Amid all the headlines from the Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle came one stunner: Even the Queen is controlled by “The Firm.”
Harry, the Duke of Sussex, claimed that top handlers prevented him from speaking with Queen Elizabeth II about his decision to quit the role of a senior royal, which he first revealed in December 2019.
“The contents of that was put into a letter to the institution, to my father,” Prince Charles, Harry told Oprah in a new clip that aired on “CBS This Morning.”
Harry said the Queen then got in touch with him. “My grandmother said, ‘The moment you land, come up to talk to Sandringham, I’d love to have a chat,'” he said.
She told him, “Come for tea, and why don’t you stay for dinner because it’s going to be a long drive and you’re going to be exhausted,” he said. And he told the queen, “I’d love that!”
But that meeting never happened. Harry’s own personal secretary and handlers for the Queen allegedly told him not to visit his grandmother, saying the queen was “busy all week.”
The prince said he “rang her that night” and she told him that she was suddenly unable to meet.
“I didn’t want to push because I kind of knew what was going on,” Harry said, adding that he knew the Queen was under orders from what he called “CEOs” not to meet with him.
“Doesn’t the Queen get to do what the Queen wants to do,” Winfrey asked.
“No,” Harry said. “When you’re head of The Firm, there [are] people around you that give you advice,” he said, “and some of that advice has been really bad.”
In January 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan announced plans to step back as senior members of the Royal family. In this exclusive clip, they tell @Oprah they were then invited to spend time with his grandmother, the Queen, but the plans abruptly changed citing she's "busy all week." pic.twitter.com/dLhq0SAgfN
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 8, 2021
In the interview, Markle made the explosive charge that someone inside the royal family had told her husband while she was pregnant with their son Archie that they were concerned about how dark the skin of the child would be.
Markle claimed that contrary to reports in the press that she and Harry had chosen for their son not to be given a royal title, others had made the decision for them. She told Winfrey, “It was not our decision to make,” Oprah Magazine reported.
The exchange was preceded by Markle claiming that when she was pregnant with Archie, she was told that Archie wouldn’t be given a title and that he wouldn’t have the same security he would have had with a title. Winfrey asked, “How did they explain to you that your son, the great-grandson of the Queen, wasn’t going to be a prince? You certainly must have had some conversations with Harry about it and had your own suspicions as to why they didn’t want to make Archie a prince. Why do you think that is?”
In the exchange revolving around Markle’s charge, Winfrey asked, “What are those thoughts? Why do you think that is? Do you think it was because of his race? And I know that’s a loaded question, but —”
“I can give you an honest answer,” said Markle. “In those months when I was pregnant, all around the same time, so we had in tandem the conversation of, ;’He won’t be given security, he’s not gonna be given a title,’ and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Related: Markle Tells Oprah: Royal Family Expressed ‘Concerns’ About Skin Color Of Her Son