Queen and Prince Philip weren’t behind racist comments about Archie’s skin colour

Prince Harry told Oprah Winfrey that the family member who made racist comments about his unborn child was not the Queen or Prince Philip.

The US chat show host said although Harry would not name the person who made the remarks, he confirmed to her and wanted to make it known, that it was not his ‘grandmother or grandfather’.

During the couple’s interview with Oprah, which aired in the US last night, Meghan said there were ‘concerns’ and ‘conversations’ about how dark Archie’s skin would be when he was born.

Oprah told CBS This Morning: ‘He [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.

‘He did not tell me who was a part of those conversations.’

During the interview, Meghan told Oprah: ‘In those months when I was pregnant, we had in tandem the conversations of him not being given security or a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.’

The chat show host said: ‘So there’s a conversation with you…’, to which Meghan replied ‘with Harry’.

‘About how dark your baby is going to be?’ Oprah continued.

Meghan responded: ‘Potentially, and what that would mean or would look like.’

The duchess would not reveal the person’s name, adding: ‘I think that would be very damaging to them’.

CBS This Morning revealed unaired clips from the interview, including Prince Harry explaining that racism was a ‘large part’ of why he and his wife left the UK.

Harry said the ‘relationship and that control and the fear by the UK tabloids’ creates a ‘toxic environment’.

He said while his wife was facing racist comments, he was warned by a person who is ‘friends with a lot of editors’ not to ‘do this with the media’ because ‘they will destroy your life’.

The duke asked the person to ‘elaborate’ on what they meant, to which Harry said they replied: ‘You have to understand, the UK is very bigoted.’

Harry had told the source he believed it was not the UK that was bigoted but the media. He told Oprah: ‘But unfortunately, if the source of the information is inherently corrupt or racist or biased, then that filters out to the rest of society.’

Oprah also told the programme that when Meghan first joined the royals, she was ‘given advice’ that it would be better ‘if she could be 50% less than she was’.

Harry also criticised the Queen’s advisers, after claiming that a lunch date he had scheduled with his grandmother was abruptly cancelled while talks were ongoing about how he and Meghan would step back from working royal life.

Explaining the incident, which took place early last January, Harry told Oprah how a meeting had been pencilled in for January 8, after he and Meghan had arrived home from a Christmas trip to Canada.

Harry continued: ‘To then get back on the 6th after my grandmother had said, “When you land, come up to (the Queen’s country residence) Sandringham, we’d love to have a chat.”

‘The moment we landed in the UK, I got a message from my private secretary, cutting and pasting: “Please pass on to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that he can cannot come up to Norfolk. The Queen is busy all week.”‘

He added: ‘When you’re head of the firm there are people around you that give advice.

‘And what makes me sad is that some of that advice has been really bad.’

When asked why the Queen could not dictate who she sees and when she sees them, Oprah told CBS: ‘I took away from that there are – as Harry just indicated – there are people surrounding the family, who are advisers to the family, who have been there for a long time.

‘And that is a part of the hierarchal structure and those people have a lot of influence and input.’

Oprah revealed the chat had to be cut down from three hours and 20 minutes to two hours, but was ‘pleased’ they were able to ‘maintain the integrity of the interview’.

She promised at the end of the aired programme that ‘this conversation doesn’t end here’ and there was ‘so much more that we couldn’t fit into this special’.

When questioned on why she thinks Harry and Meghan agreed to the interview, Oprah said: ‘I think they agreed to do it, wanted to do it, were ready to do it, because when you have been lied about for a series of years – I think anybody can understand this, if in your own office or your own family people are saying things about you that are not true and how hurtful that is.

‘Or if you’re online and you read the comments online and you see those comments, how hurtful that is, imagine that for a period of months and years and you know that isn’t true.’