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- Prince Harry said it hurts that his family didn’t condemn tabloids’ racist coverage of Meghan Markle.
- Harry told Oprah that they sought help from the palace and asked them to “call the dogs off.”
- The Duke of Sussex has previously addressed the racial undertones in tabloid headlines and stories.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Prince Harry expressed his “hurt” over the lack of acknowledgment from his family about the racist treatment of Meghan Markle by British tabloids.
In a sit-down interview with Oprah that aired on CBS on Sunday night, the Duke of Sussex said that many newspaper headlines and stories about his wife had “colonial undertones” and that these were widely condemned by British Members of Parliament (MPs) in 2019.
“Yet no one from my family ever said anything over those three years. And that hurts,” Harry said.
Harry revealed to Oprah that they had asked the palace for help to use its existing relationship with the tabloids to “share some truth” and “call the dogs off,” yet they failed to support them.
The racist treatment of Markle spans the entire duration of her relationship with Harry. In 2016, when rumors of the couple’s courtship first surfaced, Harry addressed the “racial undertones” of media coverage after his then-girlfriend received a surge of abuse and harassment online.
The statement, issued by the Royal Communications Secretary in November 2016, read: "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."
Discriminatory past headlines included that LA-raised Markle is "(almost) straight outta Compton," and described her mother as "a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks."
Joining his wife and Oprah for the interview at a friend's home in Santa Barbra, Harry said that it had taken a very long time to become aware of unconscious bias but that his eyes were more open to microaggressions after spending time with Markle.
"The way that I saw it was there was a way of doing things, but 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," he said in the interview, which aired just hours after the royal family celebrated diversity with a special broadcast for Commonwealth Day.
Markle, who is biracial, went on the share intimate details of her experience as a woman of color in an otherwise white institution. She revealed that there had been "concerns and conversations" among the royal family about Archie's potential skin color while she was pregnant.
The couple said that many family members were welcoming to Markle, and Harry noted they had been "amazing throughout," especially the Queen. He did, however, say that they were restricted by the "invisible contract" that exists between the royal family and the tabloids.
"Well, to simplify it, it's a case of if you, as a family member, are willing to wine, dine, and give full access to these reporters, then you will get better press," Harry explained.
"There is a level of control by fear that has existed for generations," he added, nodding to the symbiotic nature of the relationship between royal reputation and favorable press coverage.
Among many topics Markle discussed in the interview, she touched on her mental health struggles and suicidal thoughts, and said that Kate Middleton made her cry the week of her wedding in a disagreement over a flower girl dress, though she soon apologized and sent her flowers.
Representatives for Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.