The British royal family welcomed its first Black member, Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in May 2018 with what appeared to be honest, open-armed delight. Michael Curry, the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop and a Black preacher from Chicago, preached on the unifying power of love over conflict, and a gospel choir delivered a moving performance of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”
The 39-year-old, whose mother is Black and father is white, admitted to being naive before marrying into royalty, but she ended up experiencing suicidal thoughts and contemplating self-harm after appealing for assistance but receiving none.
“I just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me,” Meghan said, wiping away tears.
Meghan revealed that her one-year-old son Archie was refused the title of prince because the royal family was concerned “about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Meghan, like Harry, refused to reveal who had expressed such concerns. Later, Winfrey informed CBS that Harry had stated that it was not Queen Elizabeth or her husband, Philip.
Harry said that his family had cut him off financially, and that his father, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and failed to answer his phone calls at one time.
“This is a country that doesn’t want to have an honest conversation about race,” said David Olusoga, a historian who previously hosted the TV documentary “Black and British: A Forgotten History.”
“In my mind, the wedding of Harry and Meghan… was a moment in which Britain projected to the world an image of itself as a confident, modern country,” he continued. “Were we a modern country we wouldn’t have a royal family.”
Tiwa Adebayo, a communications expert and journalist, said the couple’s interview admissions confirmed her worst concerns.
“When Meghan joined the royal family, every person of color in the U.K. was worried,” she said. “This is an institution that is rooted in colonialism. It’s based on white supremacy. I mean, for me, it kind of seemed like ‘How could this possibly end well?’
“I expected there to always be that undercurrent of racism,” she added. “But to hear it so outright, it’s really scary. It’s very shocking. And it’s hard to see how the royal family is going to come back from this.”
The interview marks a fresh turning point in the last year’s worldwide racial crisis. While several organizations have been confronted with their own dark history with racism, the British monarchy’s encounter is particularly significant. The fact that Meghan, an actress-turned-duchess whose wedding was a national event, was not immune to prejudice raises questions about how prevalent racist beliefs remain inside the royal family.
Unfortunately, the Oprah Winfrey interview demonstrates that the institution cannot or will not reform. Serious mental illness cannot be handled because it “wouldn’t look good,” and racism is alive and well inside the constitutional establishment.
Meghan characterized several unnamed members of the royal household as abusive, deceitful, and prejudiced.
She also accused Kate, the wife of her husband’s elder brother, Prince William, of making her cry before their wedding.
Even before the wedding, Harry grumbled about the “racial undertones” in British media coverage of his then-girlfriend in 2017. Meghan has “exotic” DNA, according to one tabloid columnist. Her Los Angeles roots were characterized as “(almost) straight outta Compton” in a Daily Mail headline, and she grew up in a “gang-scarred” area. Meghan was labeled as “uppity” by a TV personality.
Meghan and Harry cited the invasive, racial scrutiny of Britain’s tabloid press as a motivation for their choice to leave their positions as senior royals and go to North America a year ago.
According to Gross, the interview demonstrated why there is a racial reckoning in the first place: it reminded viewers of the long history of anti-Black racism and how prevalent it is. “It occurred to me how naive it probably was on my part, to have imagined anything other than this would be the outcome,” she said as she watched the grievances being broadcast on Sunday.
