CBS recently aired Oprah’s return to televised interviews with the former Duchess Meghan Markle, who has been painted as a maniacal, mean woman manipulating Prince Harry, or at the very least a horrible gold digger. In this 2021 interview, Meghan Markle told her side of the story, including the shocking actions of the British Royal Family.

A former actress, Markle is best known for her run on the 2011 series, Suits. She also has pursued many philanthropic projects that led to her crossing paths with the Royal Family in 2016, befriending Princess Eugenie. As we all know, Markle would go on to fall in love, court, and marry Prince Harry. They were married in 2017 and welcomed a son – Archie – in 2019. The world watched with adoration and spite. The British tabloids were especially aggressive toward Markle in stark contrast to how other members of the Royal household were portrayed by the media. This became even more abundantly clear when Prince Andrew was exposed as an alleged serial child molester and, somehow, received less criticism than Meghan, who had openly enjoyed avocados on toast while pregnant. This is also tied to Meghan being a half black American woman. Pedophila has nothing on racism. 

Come 2020, Meghan and Harry publicly stepped back from their positions as senior household members of the Royal Family. Contrary to popular news outlets, Meghan and Harry said in the recent Oprah interview that this was a move to a reduced role, similar to that of currently existing roles among other Royal family members. Meghan and Harry only sat down with the talk show legend to give their tell-all interview after long discussions with the Royal Family and more fully severed ties than the couple had originally anticipated. 

Before berating the Royal Family too harshly, Meghan Markle made sure to ascertain that the Queen had participated in no way to the “bullying” that occured and that Her Majesty, and Prince Phillip, had been nothing but kind to her. I think this was a smart move in many ways, partially because the Queen is well loved and making her the villain of this story would make the story very hard for the public to handle. It’s like revealing that your doting old grammy is a huge racist. Meghan revealing this truth also narrowed down the number of suspects to Prince Charles, Harry’s father, or Prince William, his beloved brother. It doesn’t look too good for old Chuck. 

Meghan and Harry were lovely throughout the interview, never critiquing but merely sharing their experiences with the toxic tabloids of Great Britain and the lack of intervention from the Royal Family. They pointed out a situation between Meghan and Duchess Kate that was later twisted when it showed up in a tabloid six months later. Yes, people gossip, but six months after the incident and coincidentally the day before Meghan’s wedding to the then Prince Harry? And yes, after the interview it was revealed that all of Harry’s titles, including honorary military titles, and all of his family, Archie, Meghan, and their soon to be little daughter’s titles and inheritances had been revoked. 

The titles themselves did not really seem to matter to the couple. Harry said that his late mother, the beloved Princess Diana, would have been furious about that decision, but the couple needed to remove themselves from the limelight and this was the only way the Royal Family was willing to let them do so. In 2019, Meghan revealed that she began having serious suicidal thoughts while pregnant with Archie, as a result of the forced solitude due to the lavacious and unending tabloid articles, as well as the horrible lies those tabloids told. Some even featured interviews from her estranged father, who seems to have followed the money. With this public criticism, Harry was also pulled into conversations made by members of the Royal Family where they discussed possible consequences of Harry and Meghan’s unborn child’s skin tone. This revelation shocked Oprah, and very little shocks Oprah. This all culminated in the decision that Meghan and Harry would be stepping back. After they moved to Canada to fill their new roles, which they expected to be less but quite similar, the couple was informed that the couple and their baby son would no longer be receiving any protection from the Royal Crown. This occured before Harry’s titles were revoked. The Royal Family removed the protection for Prince Harry, grandson of the Queen, son of the future King, and brother of another Future King. This is the Monarchy of Great Britain. Their ancestors colonized half the world and this family is still the figurehead of all of Great Britain. This is as if Malia Obama lost a security team. They also removed protection for his newborn son and wife who had been recieving vile racial targeted death threats for the entirety of Meghan and Harry’s relationship. 

Tyler Perry (Go Tyler Perry!) offered the family refuge as COVID-19 shook the world. He offered free security and the couple moved countries for the safety he offered. At this point, Harry and Meghan had no money and a growing need to hire their own security and get on their own two feet. Their new jobs as podcast hosts, as well as working with Disney and Netflix, came out of necessity, as a way for the couple to afford the safety and luxury they were used to. Princess’ Diana’s money is the only reason they’ve lasted as long as they have, as the Princess had made sure to save for her son. 

The couple made comparisons to Diana’s life and death. Harry was acting out of fear that something like what happened to Diana might happen to Meghan. Meghan was reacting with the knowledge that history, as it tends to, was becoming very close to repeating itself. Luckily, now, the family is doing much better, at least according to Harry and Meghan. Prince Charles is even taking Harry’s calls again! That’s apparently a “good sign” about the man. Meghan and Harry have frequent and long phone calls with the Queen. They even Zoom Her Majesty and Prince Phillip so the great-grandparents can enjoy Archie all the way from Jolly Old England. 

This ordeal revealed not only a racist Royal Family, but also exposed the intense racial bias present in British media. Piers Morgan received one criticism after years of condemning Meghan and he quit his cushy morning talk show, only to join a more fringe conservative program where his tirades can continue uninterrupted. Meghan even covered the non-race based hatred that exists in a perceived competition between her and Kate. They can both be married to Princes and both be loved. They did the same job and they are both beautiful, lovely, charismatic women. Let them be and stop being racist. And once again, thank you Tyler Perry!