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LONDON: Queen Elizabeth said on Tuesday (March 9) that British royalty were saddened by the challenging experiences of her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan, and vowed to privately address revelations about a racist comment about their son.
Meghan and Prince Harry’s revealing television interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on American television on Sunday has plunged the monarchy into its greatest crisis since the 1997 death of Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.
On the two-hour show, Meghan accused the British royal family of expressing concern about how dark her son Archie’s skin might be and ignoring his pleas for help while feeling suicidal.
Prince Harry also said that his father, heir to the throne, Prince Charles, had let him down and felt trapped in his real life.
“The entire family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the past few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement issued on behalf of Queen Elizabeth.
“The issues raised, particularly race, are troubling. While some memories may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed in private by the family. Prince Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be very dear family members.” .
The Palace considered it a family matter, a royal source said, adding that the royal family should have the opportunity to discuss the issues raised privately as a family.
The interview was viewed by 12.4 million viewers in Britain and 17.1 million in the United States, triggering a crisis that the monarchy had to respond to, media said.
It has been divisive among the British public, with some believing it shows how old-fashioned and intolerant the institution was, while others denounced it as a selfish assault that neither Queen Elizabeth nor her family deserved.
“It could hardly be more damaging to the royal family, especially since there is little it can do to defend itself,” The Times said in a lead article under the title “Royal Attack.”
“The key to the survival of the monarchy over the centuries has been its ability to adapt to the needs of the time. It needs to adapt again,” said The Times.
Earlier Tuesday, Prince Charles made no comment when asked by a reporter what he thought of the interview while visiting a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic in London.
A royal source had said that the 94-year-old Queen Elizabeth, who has been on the throne for 69 years, wanted to take some time before the Palace issued a response, saying she needed careful consideration.
A former high-level royal aide said the three most important royals – the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William, second in line to the throne and Prince Harry’s older brother – were likely to have met with your private secretaries and communications chiefs to decide on your response.
“This is very important and they have to judge it well,” said the former assistant, adding that the queen would have had the last word.
TABLOID TORTURE?
In the interview, nearly three years after her wedding at Windsor Castle, Meghan gained sympathy in the United States by calling some unidentified members of the royal family indifferent, mendacious or guilty of racist remarks.
Meghan and Prince Harry have also had a torrid relationship with the British press, successfully taking documents to court at times, and have repeatedly questioned what they say are reports tainted by racist overtones.
Prince Harry said in the interview that he did not know where to turn when faced with such disturbing media coverage and was hurt when his family failed to report the racist reports.
He said the royal family had an unhealthy silent deal with the British tabloids and that the family was paranoid about the media turning against them.
“There is a level of fear control that has been around for generations,” Prince Harry said.
For the monarchy, which traces its history through 1,000 years of British and English history to William the Conqueror, the Meghan bombing has been likened to the crises over the death of Diana and the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saw the interview, his spokesman said, but would not comment further.
Johnson said Monday that he had the greatest admiration for the queen, but did not want to talk about the interview. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was unlikely that her nation would soon stop having the queen as head of state.
‘CAUGHT’
Opponents of the monarchy said the allegations made by Meghan and Prince Harry showed how rotten the institution was and that the Palace’s public relations machinery had created a distorted image of royalty.
“Now people are getting a much clearer picture of what the monarchy really is like. And it doesn’t look good,” said Graham Smith, director of Republic, a campaign group that seeks to abolish the monarchy.
Royal supporters cast 39-year-old Meghan, a former American actor, as a publicity seeker with an eye on Hollywood stardom.
A YouGov poll found that the majority of young people thought the royal family’s treatment of the couple was unfair, while half of older people said otherwise.
The gravity of the claims has raised questions about how the British monarchy, which survived centuries of revolution that toppled its cousins across Europe, could function in a meritocratic world.
Meghan, whose mother is black and her father is white, said her son Archie, who will turn two in May, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family “about how dark his skin might be. when he is born “.
She declined to say who had expressed such concerns, as did Prince Harry. Winfrey later told CBS that Prince Harry had said it was not the queen or her husband, Prince Philip, 99, who has been in the hospital for three weeks as the crisis unfolds.
Meghan’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, with whom she has not spoken since her wedding, said he did not believe the British royal family was racist.
