- Queen Elizabeth II did not immediately respond to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
- She chose to “sleep” her response after a plea was agreed upon, according to a new royal book.
- The book says that the courtiers had trouble responding due to various accusations made during the interview.
Queen Elizabeth II chose to “sleep” in her response to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, a new book claims.
According to “Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown,” by The Times of London’s royal correspondent, Valentine Low, staff had trouble crafting a response to the March 2021 interview after the couple made a wave of accusations against members of the British royal family.
The book was released in the UK on Thursday.
According to Valentine Low, royal staff worked to craft a response to Harry and Meghan’s accusations.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
“Less than a week after The Times story, courtiers faced another big challenge: how to deal with Oprah’s interview. The couple had made so many accusations, about racism, about safety, about Meghan’s mental health, that it was hard to know where to start,” Low wrote.
Low went on to say that allegations of racism within the British family remained a source of controversy.
“Private Secretaries and Communications Secretaries had lengthy discussions about how to deal with the problem, especially what one of them awkwardly called ‘the R word,'” Low wrote. “That came about due to comments allegedly made by a member of the royal family about the skin color of Harry and Meghan’s future baby,” she continued.
According to the author, the employees created an official statement around 2 pm the day after the interview premiered in the United States, but Buckingham Palace decided to remain silent.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made several explosive accusations against the British royal family in March 2021.
Images by Danny Lawson/PA via Getty Images
“And then, precisely, nothing happened. The palace was completely silent, because the Queen decided she wanted to sleep in it. She was not going to be rushed into saying anything rash,” Low wrote. “It was a reminder that while the courtiers may do all the preliminary work, the final decisions are made by the royal family.”
Low concluded that “at the age of ninety-four, the Queen was still in charge. The four-sentence statement was finally published just before 5:30 p.m. the next day.”
—Omid Scobie (@scobie) March 9, 2021
Buckingham Palace said in its official statement that “the whole family is saddened to learn how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.”
“The issues raised, particularly race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed privately by the family,” the statement continued.
In the bombshell interview, Harry and Meghan launched strong critics. The couple vindicated Markle was “silenced” by the royal family, and alleged that members of the royal family they discussed how dark their son’s skin would be before he was born. During the interview, Harry also stated that his family he never acknowledged the racist British tabloid coverage of Markle.
The interview too accentuated the divide between Prince William and Prince Harrywhat were they involved in a reported public fight,
After the interview, Prince William denied allegations of racism to British journalists and also confirmed that he had not spoken to his brother after the interview.