There is no doubt that the claims made in the interview are extraordinarily serious. Meghan says she had suicidal thoughts during her time as a member of the family and a senior royal had racist conversations about the color of her baby’s skin.
Harry spoke of a lack of support and understanding of the toll royal life took on the couple’s mental health, adding that the attacks they suffered in the media could have come from ‘within the institution’.
The version of the events uncovered in the interview paints a picture of an outdated institution that, due to lack of flexibility, was unable to accommodate people facing challenges that are perfectly normal for 21st century public figures. Considering the 2018 claims that the union of these two people represented a huge step forward in the modernization of the most famous family on Earth, this is a tragedy, observers say.
“Harry and Meghan were superstars who could have been so positive for the family in modernizing,” said Kate Williams, a leading royal historian and professor of public involvement in history at the University of Reading. “The fact that it is clear from the interview that they felt they had no choice but to leave because the family did not support them because of racial abuse and obvious mental health concerns is deeply troubling.”
This story will no doubt be a feature of much of the post-interview commentary – and should be a real concern for Harry’s relatives in the UK. While there is tremendous public support for Queen Elizabeth and the monarchy she currently heads, the question of what comes after her in a modern Britain has yet to really be explored in detail.
“In general, support for the monarchy and support for the queen are linked,” said Joe Twyman, director of public opinion consultancy Deltapoll. However, he points out, unlike many other members of the family, the Queen is quiet and rarely expresses her opinion on anything.
It is possible that many conservative, traditionalist monarchists will not be so happy with Charles taking the throne. The Prince of Wales has spoken extensively publicly on environmental issues and climate change, and it is far from certain that supporters of his mother will pass on their affection with closed lips.
What could be even more of a concern for the family, especially in light of this interview, is what younger generations think of the monarchy.
“Among younger people, support for Meghan is about the same as support for the much more traditional Kate, compared to older Britons who don’t like Meghan very much,” explains Twyman. While we don’t know if this is an age or cohort thing and these people are getting more conservative as they age, it is entirely possible that the generation that thinks royals should keep a stiff upper lip and not talk about business “Like women’s. Rights and sanity will die out. To people of a certain generation, the idea of bowing to your grandmother every time you see her just because she’s the queen seems insane.”
That concerns had been raised, the couple said, about the color of their baby’s skin before he was born could have consequences beyond a PR disaster for the royals. The British monarch is currently head of state of many Commonwealth countries, a diplomatic coup for the UK.
“We know some members of the Commonwealth are planning the [British] monarch as head of state once Elizabeth is gone, “Williams said. In many Commonwealth countries, Britain’s colonial past is already a difficult pill to swallow.
Meghan addressed this directly in the interview, describing how she thought her and Harry’s baby would provide an “extra benefit” to people in the Commonwealth. “How inclusive is it that you can see someone in this family who looks like you,” she said.
CNN has contacted the Royal Family for comment.
To others, the fact that Meghan’s race was such a prominent topic when she joined the royal family is a sign that claims of a modernizing monarchy were wishful thinking at best.
“Personally I think it’s actually a good thing because it goes to show that all the noise around the wedding, which was a great moment for the Royal Family to become more inclusive, was totally untrue,” said Kehinde Andrews, professor of Black Studies at City University, Birmingham. . “It unmistakably shows the way racism exists in British society and how closed an institution is to the royal family. Keeping silent and maintaining image is more important than actually doing something that matters.”
If the royal family wants to take this further, they will have to go through a period of reflection and take the claims of their next of kin seriously. If the institution wants to avoid looking irrelevant in a diverse and modern Britain, then it should think back to the claims about welcoming Meghan in 2018.
What’s important now is that they are not putting aside the half-in, half-out idea that Harry and Meghan initially proposed. In 2021, are we really saying that more underage Royals can only be backups for William and Kate? And the courtiers can’t see that a family like the Sussexes is something positive in the eyes of the public, then it has a big problem, ”said Williams.
From a PR perspective, this interview is devastating for ‘The Firm’, as the Royal Family is often called. While we haven’t heard the other side of the story yet, it’s horrifying that two high-profile royals were willing to say on the record that they felt so under-supported that one of them considered killing himself.
Royalist supporters already dismiss the couple’s claims as acting. While this could go down well with a very specific group of people in Britain, there is no escaping what a devastating moment this is for an institution whose future is far from certain when the current head is gone.