A new book alleges that the future king of England is the one who made the racist comment about Archie, the son of Harry and Meghan Markle.
In March, when the Duchess of Sussex dropped the bombshell that there were "concerns and talks about" their unborn child's skin tone, she and Harry refused to reveal who it was because it would be "so damaging" to that person. But Christopher Andersen, author of "Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan," revealed the best-kept secret of the British royal family.
The journalist affirms that it would have been Harry's own father and Meghan's father-in-law who made the comment and, for this affirmation, the author assures that a well-qualified source within Buckingham gave him the information firsthand.
As Andersen explains, the concern about the skin color of his grandson came to him on a specific day: November 27, 2017, the morning the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their engagement. Apparently, he did not tell the couple directly.
Prince Charles would have asked her wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, how she thought her children would turn out, and she replied: "Beautiful, of course." However, the future grandfather insisted by making a small clarification: "I mean how do you think they will be... complexion". The book does not make it clear how this comment reached the ears of the Dukes of Sussex if it was by one of those involved or through a rumor that spread in the palace.
The heir to the throne did not take long to speak out through a spokesman who emphatically denied this version to the American media outlet New York Post, assuring that what is told in those pages is "fiction" and, therefore, "nothing else is worth saying."
The statement in Andersen's book is in line with what Harry and Meghan themselves had recounted in their shocking interview last March with Oprah Winfrey. Before the cameras, the couple said that a "high member of royalty" had made that comment, although they never said who it was.
In that interview, Markle said there were "concerns and conversations about how dark his son Archie's skin would be when he was born." “Those were conversations that the royal family had with Harry,” the Duchess of Sussex said then.
Harry, who refused to give the identity of the person who made the comment, may change his mind about protecting his family and reveal in his next memoir who made the allegedly racist comment. "While it would still be Harry's word against Charles', it would be pretty damning," a source told Star magazine. "Sadly, the worst may be yet to come for the royal family."
Andersen assures in his book that the Prince of Wales's question would have been said in a tone of mere curiosity, but that it was used and distorted to give it a racist twist by the "intrigue-generating courtiers" of the House of Windsor. He notes in his book that by the time Carlos's version of the question reached Harry and Meghan's ears it had already reached "highly toxic proportions."
The journalist maintains that a grandfather's musings were "turned into something really much more toxic by the palace courtiers who have their own agenda", and when Harry heard the comment he misinterpreted it.
However, the author still acknowledges that Meghan, 40, and Harry, 37, have been the targets of hate. “There is racism within the royal machine, as there is within the aristocracy and in Britain as a whole, and in the British press,” she said, noting that Meghan, who moved to California with Harry in 2020, “was treated abysmally” in the British media.
"He has spent his entire life waiting to take the throne, and the accusations of racism may have jeopardized his future as king," Anderson opined.
Queen Elizabeth II was deeply saddened when the racism scandal broke, even though Harry made a point of saying that she and her late husband, Prince Philip, had nothing to do with it.
"Obviously, he went to work doing damage control and questioned all the family members, or tried to," Andersen tells In Touch. Two days after the interview, Queen Elizabeth issued a statement in which she said she was sorry for what happened but that "memories may vary", slipping that the conversation about Archie's skin color could have been misconstrued.
Andersen feels sorry for the 95-year-old matriarch, who has dealt with numerous health issues since Harry and Meghan's interview on CBS in March. “The whole bag of problems he has been dealt is too heavy a burden to bear,” she said, referring not only to Charles' latest scandal, but also the abuse allegation against Prince Andrew, Harry and Meghan's controversial departure from royal life, and much more. “She is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee. She's still on her feet and all she's got is chaos."
The Sussexes and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, currently live in their $14 million mansion in Montecito, California. They stepped away from their royal duties in March of last year.
The disputes between Harry and William date back to 2017, when the latter urged his younger sister to take time from him before marrying Meghan. And according to the authors of "Finding Freedom," the unauthorized biography of the Sussexes' march, the future king was wary of Meghan from the start, an attitude that bothered Harry.
