Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, in a tell-all television interview with Oprah Winfrey, accused Britain’s royal family of raising concerns about how dark their son’s skin might be and pushing her to the brink of suicide.
As per People magazine, Meghan said that her son Archie was denied a royal title and royal protection and that there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born”. In her sit-down interview with Oprah, which is aired on Sunday, Meghan said the palace decreed that Archie would not have any title, a move she says was “different from the protocol”.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince… which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” the Duchess of Sussex told Oprah. She added, “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.”
“That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations that family had with him,” Meghan recounted. She, however, declined to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry. Winfrey later told CBS that Harry had said it was not Queen Elizabeth or her husband Philip.
Harry said his family had cut them off financially and his father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point.
She also accused Kate, wife of her husband’s elder brother Prince William, of making her cry before her wedding.
While the family came in for open criticism, neither Harry nor Meghan attacked the 94-year-old queen directly.
Still, Meghan said she had been silenced by “the Firm”—which Elizabeth heads—and that her pleas for help while in distress at racist reporting and her predicament had fallen on deaf ears.
“I just didn’t want to be alive any more. 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.
Harry and Meghan’s announcement in January 2020 that they intended to step down from their royal roles plunged the family into crisis. Last month, Buckingham Palace confirmed the split would be permanent, as the couple looks to forge an independent life in the United States.
Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, cry before the wedding and said it was a turning point in her relations with the media and the palace.
“The reverse happened,” Meghan said. “A few days before the wedding she (Kate) was upset about something, pertaining to yes the issue was correct about the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings.”
The couple also revealed that Meghan, who is pregnant with their second child, was expecting a girl.