Meghan Markle Says Royal Family Had ‘Concerns’ About Baby Archie’s Skin Color in Oprah Interview

Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey there were “concerns and conversations” among the Royal Family about “how dark” her and Prince Harry‘s son Archie’s skin color would be before he was born in May. The Duchess of Sussex, 39, made the revelation during Winfrey’s Sunday night interview with Markle and Harry.

Markle said it was not her and Harry’s decision, but that Archie was not granted a royal title or royal protection. “They didn’t want him to be a prince . . . which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” Markle explained. While conversations about Archie’s title and security were going on, there were “also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born,” Markle said. Winfrey was astonished by this statement and asked Markle to clarify who the conversation came from. The former Suits star declined to do so because she said the revelation could be too damaging to the royal family.

During the second part of the interview, when Harry joined them, Winfrey brought up the topic again. Like Markle, Harry also refused to go into details. “I”m not comfortable with sharing that,” he said. “But it was right at the beginning. What will the kids look like? That was the beginning when she wasn’t going to get security, when my family suggested that she might continue acting.” Monday morning, Oprah revealed that Harry told her that neither Queen Elizabeth II nor Prince Philip made comments about Archie’s skin color.

When Markle and Harry married in May 2018, his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, gave them the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Archie was originally going to be the Earl of Dumbarton. However, after Archie was born in May 2019, Marke and Harry said he would not get that title. Instead, Archie will be known only as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. Under current royal guidelines, only the children of Prince William, who is second in line to the British throne, are entitled to the title Prince or Princess. However, when or if Prince Charles becomes king, Archie could be entitled to the title Prince because he would be the grandchild of the King.

Later in the interview with Winfrey, Harry said he did not fully understand the challenges Markle faced as a woman of color until they married. “I’ve spent many years doing the work and doing my own learning. But then my upbringing and the system, in which I was brought up in, and what I’ve been exposed to, I wasn’t aware of it to start with. But my god, it doesn’t take very long to suddenly become aware of it,” he explained.

“It takes living in her shoes, in this instance, for a day or those first eight days to see where it was going to go and how far they were going to take it, and get away with it,” he noted. Harry also said it “hurt” to see members of Parliament support Markle against racism in the press but his own family did not publicly show support.