A new book claims Prince Charles privately discussed with his wife the likely “complexion” of any children of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The potentially devastating accusation appears in the latest book by the New York Times best-selling author Christopher Andersen. But the author stops short of directly alleging that Charles is the royal racist who expressed “concerns” to Prince Harry over the skin color of the couple’s children, as Meghan Markle told Oprah in a bombshell interview.
However, Andersen’s new book, Brothers And Wives: Inside The Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan (Gallery), out Nov. 30, says that on Nov. 27, 2017, the day Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement was revealed, Prince Charles asked his wife, Camila, “I wonder what the children look like?”
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A “somewhat taken-aback” Camila apparently replied, “Well, absolutely gorgeous, I’m certain.”
Charles allegedly lowered his voice and asked: “I mean, what do you think their children’s complexion might be?”
The allegations recall the bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, in which Meghan said that a member of the royal family had expressed to Harry “concerns” “about how dark [Archie’s] skin might be when he was born.”
When Harry was asked about the incident by Oprah, a major discrepancy emerged: Meghan said the remarks were made when she was pregnant while Harry said they happened several years earlier, when they were first together. Oprah, who was a guest at their wedding, did not interrogate the difference in their accounts.
Andersen writes that when news of Charles’ comment to Camilla leaked among staff, “the question posed by Charles was echoed in a less innocent way throughout the halls of Buckingham Palace.”
Page Six, which reported on the book’s claims, says, “The author presents it as if the curiosity of Charles was seized upon and twisted by scheming courtiers to give it a racist spin. By the time the repackaged account reached the ears of Harry and Meghan, it had reached peak toxicity.”
So while it seems unlikely the new revelation will lead to the definitive unmasking of the royal racist, there was certainly significant speculation at the time of the interview that Harry—who vowed to take the secret of the person's identity to his grave—may have had Charles in mind when he said that a member of the family had asked him a question along the lines of, “What will the kids look like?”
Meghan was the first to make the allegation when she was discussing what she claims was a discriminatory effort to not make her unborn son Archie a prince.
Meghan said, “In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time—so we have in tandem the conversation of ‘He won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title,’—and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
A stunned Oprah sought clarification and Meghan replied, “There were, there were several conversations about it,” which took place “with Harry” who relayed the content of them to her.
Asked why she would not identify the person, Meghan said, “I think that would be very damaging to them,” but added, “That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations that the family had with him.”
Harry, when asked about the alleged question, said it was a “conversation I’m never going to share,” but when Oprah suggested he was asked, “Like, what will the baby look like?” he said: “Yeah, what will the kids look like?”
Harry then said: “That was right at the beginning, when she wasn’t going to get security, when members of my family were suggesting that she carries on acting, because there was not enough money to pay for her, and all this sort of stuff.”
Given his previous history of racist comments, suspicion swiftly fell on the late Prince Philip, Harry’s grandfather, who died a few weeks later. But Harry authorized Oprah to tell viewers on CBS, that “it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather that were a part of those conversations.”
Harry’s very clearly vocalized anger at his father in the interview made clear that his relationship with Charles was deeply damaged.
Harry said his father “stopped taking my calls,”and later told Oprah: “There’s a lot to work through there, you know? I feel really let down, because he’s been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like, and this is—and Archie’s his grandson. But, at the same time, you know, of course I will always, I will always love him, but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened. And I will continue to, to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship. But they only know what they know, and that’s the thing… I’ve tried to educate them through the process that I have been educated.”
Any allegations that Charles asked racist questions about the Sussexes children’s skin color could be extremely damaging and if proven true as Charles has struggled to win the affection of his future subjects. Polls consistently suggest the British people want the crown to pass directly to William.
Andersen told The Daily Beast he was unable to comment prior to the book’s publication next week.
Read it at Page Six
