Buckingham Palace’s reaction to Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah

LONDON – All eyes are on Buckingham Palace on Tuesday following the explosive interview given by Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex to Oprah Winfrey in which allegations were made of racism within the palace and a lack of support from the royal family for mental health issues and media intrusion.

So far, there has been a wall of silence from the Royal Family after the interview, which aired on CBS Sunday and UK channel ITV on Monday evening, drawing millions of viewers from both sides of the country. Atlantic.

The palace allegedly held “crisis talks,” according to British media, including the BBC, with members of the royal family who had had urgent discussions on how to limit the fallout from the interview, which saw Harry and Meghan allege that a member of the royal family had questioned the skin tone of their unborn child.

Meghan, the first half-breed member of the modern British royal family, did not disclose who made the comment, saying: “It would be too damaging for them.”

The palace did not comment on the interview when contacted by CNBC on Tuesday. During a public visit to a vaccination center in London on Tuesday, Prince Charles was asked what he thought of a Sky News reporter interview, but did not comment.

Oprah Winfrey later clarified that the royal who made the comment was not Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip. The two-hour interview, ably managed by veteran broadcaster Winfrey, has been watched by 17.1 million viewers in the United States. More than 12 million viewers watched the transmission in the UK, according to figures released by ITV on Tuesday.

In addition to allegations of racism, the interview contained damaging claims that the palace failed to provide support to Meghan when she had mental health issues that left her feeling suicidal.

The Sussexes have spoken about the pressures of royal life and also said they were pressured to leave the UK and step down from their roles as royals early last year, due to the hostility of the British tabloid press that they said the palace had failed. to defend them.

Nonetheless, the couple also said the royal family welcomed Meghan when their relationship began in 2016. Meghan also said the Queen has always been ‘wonderful’ to her.

The British press responded on Tuesday with a mixture of acknowledgment of the seriousness of the interview and also some defensiveness.

While many newspapers have looked into the “bombshell” allegations that left the palace “in shock,” others said the interview was interested for the couple and disrespectful to the Queen. The Daily Mirror headline said the interview caused “the worst royal crisis in 85 years”, while the Daily Express headline: “So sad that it has come to this”, alongside a picture of the Queen . The Daily Mail, meanwhile, headlined their newspaper this morning with the words: “What did they do?”

The interview left commentators and royal correspondents wondering how damaging the allegations are to the royal family, an institution that has worked to maintain a public image of duty and decorum and has always sought to keep family affairs. internal, not to mention divisions and controversies, out of the way. spotlights.

After the interview aired in the United States, Meghan enjoyed wide public support among commentators and friends of the couple. In the UK, a country in which most people tend to hold the Queen in high regard, if not always the monarchy at large, the reaction has been more mixed.

A live YouGov poll on Tuesday asked the public “whose main sympathies lie” after the interview and current results showed that 40% of respondents felt more sympathetic towards the Queen and the Royal Family, with 24% more sympathy towards Harry and Meghan. Perhaps revealing, 24% answered “neither”.

It remains to be seen whether the revelations will shake a lasting fascination with the British royal family at home and abroad. The dispute can only revive the debate on the value of the monarchy and republican sentiment.

This has already fueled discussions in Australia, which is part of the Commonwealth and where the Queen is still head of state, over whether the change should take place, with former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull telling ABC TV on Tuesday that “our leader of State should be an Australian citizen, should be one of us, not the Queen or King of the United Kingdom. “

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, meanwhile, said on Monday that the country was unlikely to stop having the Queen as head of state anytime soon.

There has long been a debate about the value and cost of the monarchy, which brings tourism income to the country, but also comes at a cost to the UK taxpayer.

The Royal Household receives income from what is known as its Crown Estate – lands and properties owned by the Queen, such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, which are open to the public during normal hours and which earn income – as well as what is called the sovereign grant.

The one-time grant is money paid by the government to enable the Queen to “carry out her duties as head of state,” the government says, but it also supports other official functions of the state. higher royalty such as overseas visits, hospitality, and public engagements.

In return for these public funds, however, the Queen must cede the income from the Crown’s domain to the government, which in turn calculates the amount of the grant.

Explaining how the Sovereign Grant works, the government noted last year that: “In return for this public support, the Queen cedes to the government the revenues from the Crown estate which amounted to £ 343.5million. for 2018-2019. The Sovereign Grant for 2020-21 is equivalent to £ 85.9million, or 25% of £ 343.5million. “

The Sovereign Grant for 2018-2019 was £ 82.2million ($ 107.1million), up from £ 76.1million in 2017-18, which was equivalent to £ 1.24 per person in the UK Currently, the royal family will cost each Briton (out of a total population of 66.8 million) £ 1.28 per year.

That’s not much considering the Royal Family attracts visitors to the UK, with the Visit Britain travel agency reporting in 2017 that tourism linked to royal residences such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle represents 2.7 million visitors per year. However, it is difficult to determine how many visitors specifically come to the UK because of the monarchy.

Royal weddings, including Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011, and the nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, have also been seen as boosting tourism to the UK, adding hundreds of thousands of visitors and stimulating gross domestic product. The marriages of the two princes brought a boon to British tourism and the economy. Again though, weddings involve additional security and expense that ultimately falls on the taxpayer; Harry and Meghan’s wedding is said to have cost around $ 42.8 million, with a large chunk of the budget going for additional security and policing, while William and Kate’s 2011 wedding is said to have cost them £ 20 million. taxpayers, or about $ 27 million.

The anti-monarchy campaign group Republic takes issue with the idea that the monarchy is a boon to British tourism, saying there is no evidence to support these claims.