Prince William has issued his first comments since the explosive interview given by his brother Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, saying the royal family are not racist.
“We are very much not a racist family,” William, the Duke of Cambridge, said after a question from Sky News Thursday about the interview, which first aired in the U.S. on Sunday night. Within it, Harry and Meghan had made allegations of racism within the palace, and said that they felt unsupported by the rest of the royal family.
Asked if he had spoken to his brother yet, William replied: “I haven’t spoken to him yet but I plan to.”
The comments, made during a visit to an east London school on Thursday, come after Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Harry and Meghan. The couple, who now live in the U.S., alleged that a member of the royal family had questioned what skin tone their then-unborn child might have.
Meghan, the first mixed-race member of the modern British royal family, would not reveal who had made the comment, saying, “I think that would be very damaging for them.”
Winfrey later clarified that the comment had not been made by the queen or Prince Philip.
The two-hour interview, which was watched by millions of viewers on both sides of the Atlantic, contained other damaging claims including that the palace had failed to provide support for Meghan when she experienced mental health issues that left her feeling suicidal.
The Sussexes spoke of the pressures of royal life and also said they had been prompted to leave the U.K., and to step back from their roles as working royals early last year, because of hostility from the British tabloid press that they said the palace had failed to defend them from.