Prince Harry denies the Royal family are racist but again repeats relative asked about son Archie’s skin colour – but says he will NEVER say who
- Harry said question about Archie’s skin colour was example of ‘unconscious bias’
- He said incident with Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey was another example
- Duke said once unconscious bias is pointed out you have ‘opportunity to grow’
Prince Harry has denied members of the royal family were accused of racism in he and his wife’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The Duke of Sussex said Meghan Markle’s claims that a family member made ‘troubling’ comments about the skin colour of his son, Archie, related to ‘unconscious bias’, not racism.
In an exchange with Tom Bradby on ITV on Sunday night, Harry said the incident involving Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey ‘is a very good example of the environment within the institution’.
When the conversation moved to the Oprah interview, Bradby told Harry he had accused members of his family of ‘racism’. Harry responded by saying ‘no I didn’t’, adding ‘the British press said that’.
Prince Harry has denied members of the royal family were accused of racism in he and his wife’s interview with Oprah Winfrey (pictured)
The Duke of Sussex said Meghan Markle’s claims that a family member made ‘troubling’ comments about the skin colour of his son, Archie, related to ‘unconscious bias’ not racism (Pictured: Meghan, Archie and Harry at a Polo match in Wokingham in 2019)
The duke continued: ‘Did Meghan ever mention that they’re racist?’
After Bradby said the duchess claimed troubling comments were made about Archie’s skin colour, Harry said: ‘There was – there was concern about his skin colour.’
Asked if he would describe that is racist, the duke said: ‘I wouldn’t, not having lived within that family.’
He continued: ‘The difference between racism and unconscious bias, the two things are different.
‘But 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 in order so that you are part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
‘Otherwise unconscious bias then moves into the category of racism.’
After saying he would never talk about which family members had made the comments, Harry continued: ‘I mean what happened to Ngozi Fulani is a very good example of the environment within the institution, and why after our Oprah interview, they said that they were going to bring in a diversity tsar.
‘That hasn’t happened. Everything they said was going to happen hasn’t happened.
‘I’ve always been open to wanting to help them understand their part in it, and especially when you are the monarchy – you have a responsibility, and quite rightly people hold you to a higher standard than others.
‘So, the way that I’ve learnt it through my own experience and for what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, yes, you’re right the key word is concern, which was troubling.
‘But you speak to any other mixed-race couple around the world, and you will probably find that the white side of the family have either openly discussed it, or secretly discussed, you know, ‘What are the kids gonna look like?’
‘And that is part of a bigger conversation that needs to be had.’
The duke added: ‘But, to say that that doesn’t happen around the rest of the world, but it just happened there – that’s not true.
After Bradby said the duchess claimed troubling comments were made about Archie’s skin colour, Harry said: ‘There was – there was concern about his skin colour.’ Asked if he would describe that is racist, the duke said: ‘I wouldn’t, not having lived within that family.’
‘But again for me the difference is unconscious bias and racism, but if you are called out for unconscious bias you need to make that right, and you have the opportunity and the choice to.
‘But if you choose not to, then that rapidly becomes something much more serious.’
Harry had earlier said that he and Meghan ‘love’ Lady Hussey and think that she is ‘great’ and that the reaction to her comments were ‘horrific’.
The broadcast, which began at 9pm, focuses on Harry’s tumultuous relationship with his family who – in Bradby’s words – the Duke of Sussex took ‘a flame thrower to’ in the writing of his memoirs.
It is the first primetime interview since his explosive autobiography Spare, which is out next week, was accidentally released early in Spain before the weekend.
Published extracts include an alleged physical altercation between William and Harry and details of the feud between Meghan and Kate.
He also writes how he and William begged King Charles not to marry the now Queen consort Camilla, who he feared could become their ‘wicked stepmother’, before suggesting she had plotted to take the crown and leaked stories to the press.
Prince Harry suggested his family has avoided accountability ‘on a lot of things’ during his 90-minute sit-down interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby on Sunday night (Pictured: King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla in 2018)
Speaking about what he wants from the book, Harry told Bradby: ‘I want reconciliation, but first there needs to be some accountability’ (Pictured: Harry, Meghan, Charles and Camilla at the funeral of the late Queen)
But Harry believes nothing in his book is ‘scathing’ towards any member of his family.
Speaking about what he wants from his family and book, Harry told Bradby: ‘I want reconciliation, but first there needs to be some accountability. You can’t just continue to say to me that I’m delusional and paranoid when all the evidence is stacked up, because I was genuinely terrified about what’s gonna happen to me.’
Referencing his decision to step down as a senior royal in 2019, he continued: ‘And then we have a 12-month transition period, and everyone doubles down. My wife shares her experience.’
He said that instead of backing off, ‘both the institution and the media doubled down.’
Bradby then addresses the claims Harry makes about his stepmother in Spare. Harry narrates the passage that reads: ‘Shortly after our private meetings with her [Camilla], she began to develop her long-term strategy, a campaign directed at marriage and with time, the Crown (with the blessing of our father, we supposed).
‘News stories started appearing in all the newspapers about her conversations with Willy, stories which recounted lots of small details, none of which came from my brother, of course.’
The broadcast, which began at 9pm, focused on Harry’s tumultuous relationship with his family who – in Bradby’s words – the prince took ‘a flame thrower to’ in the writing of his memoirs
Harry says in the book that they could have only come from ‘the one person’ with intimate knowledge of the meetings, who could provide details with ‘pin point’ accuracy.
Charles had tried to win over his sons before asking the public to accept Camilla, the book claims. Harry then astonishingly says that meeting the future Queen Consort for the first time was like an ‘injection’. He later says that ultimately he and William approved of Camilla.
He writes: ‘I remember wondering… if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the wicked stepmothers in the stories’.
But Harry told Bradby tonight: ‘There’s no part of any of the things that I’ve said are scathing towards any member of my family, especially not my stepmother. There are things that have happened that have been incredibly hurtful, um, some in the past, some current.’
He added: ‘No institution is immune to accountability or taking responsibility. So you can’t be immune to criticisms either.
Prince Harry says he felt ‘guilt’ walking outside Kensington Palace following Princess Diana’s death and reveals he and Prince William ‘were unable to show emotion’ when they met mourners
‘And you talk about, you know, scrutiny and, you know, my wife and I were scrutinised more than, probably, anybody else. I, I see a lack of scrutiny to my family towards a lot of the things that have happened in the last year.’
He later said he had ‘made peace’ with everything that has happened but that he would still like his father and brother back, but that there had to be ‘accountability’.
Clips previously released by ITV of Harry: The Interview, also showed him describing feelings of guilt and revealing he had cried only once after the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
In a previously released trailer for the interview, Harry says he is publishing his memoirs because he does not know ‘how staying silent is ever going to make things better’.
The interview is the first of four broadcast appearances over the coming days, with the duke also speaking to Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS News on Sunday night, Michael Strahan of Good Morning America tomorrow and Stephen Colbert on the Late Show on CBS on Wednesday morning UK time.
In the interview with Bradby, Harry speaks about being unable to show any emotion when meeting mourners following the death of his mother in 1997.
He also admits to feeling ‘some guilt’ when walking among the crowds gathered outside Kensington Palace, saying the only time he cried was at his mother’s burial.
Harry also reveals how his father sat him down on a bed before breaking the news.
He says Prince Charles called him ‘my dear son’ before telling him his mother was unlikely to survive head injuries sustained in the crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
The prince paints the picture of an emotionally distant father, saying that Charles was ‘not good at expressing his emotions’.
In a passage read out on ITV, Harry says: ‘What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.’
In the book, the Duke recalls asking to go and visit his mother while she was in the hospital.
However, he says his father explained she ‘hasn’t recovered any more’, before saying he stayed in his room on his own until the following morning.
He recalled that he and his brother William were forbidden from watching the TV so they didn’t see news of the car crash.
In the memoir he said for a time he believed Diana had faked her own death and she was ‘running away’ to escape her ‘miserable’ life.
The Duke said his 13-year-old self had wondered if it was a ‘trick’, writing in the book: ‘Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to. So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away.’
He later admitted this was not the case, but said he returned to the theory as a source of comfort.
In the memoir, which was ghostwritten by Pulitzer-winning author JR Moehringer, Harry admitted to trying to get closure by returning to the scene of his mother’s death.
Prince Harry pictured with his brother Prince William and father Prince Charles at the funeral of Princess Diana
Harry, pictured here with his mother in Spain in 1987, told ITV’s Tom Bradby he had cried only once over Diana’s death
The Princess of Wales had been killed along with her partner Dodi Fayed when their driver Henri Paul crashed their car in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
An inquest would later return a verdict of unlawful killing, blaming Paul, who was drunk at the time and also died in the crash, as well as the paparazzi following the vehicle.
The Duke of Sussex speaks often about his mother in his new memoir Spare, which is released in the UK on January 10
Harry says he got his chauffeur to drive him at 65mph – the speed at which the crash happened – through the tunnel repeatedly to experience how her final journey would have felt.
Harry recounted the driver was shocked when he asked him if he knew the tunnel were his mother had died, and asked him to drive him through it.
The royal revealed he barely felt anything when he entered the tunnel, writing it was: ‘The bump that supposedly sent Mummy’s Mercedes veering off course.’
He recounted how he counted the lights and the pillar inside the tunnel as his car whizzed through, but was shocked at how short the tunnel actually was when he emerged.
Harry recalled imagining the tunnel was a dangerous route, but was surprised to learn it was a ‘no-frills tunnel’.
He recounted speaking to William about the tunnel where their mother had died after he had made the journey through it himself.
The pair then agreed to travel through it once more, together, after which Harry says they talked about their mother’s accident for the first time.
Following an investigation into Diana’s death, Harry described the final report as ‘an insult’ and ‘a shambles’ which he believed was inaccurate.
Prince Harry (centre) stands between his brother and father as the hearse carrying his mother’s coffin prepares to leave Westminster Abbey following her funeral service
In the memoir Harry claims his brother invoked their mother’s memory during an argument over his interview with Oprah.
The Duke wrote that William got heated as they spoke after the funeral of their grandfather Prince Philip in 2021.
Harry claims was trying to address bullying allegations made against Meghan, but his father and brother ‘weren’t listening.’
Prince William ‘lunged at Harry, grabbed his shirt and used shocking secret code phrase about Diana’ during row over Oprah Winfrey interview as the pair tried to hold peace talks in front of Charles moments after Prince Philip’s funeral
The California-based royal went on to allege that William was ‘really steaming’ and grasped at him as he tried to walk away.
‘I waved a hand, disgusted, but he lunged, grabbed my shirt. ‘Listen to me, Harold,” Harry wrote in his book, according to The Sun.
‘I pulled away, refused to meet his gaze. He forced me to look into his eyes. ‘Listen to me, Harold, listen! I love you, Harold! I want you to be happy.”
Harry claims he replied: ‘I love you too…but your stubbornness is extraordinary!’
The Duke reportedly tried to pull away, but William allegedly ‘grabbed him again’ and ‘twisted him’ so the pair could maintain eye contact.
William then evoked the brother’s so-called ‘secret code’ and swore on Princess Diana’s life that his intentions were genuine, Harry penned.
He writes that William said: ‘Harold, you must listen to me! I just want you to be happy, Harold. I swear I swear on Mummy’s life.’
Harry continued: ‘He stopped. I stopped. Pa stopped. He’d gone there.
‘He’d used the secret code, the universal password. Ever since we were boys those three words were to be used only in times of extreme crisis.’
The Duke claimed his brother ‘wasn’t quite ready to accept defeat’ and claimed to be ‘properly sick and ill’ over the tensions between the pair.
William allegedly reiterated: ‘I swear to you now on Mummy’s life that I just want you to be happy’.
Harry claims his ‘voice broke’ and he ‘softly’ told William: ‘I really don’t think you do.’
The elder brother then allegedly hugged Harry and said: ‘I love you’.
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