Queen's former press secretary says Oprah interview has raised 'family issues' but denies racism

Handout/Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have raised “issues that need to be looked at carefully,” Charles Anson, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth said, while insisting there “wasn’t a strand of racism” within the royal household.

Speaking to BBC on Monday, he recalled an “overwhelming sense of welcome” for Meghan around the time of their wedding in 2018, which he covered as a royal commentator.

I think that it was both evident in the press and from the reaction of the public, and I don't think there's a strand of racism in that within the royal household at all, I think, is much more in the broadcast media. I think such racism as exists tends to be most active on social media,” Anson, who held the position of press secretary from 1990 to 1997, told the BBC.   

Charles Anson, former press officer for Queen Elizabeth II, is pictured in Munich, Germany, in 2015. Sven Hoppe/dpa/picture alliance/Getty Images

During the wide-ranging interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry said his father, Prince Charles, had stopped taking his calls at one point.

When questioned over a potential rift with Prince Charles, Anson said he was under the impression that the family had parted on good terms.

My feeling is that with the Queen and Prince Philip and Prince of Wales, of course, his father would have tried to have been helpful and continued to try to be helpful and there was no question about it. They went to California, very much with the good wishes and supportive of a queen and her family.”  

Meghan told Winfrey that she was provided with no mental health support. Anson defended the Palace to the BBC, saying he understood there was a robust medical structure within the house to deal with such issues.

“I remember it being very responsive both to the members of staff and, of course, for the queen and members of the family,” he told the BBC.