Meghan Markle’s team debunked a report that letters she exchanged with King Charles III in 2021 had something to do with her not attending her father-in-law’s coronation on May 6. The letters were allegedly sent after Oprah Winfrey’s 2021 interview with Prince Harry and Markle, in which they claimed a member of the royal family wondered what color their son’s skin would be. The Duchess of Sussex’s representatives called the idea that these letters had anything to do with her decision not to attend the coronation “ridiculous.”
“The Duchess of Sussex is going about her life in the present, not thinking about correspondence from two years ago related to conversations from four years ago,” the statement, shared by royal author Omid Scobie on Twitter Sunday, reads. “Any suggestion otherwise is false and frankly ridiculous. We encourage tabloid media and various royal correspondents to stop the exhausting circus that they alone are creating.”
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After Markle’s interview with Winfrey aired, the then-Prince Charles sent a letter to the former actress, sources told The Telegraph in a report published Friday. He was “disappointed” that Harry and Markle chose to make “damaging” allegations about the royal family in a high-profile manner. Markle responded, allegedly thanking Charles. She also suggested “she had never intended to specifically accuse the individual involved of being a racist but was raising concerns about unconscious bias,” according to The Telegraph.
The letters allegedly revealed the identity of the royal family member who questioned Archie’s skin color. Charles and Markle both “acknowledged” that the person’s remarks weren’t made “with malice.” Although Harry told Winfrey that Queen Elizabeth II and his grandfather, Prince Philip, did not make the joke about their son’s skin color, the identity of the person has not been publicly revealed. (There was a claim in July 2022 that Queen Camilla made the joke Harry and Meghan were referring to.)
While Prince Harry will return to the U.K. for his father’s coronation on May 6, Markle will be staying in California with their children. The event was coincidentally scheduled on the same day as Archie’s fourth birthday. Sources told The Telegraph that royal sources “never expected” her to attend because of her private letters with Charles.
A source also told RadarOnline earlier this month Markle chose not to attend because she didn’t want to take attention away from the U.K.’s first coronation in over 70 years. “Meghan doesn’t want any more rifts,” the source explained. “She wants her children to know their grandfather, Charles, particularly when they are not going to know their other grandfather.” Markle allegedly hopes her decision not to attend “will be seen as an unselfish one,” adding that “it was best to keep the attention on His Majesty.”
