs to be safe. We’re not saying don’t make him a prince or princess, whatever it’s going to be. But if you’re saying the title is going to affect their protection, we haven’t created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid fodder. You’ve allowed that to happen, which means our son needs to be safe.”
Meghan refused to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry, who said his family had cut them off financially and that his father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point.
“There is a lot to work through there,” Harry said about his relationship with his father. “I feel really let down. He’s been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And Archie is his grandson. I will always love him, but there is a lot of hurt that has happened.”
Harry said the royal family cut him off financially at the start of 2020 after announcing plans to step back from his roles. But he was able to afford security for his family because of the money his mother, Princess Diana, left behind.
“I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he [Harry] just cradled me,” Meghan said, wiping away tears.
In response to a question from Winfrey, Harry said he wouldn’t have left royal life if not for his wife. He said their relationship revealed the strictures of royal life.
“I wouldn’t have been able to, because I myself was trapped,” Harry said. “I didn’t see a way out.”
“I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped,” Harry said, before adding, “My father and my brother, they are trapped.”
Harry acknowledged that he does not have a close relationship presently with his brother William, who is heir to the throne after their father, Prince Charles.
Disputing the rumors Harry quashed the impression of him blindsiding the queen by saying,
“I’ve never blindsided my grandmother,” he said. “I have too much respect for her.”
Meghan, too, was complimentary toward the queen, despite saying at one point she realised some in the palace were willing to lie to “protect other members of the family.”
