Richard Madeley criticises Prince Harry over ‘unconscious bias’ remarks: ‘You can’t have it both ways’

Presenter questioned why Harry and Meghan hadn’t challenged press narrative that they’d accused royals of racism before

Richard Madeley has called out Prince Harry after he refuted the suggestion that he or Meghan called the royal family racist during their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.

On Sunday (8 January), the royal sat down for an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby ahead of the release of his memoir Spare this week.

You can read more of the biggest revelations from the interview here.

As part of the interview, Bradby asked Harry about the 2021 interview with Winfrey, in which he and Meghan Markle claimed conversations had taken place in the royal family about “how dark” their son Archie’s skin would be.

However, Harry denied that they had ever called the monarchy racist, interjecting: “No. The British press said that, right? Did Meghan ever mention ‘they’re racists’?”

​​During Monday’s (9 January) episode of Good Morning Britain, Madeley questioned why Harry allowed the “accusations of racism” against the royal family to continue.

‘If we misunderstood it overnight and it was the front page story in the world, why didn’t they correct it?” he asked. “Why didn’t anybody, why didn’t Harry or Meghan say at some point on one of their podcasts or all the opportunities that they’ve had and say, “Oh, by the way, we didn’t mean it the way you guys took it, we weren’t accusing the family of racism.’”

“He blames the press for saying it was racism. He says they never said it was racism,” his co-host Susanna Reid explained, with Madeley interjecting: “Why not correct it, then?”

Prince Harry and Tom Bradby (PA)

Reid pointed out that the day after the interview first aired, Winfrey said that Harry had clarified to her that neither Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip had not been behind the comments about the colour of Archie’s skin.

However, Madeley remained unconvinced, recalling the segment of the interview with Winfrey in which Meghan said she wouldn’t reveal the commenter’s identity as it would be “very damaging” to them.

“Sorry, I don’t buy that rewrite in the interview,” Madeley said. “I just don’t buy it. There was a clear implication, at the very least, that there was a racist element to the royal family and conversations about the skin colour of the forthcoming baby.

“It was never corrected. It was corrected last night, but two-and-a-half, three years too late. You can’t have it both ways Harry. I’m sorry, you can’t.”

The Independent has contacted the Duke of Sussex’s representative for comment.

Spare is released on Tuesday 10 January.