Harry and Meghan interview ‘adds fuel to fire’ for countries seeking to drop Queen as head of state

In the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this week, there has been speculation that countries which currently have the Queen as their head of state may reassess formal links with the UK.

The Queen is head of state of 15 countries besides the UK that are part of the Commonwealth realm. These include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, Tuvalu, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Solomon Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The hashtag #AbolishTheMonarch quickly went viral on social media following the interview, with many people saying the palace’s problematic treatment of Harry and Meghan was the main reason why the monarchy should no longer exist.

Dr Anna Whitelock, an expert on the history of monarchy and head of the history department at the Royal Holloway University of London, toldThe Independent the interview may have “fuelled the fires of those [countries] that think the time has come to reassess their relationship with the monarchy”.

It comes as Australia’s former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull renewed calls for the country to become a republic and said the country should rethink the system after the Queen’s reign.

There have also been some rumblings of change in Canada. Last month, a poll by the Angus Reid Institute found more than half (55 per cent) of Canadians believe the royal family is no longer relevant and 50 per cent said the Queen should no longer be recognised as head of state.

After the interview aired, a number of Canadians took to social media to call on the government to drop the Queen as head of state, with some saying they were “embarrassed” to be linked to the monarchy.

In the Caribbean, Barbados is set to sever its ties with the Queen by November this year. Jamaica could follow suit, as the country has previously considered removing the Queen as head of state.

Ms Whitelock said: “Of the countries that have the Queen as head of state, the Caribbean has a particularly complicated relationship because of the legacy of empire. When Harry went to the Caribbean in 2016, there was a social media campaign that began the hashtag #notmyprince, saying ‘who is this white privileged prince?’. So there is clearly a complicated relationship there already.”

The introduction of Meghan could have been a chance for the royal family to rejuvenate its relationship with the Commonwealth, said Dr Whitelock – however, their withdrawal from the family is a “missed opportunity”.

“They would have had an active role in the Commonwealth,” she said. “But now obviously with the charge of racism, it’s an additional complicating factor.”

During the interview, Meghan said she could not understand why her mixed heritage was not seen by the royal family as “an added benefit” to their relationship with the Commonwealth.

She told Ms Winfrey: “Growing up as a woman of colour, as a little girl of colour, I know how important representation is. I know how you want to see someone who looks like you in certain positions.

“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?”

The multiracial Commonwealth stretches across more than 50 countries and covers more than 2 billion people.

But while the fallout from the Oprah interview has sparked a conversation about the future of the monarchy and its status in the Commonwealth, it is unlikely that anything will change very quickly, said Dr Whitelock.

However, countries wanting to reassess the place of the monarchy within their constitution is something that “is and was going to happen anyway at the end of the Queen’s reign and life”.

“Most countries will have to have a referendum about removing the Queen as head of state, it can’t just happen overnight,” she said. “So yes, the interview is influential, but is it constitutionally consequential in the immediate term? No.”