Meghan Markle and Harry will be on 'phone to Oprah' if royal family doesn't investigate racism claim adequately
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be 'straight on the phone with Oprah', or CBS's Gayle King, if they feel the Palace is not taking adequate steps to deal with claims of racism, say royal experts. Of the many topics discussed by the Sussexes with Oprah in their interview on March 7, Meghan's claims that she had 'suicidal thoughts' and alleged concerns in the royal family about their son Archie's skin color gained much coverage.
In the podcast 'Pod Save the Queen', Daily Mirror's royal editor Russell Myers and host Ann Gripper discussed the fallout of the interview and steps the royal family might take to address the talking points from the interview.
In her tell-all CBS interview with Oprah, Meghan alleged that there were concerns and conversations within the royal family surrounding her then unborn son Archie's skin colour, and how dark it would be since she is biracial. The former Duchess also claimed when she sought help for suicidal thoughts, it was denied saying it will look bad on 'the institution'.
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Two days later, The Queen responded with a statement from Buckingham Palace that read: “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.” It continued: “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning.“While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members.”
Myers said it would be 'very interesting' to see how these claims about skin color are dealt with by the royal family. He believes if the couple don't get a satisfactory apology, or don't think the investigation is carried out adequately, there's 'no doubt' Meghan will be calling Oprah or Gayle King right away.
“I think that really relates to the Queen’s statement ‒ ‘recollections may vary’ ‒ that’s going to be very, very interesting to see how that is dealt with," he said, adding: "Because if that does become an issue and Harry and Meghan either don’t get an apology privately or they are not satisfied with the way that internal investigation ‒ if we can call it that ‒ goes, then I have no doubt that they’ll hit the nuclear button again."
He continued: "They’ll be straight on the phone to Oprah or Gayle King and they’ll be doing more interviews. This is definitely not one where they’ve had their say and that’s it now ‒ they will definitely keep talking to the media if they feel that’s the only way to get their voice heard.” Myers also dismissed Meghan's father Thomas Markle's remarks about the skin colour concerns being more of a 'stupid question' than deep-rooted racism.
Thomas made the claims during an appearance on ITV's Good Morning Britain, but Myers thinks Meghan and Harry were deeply hurt and aggravated by it - enough to go public about it on television. Myers said: "Thomas Markle said when he was interviewed on Good Morning Britain yesterday that it may have been a ‘dumb statement’ ‒ I mean, I don’t think that phrase anyway, a ‘stupid question’, he did say ‘dumb statement’ as well. But he made the point of maybe it was clumsy, maybe it was a foolish, clumsy statement to have made."
He added: "But I don’t really buy that because I think if Harry and Meghan were that aggrieved by it and they knew what attention that would bring by telling a global TV program about the statement that was made to them, they knew what attention that would bring. So they obviously feel very, very upset about it.” Myers said although he doen't know the context of tthe remarks, but the 'level of revulsion' that it stirred makes it beside the point. He found the Harry and Meghan claims not just “shocking”, but his “jaw was on the floor” for the 2 hours of the interview.