There were concerns about Archie’s skin tone, Meghan says
“That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations that family had with him,” Meghan added, declining to reveal who was involved in those conversations. “That would be very damaging to them,” she said.
The Duchess said the concerns were raised around the same time as the couple were told Archie wouldn’t have security or an official title.
Harry was asked about the matter when he joined his wife for part of the TV special, which was shown on Sunday evening on CBS and dominated headlines in the UK on Monday morning.
“That conversation, I am never going to share,” Harry said. “At the time, it was awkward, I was a bit shocked.”
When Winfrey asked if he could share the questions posed during the conversation, he declined, saying “I’m not comfortable with sharing that.”
“But it was right at the beginning,” he added. “What will the kids look like? That was at the beginning when she wasn’t going to get security, when my family suggested that she might continue acting (because there wasn’t going to be money for her).”
In another part of the broadcast, Harry also criticized the royals for failing to support them when lawmakers pointed out “colonial undertones” in the way that Meghan was covered in the British press.
“For us, for this union and the specifics around her race, there was an opportunity — many opportunities — for my family to show some public support,” Harry said. The couple have themselves frequently criticized parts of the media for racist elements to their coverage.
Harry and Meghan with their son, Archie, on a royal tour in 2019.
“One of the most telling parts and the saddest parts, I guess, was over 70 female members of Parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Meghan. Yet no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts,” Harry told Winfrey.
“It takes living in her shoes, in this instance, for a day or those first eight days to see where it was going to go and how far they were going to take it, and get away with it,” he said of the British media’s coverage of the Duchess, adding that he hadn’t been aware of that element of the media until he met Meghan.
The interview will air on British TV on Monday evening, but Meghan’s accusations of racism were already heavily featured in UK headlines on Monday morning.
Asked about the claims on Monday, the UK’s Minister for Children, Vicky Ford, said there was “no place” for racism.
“I haven’t seen the full interview so I will not comment on it, but just to reaffirm, there is absolutely no place for racism in our society. And we all need to work together to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Ford told British broadcaster Sky News Monday.
The pair have spoken about racism before, but have never previously cast accusations at the institution itself.
