Prince Harry and Meghan’s explosive TV interview divided people around the world on Monday, with those living in Kenya and South Africa reacting in anger to Markle’s allegation that a member of the royal family had “concerns” about the colour of her unborn child’s skin.
During the two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry also revealed the problems had ruptured relations with his father, Prince Charles, and brother, Prince William, illuminating the depth of the family divisions that led the couple to step away from royal duties and move to California last year.
In Accra, Ghana, Devinia Cudjoe said that hearing that a member of the royal family was worried about the color of the skin of an unborn child was insulting to people of the Commonwealth, the grouping of Britain and its former colonies that is headed by the queen.
“That is pure racism,” Cudjoe said. “(The) Commonwealth is supposed to foster unity, oneness amongst black people, amongst white people. But if we are hearing things like this … I think that is below the belt.”
In Nairobi, Kenya resident Sylvia Wangari said: “We feel very angry seeing our fellow African sister being harassed because she is black.”
“When Queen Elizabeth was here and her father passed away while she was in Kenya, an African country, we did not show her any racism.”
In South Africa, Mohammed Groenewald, a community organiser who met the couple during their 2019 visit to Cape Town said: “If you look at British society, the level of Islamophobia, the level of racism, (…) I think British society needs to ask (itself) very, very serious questions both about their past and about their future,” he added.
The palace has not yet responded to the interview, in which Meghan described feeling so isolated and miserable inside the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts.
The family member was not Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip, according to Harry, sparking a flurry of speculation about who it could be.
