The Royal Family’s missed chance

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2021

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It has been a turbulent week for the British royal family following Harry and Meghan's explosive sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. On Thursday, Prince William said the British Royal family is not racist - in his first public response to allegations made in the US television interview, where the Duchess of Sussex claimed her husband had been asked how dark the skin of their first baby might be. Ros Atkins looks at the fallout from the interview and asks if the rift marks a missed opportunity for the Royal family?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Ros Atkins. Each week on the BBC World Service, I look in depth at one of the biggest stories in the news.
0:09.0	In this edition, it's the Harry and Megan interview and how the royal family, Mr. Chance. So darling, darling, darling,
0:24.3	stand by me.
0:28.3	Standing by me.
0:29.4	Standing by me. It was a wedding like no other, an all black gospel choir sung for royalty and for the
0:39.4	watching world. It was a moment of happiness, a moment of change, and a moment of difference.
0:46.0	Okay, look at the guest list, it's coming, there's Idris-Alba.
0:50.0	Oh my goodness, is that Oprah, as in Winfrey?
0:52.0	I believe it is. we just saw a shot of
0:55.1	Serena Williams tennis royalty is here. The sermon was different too.
0:59.6	Megan Markle's the first mixed-race woman to marry into the royal family, and on that day she
1:05.1	sat next to Prince Harry and they listened to the African American Bishop Michael Curry, referencing
1:10.3	the leader of America's civil rights movement.
1:13.0	The late Dr Martin Luther King once said and I quote,
1:18.0	we must discover the power of love.
1:20.0	These differences were deliberate.
1:23.0	Harry and Megan wanted to send a message.
1:26.0	And for many young British women of colour, the message was received.
1:30.0	It's kind of a big moment because we've never seen anyone like Megan in the royal family.
1:35.0	To see someone like Megan Markle in that family does send a symbolic message and symbolism is very
1:40.0	powerful that they don't have to be exclusively white and also that you can wear your
1:44.3	blackness with pride. And yet this week not even three years later that sense of optimism
	...

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