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Buckingham Palace will deal with Meghan Markle issues privately

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Updated on June 23, 2021

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The royal family will handle the accusations of racism made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle earlier this week privately, according to Buckingham Palace.

The Palace said in a statement that “recollections may vary,” which might be comments about Archie’s skin color, or the fact that the couple thought procedure would be altered to deprive their son the automatic title of prince when Charles takes the throne.

The Palace issued a statement a day and a half after the interview was originally aired in the United States, saying:

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,”

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

Oprah Winfrey’s interview, which aired Sunday night in the United States and a day later in the United Kingdom, has split people all over the globe. While many have praised Harry and Meghan for dropping their bombshell while Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized in London following a heart procedure, others have chastised them for doing so.

According to a royal insider, the family waited until the interview aired in the United Kingdom before responding to enable UK people to see it first.

The accusations by the pair, especially about race and mental health problems, prompted demands for a palace inquiry. According to the palace statement, the Queen believes that a private engagement with the couple is the best way ahead.

The remarks were not made by the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Harry subsequently explained to Oprah.

The palace’s short statement, according to Anna Whitelock, a history professor and head of the Centre for the Study of Modern Monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, was an attempt to calm the issue.

“It’s not very long, but it’s very precise and it has a clear intent — and that is to close this down as a family matter; to make clear that this is clearly a family in crisis, that there’s family issues to sort out, but to separate this very clearly from any criticism or discussion about the institution of monarchy itself,” she told The Associated Press. “And I think time will tell whether that’s a distinction that the public will accept.”

During the interview, Harry and Meghan cited a lack of support, as well as the royal institution’s refusal to grant their son Archie a title, which would have made him eligible for security, as reasons for their decision to leave the UK.

Meghan reportedly felt so lonely and unhappy inside the royal family that she considered suicide, but when she sought mental health treatment from the palace’s human resources department, she was informed she couldn’t since she wasn’t a paid employee.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has seen the interview, according to Downing Street, but his official spokesperson has refused to comment on the Palace’s statement.