Prince Harry Contradicted His Past Quotes About Racism With The Royals
The Spare promo tour is getting messy.
In a Jan. 8 interview with ITV, Prince Harry denied that he and Meghan Markle ever accused the royal family of racism in their 2021 tell-all interview with Oprah. At the time, Megan claimed she had heard from Harry that there were “conversations” at the Palace about “how dark” their son Archie’s skin would be when he was born. When ITV journalist Tom Bradby mentioned the accusations while talking to Harry about his new memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex took the opportunity to clarify that neither he nor Meghan ever called the royal family racist.
“The British press said that,” Harry said, before asking Bradby, “Did Meghan ever mention that they’re racist?”
“She said there were troubling comments about Archie’s skin tone,” Bradby said. “There was concern about his skin color,” Harry echoed. When Bradby asked Harry if he would describe the royal family’s comments as “essentially racist,” Harry said, “I wouldn’t, not having lived within that family.”
Harry explained that based on his “own experience” there’s a “difference” between racism and unconscious bias and that his family falls into the latter. “Once it's been acknowledged or pointed out to you as an individual or as an institution, that you have unconscious bias, you, therefore, have an opportunity to learn and grow from that so you are part of a solution rather than part of the problem,” Harry said. “Otherwise, unconscious bias moves into the category of racism.”
During Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah, the Duchess of Sussex said she had heard her son may not receive a royal title or any sort of security due to his skin color. “That was relayed to me from Harry — that was a conversation family members had with him,” she told Oprah, adding that she wouldn’t reveal any names because “that would be very damaging to them.”
In response to the interview, Prince William told reporters that the royal family “is very much not racist.”
Harry’s headline-making comments about racism (or the lack thereof?) within the royal family are just one of several talking points making the rounds ahead of the Jan. 10 release of Spare, in which he reportedly divulges one bombshell revelation after the next.
