Charles or William? Meghan and Harry spark questions about racist comments regarding Archie

The British royal family was left reeling after Meghan and Harry hurled a number of allegations against “The Firm” during their interview with Oprah Winfrey, but the claim that may cause the most sustained damage is that some unidentified family member expressed concerns about the skin tone of the couple’s son Archie.

This image provided by Harpo Productions shows Prince Harry, from left, and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, in conversation with Oprah Winfrey. “Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special” airs March 7. (Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions via AP) 

By Monday morning, speculation about the speaker of these comments had become an international guessing game, with most suspicions resting on future kings Charles and William.

The speculation was fueled Monday morning when Winfrey appeared on CBS This Morning to play more clips of the interview. The talk-show host said Harry told her to make it clear that it was not Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip who made the comments.

But with “no mention of Charles or Willam,” Meghan and Harry were allowing “this grotesque and damaging guessing game to continue,” tweeted British journalist Dan Wootten.

“It was Charles, the next King of England,” tweeted one person.

But someone else argued: “I say William. His relationship with William soured BEFORE he married Meghan. He tried to convince him to ‘slow down’. Charles walked Meghan down the aisle. It was William.”

The comments about Archie’s skin tone came when Meghan mentioned there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be.” Meghan, who is mixed-race, said the conversations occurred when she was pregnant with Archie.

Harry, who joined the two-hour interview midway through, added that he had been party to “several conversations” with “family” on the topic about his future children’s racial heritage. But both declined to name the person, or persons, on the other side of these conversations.

“I think that would be very damaging to them,” Meghan said, while Harry said, “That conversation I’m never going to share. At the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked.”

Without naming names, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex essentially implicated the entire royal family, raising doubts about an institution in which members apparently feel free to engage in such conversations.

The couple also accused “The Firm” of failing to protect Meghan when she was besieged by critical stories in the U.K. tabloid press, including stories that they said were laced with racism.

The racism issue led to renewed questions about Charles’ suitability to be king and whether the monarchy should even continue after the death of Queen Elizabeth, who is 94 years old.

A Tory MP, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Mail he still supports the queen but suggested that Meghan and Harry appeared to be telling the royal family, “I’ve got this nuclear weapon and I’m going to detonate it.”

Journalist Tina Brown, who wrote a biography of Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, described the interview as “kryptonite” for the monarchy’s future. In an interview with CBS This morning, Brown also said the racism allegations were especially “abhorrent,” opining that they are likely to overshadow many of the other issues raised in the interview.

The official Instagram account for Charles was flooded with complaints, and not just about the allegations of racism.

During the interview, Meghan said she was left feeling isolated and trapped in the palace, with her mental health deteriorating to the point that she felt suicidal when she was pregnant with Archie. She said she was discouraged from seeking mental health help, while her suicidal thoughts were in part fueled by the family’s failure to protect her from criticism and “falsehoods” in the U.K. media.

Harry also said he specifically felt let down by Charles, saying his father stopped taking his phone calls after he and Meghan expressed a desire to step back from the royal family in early 2020. Harry furthermore suggested it was Charles’s decision to cut off the taxpayer-funded security that was provided for him, Meghan and Archie after they left the U.K.

One Instagram user wrote, “It’s so sad that you didn’t protect your son and his wife. She was reliving the same treatment Diana suffered. It’s such a shame that racism is at the forefront of this. I don’t blame them for leaving.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton also were somewhat in Meghan and Harry’s line of fire, with Meghan claiming that Kate made her cry during a flower-girl dress fitting days before her May 2018 wedding.

Meghan’s claim would turn the popular tabloid version of that flower girls’ dress fitting for Princess Charlotte on its head. The tabloid version, first reported six months after the wedding, depicted Prince Harry’s bride as a demanding bridezilla who left Kate in tears.

Meghan made the allegation against her sister-in-law in the context of discussing how royal courtiers began to leak negative stories about her to the tabloids. She said “the reverse happened,” but she declined to go into details, saying there was “no confrontation” and Kate apologized.

But overall, Meghan and Harry made sure to soften their comments about the Cambridges, with Meghan saying that Kate is still “a good person” who apologized for making her cry, and Harry saying he still loves his brother “to bits.”

Harry also expressed compassion for William being “trapped” in the institution. He said he tried to help his brother “see what has happened”— but that he “will always be there” for him as he remains trapped in the “toxic” life of the royal family.