The royal family has deleted a statement on behalf of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that allegedly made King Charles ‘furious’.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stood down as senior royals in 2020 – leaving the UK behind to start afresh in the US.
However, the couple haven’t been able to stay out of the headlines for long since then.
In recent weeks, it’s been alleged that Prince Harry has been ‘snubbed‘ by his father and Markle was reportedly left ‘in tears’ over the brutal reaction to her new business.
Meanwhile, their fans have suggested that the royals ‘disrespected’ their son Archie during his birthday celebrations.
And now, there has been another new development in Prince Harry and Markle’s relationship with the royals.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle claimed there had been ‘several conversations’ within the royal family about ‘how dark’ their baby would be. Credit: CBS
The rift between the family became clear in 2021 when the duke and duchess had their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
During their chat with the TV personality, the couple – who were at this point expecting their second child – alleged there’d been ‘several conversations’ within the royal family about ‘how dark’ their baby would be.
Markle claimed the conversations were relayed to her by Prince Harry.
“That conversation, I am never going to share,” he said. “At the time it was awkward, I was a bit shocked.”
At a later date, Winfrey would appear on CBS News and say: “He [Prince Harry] did not share the identity with me but he wanted to make sure I knew, and if I had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother or grandfather that were part of those conversations.”
To this day, the duke and duchess have refused to disclose which royal said it.
Elsewhere in the interview, Prince Harry said it hurt him that his family had never spoken out about the ‘colonial undertones’ of news headlines and articles.
He said: “For us, for this union and the specifics around her race, there was an opportunity – many opportunities – for my family to show some public support.
“And I guess one of the most telling parts and the saddest parts, I guess, was over 70 female members of Parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Meghan. Yet no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts.”
He also told Winfrey that the UK media is ‘bigoted’ and ‘creates a toxic environment’ of ‘control and fear’, per the BBC.
Before this, in November 2016, Prince Harry issued a statement against the press, slamming certain news outlets for the ‘racial undertones of comment pieces’.
It was reportedly released by former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf, days after the duke’s relationship with Markle became public.
The statement came following an article from The Mail on Sunday which read: “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed – so will he be dropping by for tea?”
Kensington Palace released the statement ‘on behalf of the Communications Secretary to Prince Harry’.
It read: “The past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment.
“Some of this has been very public – the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.
“Some of it has been hidden from the public—the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life.
“Prince Harry is worried about Ms Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms Markle should be subjected to such a storm.
“He knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game.’ He strongly disagrees. This is not a game – it is her life and his.”
Prince Harry claimed in his 2023 memoir ‘Spare’ that the statement left King Charles and his older brother Prince William ‘furious’ as it made the pair look bad for not defending their spouses in the same way.
Newsweek now reports that the link to the statement no longer works.
The outlet says the internet archive site Wayback Machine recorded a successful version of it on December 3, 2023. A later attempt, on December 10, was unsuccessful. This suggests it was removed sometime between these dates.
It is unclear what triggered the removal of the statement.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Prince Harry and Markle’s profiles on the royal.uk site were compressed.
