Queen Elizabeth II responds to Prince Harry, Meghan interview with Oprah Winfrey
Queen Elizabeth issued a statement Tuesday in response to Prince Harry and Meghan's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, making it clear any fallout from the interview will be handled privately. “Harry, Meghan, and Archie will always be much-loved family members," the statement read, referring to Harry and Meghan's nearly 2-year-old son, Archie, a great-grandson of the Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their second child, appeared to take great pains in their interview with Winfrey to praise the queen, even as they revealed Meghan's serious mental health struggles as a royal, made allegations of racism within the royal family and claimed they were cut off financially and denied security protection.
After claiming that conversations were had with Harry ahead of Archie's birth about "how dark" his skin might be, Harry later made clear to Winfrey that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were not involved in the alleged conversations about Archie's race"The Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me," the duchess said. "I mean, we had one of our first joint engagements together. She asked me to join there.” I just really loved being in her company," said Meghan, who added the queen gave her pearl earrings and a matching necklace for their June 2018 joint engagement. "And I remember we were in the car ... going between engagements, and she has a blanket that sits across her knees for warmth, and it was chilly and she was like, 'Meghan, come on,' and put it over my knees as well."
"It made me think of my grandmother, where she's always been warm and inviting and really welcoming," Meghan said Harry told Winfrey of his current relationship with the queen, "I've spoken more to my grandmother in the last year than I have done for many, many years. My grandmother and I have a really good relationship and an understanding, and I have a deep respect for her," he said. "She's my commander-in-chief, right? She always will be.” Despite their praise for the 94-year-old queen, Harry and Meghan in the interview painted a portrait of the royal institution as an environment that left them no choice but to step down last year as senior, working members of the royal family. Harry, sixth in line to the throne, described the situation as "toxic" and said a "lack of support" and "lack of understanding" led to his and Meghan's rocky departure from their royal roles. He also described his father, Prince Charles, and brother, Prince William, first and second in line to the throne, respectively, as "trapped" within the system.
"My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don't get to leave," Harry said. "And I have huge compassion for that."
One potential conflict still faced by Buckingham Palace in the interview's fallout is the palace's announcement last week that it plans to open an investigation into allegations of bullying made against Meghan by former staff members. Meghan told Winfrey that she reported her serious mental health struggles to the palace's human resources department and was denied help.
"I went to human resources, and I said, 'I just really, I need help,' because in my old job there was a union, and they would protect me," Meghan, a former actress, told Winfrey. "And I remember this conversation like it was yesterday because they said, 'My heart goes out to you because I see how bad it is, but there's nothing we can do to protect you because you're not a paid employee of the institution. ‘How can it be that the system can’t help someone who is the wife of a senior royal, but it could help someone if [they were] a paid employee of the palace?" Ship said Tuesday on "Good Morning America." "None of it makes sense. That’s why the palace has got to sort of look at its inner workings and decide what went wrong. The queen's statement on Tuesday was the first official comment from a member of the royal family about the interview.
Harry and Meghan have not commented on the queen's statement. Gone are the titles that traditionally grace a royal statement, in respect of the new life chosen by Meghan and Harry, said Bruce. "The damaging claim over race is acknowledged and the implication is that this will be addressed 'privately' within the family."The conclusion is one of love," Bruce added. "Love is the principal Christian virtue by which the queen enfolds her family, in the full awareness that public service to the U.K. and the Commonwealth is not easy. In that love is always the promise - and hope - of forgiveness. The queen has offered balm here.”
"If we were going to use the word betrayal, it's because when I asked him when we were told by the [communications] team, this is a story that was going to be coming out, which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a really key point in all this," she said, adding that tabloids "create the news." "We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said, 'No, absolutely not.'" I think life is about being able to share our stories and share parts of our lives that you're comfortable with," she said. "There's no one who's on Instagram or social media that would say, 'Because I shared this one picture, that entitles you to have my entire camera roll. Go ahead, look through it.' No one would want that, so it's about boundaries and it's about respect."
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