Harry claims he and Meghan never accused royals of racism on Oprah – here’s what they actually said

Prince Harry has denied that he and Meghan accused a member of the royal family of racism during their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Duke of Sussex sat down for two broadcast interviews, with ITV and CBS, which were released on Sunday night ahead of the official publication of his ghostwritten memoir Spare, leaked extracts from which have dominated headlines.

Alongside intensely personal recollections relating to himself and his relatives, the allegations reportedly contained in the book – due on Tuesday – include a physical attack by Prince William, and his brother’s supposedly hushed-up involvement in his infamous Nazi costume debacle.

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Harry’s autobiography rails against his family’s alleged relationship with the media and its treatment of him and his wife Meghan Markle, from his perspective in the role of the “spare” to the heir.

The duke’s distrust of the press – suggested by interviewer Tom Bradby as being a permanent “war” – also ran through Harry’s remarks adorning the front pages on Monday, which included his rejection of the idea that he and his wife had accused the royal family of racism during their first major US interview.

“No,” Harry interjected when asked about it. “The British press said that, right? Did Meghan ever mention ‘they’re racists’?”

Pressed on his wife’s remarks to Oprah in March 2021, the duke added: “Yeah, there were concerns about his skin colour”. Asked whether he would not describe that as “essentially racist”, Harry said: “I wouldn’t. Not having lived within that family.

“Going back to the difference between what my understanding is, because of my own experience, the difference between racism and unconscious bias – the two things are different.”

So what did the couple actually say during the interview nearly two years ago?

Asked a self-admittedly “loaded” question by Oprah about whether she believed the royal family allegedly hadn’t wanted their son Archie to be a prince “because of his race”, Meghan replied: “But I can give you an honest answer.

“In those months when I was pregnant ... we have in tandem the conversation of, ‘He won’t be given security. He’s not going to be given a title’, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”

Telling an incredulous Oprah that “there were several conversations about it”, the duchess said that she would not reveal who had made the remarks, on the grounds that: “I think that would be very damaging to them.”

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Pressed further, she added: “That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations that family had with him ... It was really hard to be able to see those as compartmentalised conversations.”

Asked by Oprah whether the question about Archie’s skin colour was allegedly raised “because they were concerned that if he were too brown, that that would be a problem”, Meghan said: “I wasn’t able to follow up with why, but that — if that’s the assumption you’re making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand.”

Reflecting on the racial diversity of the Commonwealth, and on the importance of representation, the duchess said: “I think about that so often, especially in the context of these young girls, but even grown women and men who, when I would meet them in our time in the Commonwealth, how much it meant to them to be able to see someone who looks like them in this position.

“And I could never understand how it wouldn’t be seen as an added benefit and a reflection of the world today. At all times, but especially right now, to go — ‘how inclusive is that, that you can see someone who looks like you in this family, much less one who’s born into it?’”

Elsewhere in the Oprah interview, Meghan explicitly used the term “racist” to describe her treatment at the hands of British tabloids, saying: “From the beginning of our relationship, they were so attacking and inciting so much racism, really, it changed our risk level.”

“It was bringing out a part of people that was racist in how it was charged,” she added. “And that changed the threat. That changed the level of death threats. That changed everything.”

Following the interview’s broadcast, the remarks about Archie’s skin colour were widely interpreted as allegations of racism by outlets on both sides of the Atlantic, including Vanity Fair, TIME Magazine, TMZ and The Guardian amongst others.