London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

We can't focus on which royal said what - the institution needs investigating

We can't focus on which royal said what - the institution needs investigating

As soon as news of Meghan and Harry’s televised sit-down with Oprah Winfrey was confirmed, there was immediate and intense speculation over the possible content of the interview, and the revelations that would soon come to light.

Now, after weeks of waiting and thousands of headlines, the two-hour special has aired and the hype hasn’t disappointed.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex lifted the lid on the reasons why they left their positions as senior, working members of the Royal Family as well as revisiting some of the most publicised claims about them made in the press.

A point that has particularly stoked conversation following the broadcast is that, while Meghan was pregnant with their son Archie, the couple were told that their unborn child wouldn’t receive a title nor security, while an unnamed member of the family voiced ‘concerns’ about how dark their child – the product of an interracial relationship – would be.

Unsurprisingly, this line has led to the widespread theorising of exactly who was responsible for the comment – the use of the word ‘concern’ implying that the darkness of the child’s skin would be a negative factor.



While, for some, uncovering the identity of the family member involved feels like an important mystery to solve, something that is more worthy of attention is the fact that this was a query in the first place.

Though pinning the blame to a name has captured public curiosity, with Winfrey confirming on Monday that the comments didn’t come from The Queen or Prince Philip, perhaps not knowing who the culprit is isn’t such a bad thing, as without it, it provokes a necessary interrogation of the way that race is handled by the institution as a whole.

Racism and prejudice are rarely isolated occurrences, nor are they confined to one singular event from an individual.

To hear that there were worries within the family over the complexion of an unborn child is shocking only if you haven’t paid attention: the precedent for unsavoury behaviour when it comes to matters of race has been an issue in the Royal Family not only in the past few years but long before Meghan and Archie were a part of it.

Through the atrocities of the British Empire, the monarchy is responsible for the destabilisation of many countries, the majority of whom are home to Black and brown people.

Celebrated in contemporary times as a global union of 54 of the formerly-colonised countries, under the title of ‘The Commonwealth’, the places that suffered under British invasion and rule are still recovering from the effects today, with few examples of serious acknowledgement of the harm caused.

With this as a baseline issue, it’s unsurprising that the integration of the family hasn’t gone as harmoniously as Prince Harry and Meghan would have hoped.

At this point, there are few limits as to what some outlets will say about Meghan and Harry


The interview laid bare several other questionable instances in recent years – many relating to the institution’s failure to provide public and private support for Meghan in the face of scathing attacks in the media.

Another notable moment saw Meghan denying claims that she made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge cry in the days before her May 2018 wedding, over a matter relating to flower girl dresses. According to Meghan, the reverse occurred: it was Kate who brought her to tears.

Unfortunately, a few months after the wedding, many media outlets and commentators ran with the story of the new Duchess wielding her power to upset Kate, continuing the damaging narrative of Black women and women of colour being labelled ‘aggressive’ and ‘a bully’ in comparison to their white counterparts.

I can’t help but think, how difficult would it have been for The Palace to address what was going on and help put an end to these allegations?

Prejudice thrives when it is part of a system of complicity, with those who have a stake in upholding the status quo staying silent, rather than speaking out against the wrongs they have witnessed.

Because of the refusal to address the racially-fuelled treatment of the media, head-on, the Royal Family has been integral to creating this harmful relationship between the Sussexes and British media.

At this point, there are few limits as to what some outlets will say about Meghan and Harry, because when faced with the worst commentary on them, these remarks have been allowed to spread for millions to read and form opinions from.

By not publicly standing up for their members of colour, the monarchy has allowed the common discourse around the Sussexes to become, in Harry’s words, the ‘toxic environment’ of ‘control and fear’ that they’ve tried to escape.

It has resulted in TV hosts weakly attempting to reason that the comment on Archie’s skin tone was merely a case of ‘casual racism’ as if that would make it more acceptable.

It has led to another broadcaster racing to his morning television post to rubbish Meghan’s admission that she was suicidal as a result of her experience as a working royal, claiming he didn’t believe she was telling the truth.

It’s worth noting that both Harry and Meghan emphatically declared that they would have continued to be a part of the Royal Family had they been supported. If they’d been protected, they’d still be happy to uphold the values of the monarchy, which some take serious issue with.

Alas, this was not to be – so now, there is a real opportunity for the monarchy to reckon with their responsibility for the unfortunate way that this chain of events has played out.

Like all institutions, the Royal Family is not perfect and should be subject to scrutiny in order to try to make things better. No good comes from turning away from a difficult matter when it’s clear that others are in pain – especially when you have the power to help.

Silence in the face of injustice is being part of the problem. Regardless of who exactly was concerned over a baby’s skin colour, the Royal Family as a whole is long overdue for some reflection on where they’ve gone wrong.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×