The royal family has a duty to take Meghan’s accusations seriously

Oprah Winfrey was not the only person to drop their jaw and gasp “what?” when Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, said that there were “concerns and conversations” about how dark her son’s skin might be.

Many viewers around the world will have been equally dismayed. Buckingham Palace is not only the principal residence and base of the monarch of the United Kingdom, a diverse nation, but also the head of the Commonwealth.

It is astonishing that anyone, presumably in a position of some authority and seniority at the palace to be discussing such matters with Prince Harry, could have been so crass as to bring such a thing up. It is hardly helpful to the monarchy, but Meghan was right to speak out.

The truth matters, and this institution, more than most, has a duty to deal with the fallout from this matter earnestly. Plainly the alleged remarks were hurtful, even at second hand, to Meghan, but it is also a matter of political concern.

Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition, has said the matter has to be taken “very, very seriously” and Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, called for the accusations to be “fully investigated”. There is now a clear danger of this royal rift turning into a more political matter, and a partisan one on a national level. What is more, it has the capacity to become another battleground in the culture wars that have already torn through society in recent months. It is important that our political leaders do not also start to “take sides”, and escalate a family tragedy into another culture war.

A polarising debate about the behaviour and role of the monarchy is healthy and overdue, but perhaps not in these terms or in this way.

The nation needs to be reassured by Buckingham Palace that the institution’s attitudes are aligned with those of modern Britain and the Commonwealth – and the monarchy itself needs to provide leadership against racism. That, after all, was supposed to be one of the benefits of Meghan joining the royal family.

What will do the country no good is a mass confusion of the woeful treatment of Meghan and the constitutional role of the institution of monarchy as it might be and as it should be. Britain has rather more pressing challenges than fretting about the way its head of state is chosen – and that includes institutional racism in organisations across the economy, from education to the criminal justice system, far more important to people’s lives than the monarchy.

The royal family has a duty to help drive home the anti-racist message by word and by example. The issues at the heart of this incident are bigger than the monarchy, but the royals have immense potential for good in helping to tackle such problems. Even if Buckingham Palace has recently fallen far short of what is expected of it.