According to an updated edition of the book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family obtained by Page Six, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claim that the royal couple briefly considered revealing the identity of the person who made those racist remarks about their son Archie’s skin tone.
However, in the end, they decided that “sharing this detail” was a bad idea as Markle reportedly told Winfrey, “I think it would be very damaging to them.” During the sit-down conversation, the Duchess of Sussex did say, however, that the unnamed royal asked “how dark” their first unborn child would be.
The talk show host then asked Harry if he would be willing to identify that person, to which he replied, “That conversation I’m never going to share, but at the time, it was awkward; I was a bit shocked.”
But he did clarify that it was not Queen Elizabeth or her late husband Prince Philip who inquired. The book goes on to claim that Queen Elizabeth did not watch the couple’s primetime interview, but its ramifications have definitely been felt on the royal family’s reputation.
A Buckingham Palace staffer told the authors, “There is a feeling that if it’s ignored it will go away, but surely by now they should have learned that never happens?” But while that conversation may have been damaging for the monarchy, the book claims Meghan found it “cathartic” and “liberating.”
According to this updated edition due out next week, the royal family was also “quietly pleased” that the Duchess couldn’t make it to Prince Philip’s funeral in April as she was heavily pregnant with her second child, Lilibet Diana, and unable to travel. They reportedly feared that she would “create a spectacle” were she to attend.
Even so, another royal source added that “Where we are today versus where we were six months ago, versus where we were 12 months ago…there is actually progress. There are efforts on all sides. While there’s so much work to be done, this visit has broken the ice…pushed a closed-door slightly ajar.”