Prince Charles stays silent on Harry and Meghan in his first appearance since bombshell broadcast
London (CNN)Prince Charles has appeared in public for the first time since Harry and Meghan's seismic interview with Oprah Winfrey, and ignored a question on the furore surrounding the British royal family.
Buckingham Palace is under mounting pressure to respond to a series of damning accusations
from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their first sit-down since
stepping back from the monarchy and moving to the US last year.
Some of the claims -- including allegations of racism and Meghan's admission that she felt suicidal during her first pregnancy -- have the potential to deeply impact the royal family's reputation and have left a cloud of suspicion over some of its members.
Yet
the interview, first broadcast in the US on Sunday, is still being met
with a wall of silence from the palace as Charles carried out his public
duties as scheduled on Tuesday.
"Sir,
what did you think of the interview?" an off-camera journalist asked
Harry's father and the heir to the British throne, as he visited a
Covid-19 vaccination center in London. Charles did not respond.
Prince Charles visits a Covid-19 vaccine clinic in London on Tuesday.
With
the Prince wearing a face mask and filmed from a distance, it was
difficult to make out much of what he said during the short visit.
Charles
drew laughs from people at the center with what sounded like a comment
about his age, but did not appear to make any comment about Meghan's
accusations of racism or Harry's allegation of an estrangement with his
father.
One
of the biggest bombshells in the interview came from the Duchess, who
revealed an unnamed member of the family had approached Harry to discuss the color of the couple's unborn baby's skin. Winfrey said Monday
that the Duke later clarified that neither of his grandparents, Queen
Elizabeth or Prince Philip, had been part of those conversations.
In
the two-hour blockbuster screened in the UK on Monday night, the couple
touched upon a string of issues including racism, mental health, royal
family dynamics and lack of institutional support.
The
couple cited a lack of support over invasive press coverage and the
royal institution's decision to deny their son Archie a title -- and
with it his eligibility for protection -- as the basis for their
decision to relocate from the UK.
Harry
meanwhile said his father stopped taking his calls shortly after the
couple announced they were stepping back from the royal family last
January. He added that he felt "really let down, because he's been
through something similar -- he knows what pain feels like." However,
the Duke added that despite the hurt, repairing the relationship in time
will be "one of my priorities."
Harry
also revealed his connection with his brother, Prince William, had
taken a hit, saying the "relationship is space at the moment," implying
the pair weren't on speaking terms but again hoped time would heal the
wounds. He explained to Winfrey that he and William "had been through hell together" but that they were "on different paths."
Prince
Charles' appearance at the London vaccination center shows the royals
are not changing their schedules in the wake of the interview, CNN Royal
Correspondent Max Foster said.
'I just didn't want to be alive anymore'
The palace faced storms on multiple fronts by sunrise in London on Monday.
The
interview had been relentlessly previewed in the media over recent
days, drawing comparisons with a royal tell-all given by Harry's mother,
Princess Diana, in 1995, which shed light on the breakdown of her marriage to Charles.
But
the revelations in Sunday's broadcast may have dwarfed even those in
magnitude, as Harry and Meghan's scorched-earth confessional posed
problem after problem for palace staffers and senior royals.
Perhaps
the most pertinent was Meghan's allegation that an unnamed family
member had asked about Archie's skin color and "what that would mean or
look like." She said those discussions were relayed to her from Harry.
Harry
declined to name the family member but said he was "a bit shocked" by
the conversation. Winfrey said on CBS on Monday morning that "it was not
his grandmother nor his grandfather that were part of those
conversations." In Britain, the shadow education secretary, Kate Green,
said Buckingham Palace should launch an investigation.
Palace
officials are also scrambling to respond to claims from both the Duke
and Duchess that their pleas for help with their mental wellbeing and
security were ignored by the institution.
Fighting
back tears at one point, Meghan said her thoughts of suicide were
incredibly difficult to bear, and she was reticent to share them with
her husband. "But I knew that if I didn't say it, that I would do it --
and I just didn't want to be alive anymore," she said.
How to get help:
In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also provide contact information for crisis centers around the world.
Harry,
whose mother Diana was killed when he was a boy, said he was
"terrified" by his wife's admission. The prince, who is sixth in line to
the throne, said there is a culture of suffering in silence in the
royal family. But Meghan's race and the abuse she endured made the
situation even more difficult for the couple, and their perceived lack
of support ultimately led, above all other factors, to their dramatic
decision to quit as working royals.
They
described in emotional detail the most difficult moments -- Meghan
revealing her thoughts to Harry hours before they were due to go to an
event; the Prince arriving home from work each day to find his wife
crying while breastfeeding their newborn -- and said a "lack of support
and lack of understanding" were the reasons they chose to step away.
Meghan said the situation was exacerbated by often racist and "outdated, colonial undertones" that repeatedly appeared in coverage of the couple in Britain's notoriously vitriolic tabloids. Both described a toxic blend of press intrusion, bitterness on social media and isolation from a support structure.
Missed opportunities
Harry
added that he pushed the issue with the royal family. He told Winfrey
he believed there were many opportunities for the palace to "show some
public support" in the face of continued racial abuse in the press, "yet
no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts."
"I regret believing them when they said I would be protected," Meghan told Winfrey.
CNN has reached out to the royal family for comment.
Perhaps
the only silver lining for the family is that its leader survived the
interview relatively unscathed. Harry and Meghan both spoke effusively
of the Queen, describing her as caring and kind from the beginning.
"My
grandmother and I have a really good relationship, and an understanding
and I have a deep respect for her," Harry said. Meghan said she has
spoken to her frequently in the past year, including on the day that
Prince Philip was admitted to hospital last month.
Meghan
added that despite the ordeal, it was important to differentiate the
royal family from "the people running the institution."
She
discussed rumors of a dispute with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Meghan said reports she made Kate cry over the dresses of flower girls
at her wedding were untrue, and it was in fact the Duchess of Sussex who
cried. But "there was no confrontation," Meghan said, describing her
sister-in-law as a "good person."
But
the evidently strained family dynamic will overshadow the royals'
upcoming engagements. No statements have yet been issued by any of their
communications teams in the wake of the interview.
Meghan
and Harry (right) with the Queen, Prince Charles and other royals in
2019. During their Oprah interview, Harry detailed a breakdown in
relationships with several of his senior relatives.
Breathless reaction in Britain
The
interview was finally broadcast in the UK at 9 p.m. Monday, with
terrestrial broadcaster ITV later revealing it had attracted an audience
of 11 million.
On Tuesday morning, the British press continued to pore over every detail from the interview and its reverberations.
The
Daily Express proclaimed "SO SAD IT HAS COME TO THIS" on its front
page, The Daily Mirror ran a headline proclaiming what it sees as the
"WORST ROYAL CRISIS IN 85 YEARS" while the Times of London's headline
said, "Palace in turmoil over Meghan's racism claims."
On
Monday afternoon, several journalists used Boris Johnson's press
conference on Covid-19 to ask for his thoughts on the Oprah interview.
The Prime Minister declined to weigh in, aside from saying he'd always
had "the highest admiration for the Queen and the unifying role that she
plays in our country."
The
media's treatment of the royal couple formed a significant part of the
interview, with the pair both taking aim at sections of the press.
The interview and its aftermath dominated UK daily newspapers again Tuesday.
Harry said the palace is in "fear" of its media coverage, meaning they had little freedom while part of the family.
"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 said. "There is a level of control by fear that has
existed for generations."
Charles
Anson, a former press secretary to the Queen, said on Monday the couple
raised "issues that need to be looked at carefully," but claimed to the
BBC that there "wasn't a strand of racism" within the royal household.
But
Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, told the BBC that their
revelations were "astounding," and that as an American woman who married
into British aristocracy, she could relate to Meghan's descriptions.
"You don't really know until you're in it, and I think that she made
that very well known last night in her interview," she said.
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