While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle turned on the royal family in their controversial Oprah interview, the then-monarch Queen Elizabeth II battled a more important internal crisis. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dealt the royal family one of the earliest blows with their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, spotlighting claims of racism within the family. While the implication of their unhinged allegations cast the institution in a bad light, Queen Elizabeth II bore it all gracefully, never publicly casting a stone at her “petulant” grandson or his wife, Meghan.
In his new book, Catherine, The Princess of Wales, royal author Robert Johnson touched on the Queen’s reaction to the racist allegations and how she handled the incident. According to him the timing of the infamous Oprah interview coincided with one of Prince Philip’s hospitalization in the months leading to his death.
At the time, the late Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital as a precautionary measure, per the royal author. Hence, the late monarch concerned herself more with her husband’s health, rather than dwell on her grandson’s affairs. He wrote,
“The Queen, however, had more important concerns than her petulant grandson and his wife.”
Despite the lack of public interference from the Late Queen Elizabeth II, the impact of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview continues to reverberate years later. During the explosive sit-down with Oprah, the Sussexes revealed that some members of the royal family were concerned about the skin color of Meghan and Harry’s baby while the Duchess was pregnant with their first issue.
While the duo refrained from namedropping the implied “royal racists,” the original Dutch version of Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame, published in November 2023, reportedly implicated two senior royals, per BBC. Rising above the scandal, the royal family has continued to thrive, avoiding potential conflicts with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, while dealing with prevailing health woes.
