Michelle Obama has said ‘it wasn’t a complete surprise’ to hear Meghan Markle’s allegations of racism within the Royal Family, and expressed her hope that the family could reconcile.
Obama, 57, weighed in on the furious fallout from Oprah Winfrey’s March 7 interview in a discussion with Jenna Bush Hager on NBC, to air on Tuesday morning.
‘Race isn’t a new construct in this world, for people of color,’ said Obama. ‘So it wasn’t a complete surprise to, sort of, hear her feelings.’
Prince William last week hit back against claims his family are racist. His firm rebuttal comes after Buckingham Palace issued a statement on Tuesday on behalf of the Queen expressing how the issues they raised, particularly that of race, were very ‘concerning’.
But the statement also made clear the Queen and senior royals were also keen to stand their ground, adding: ‘While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.’
And the owner of MailOnline and the Daily Mail has complained to CBS for doctoring headlines and taking them out of context during the Oprah interview, watched by tens of millions of people around the globe.
Obama said that she hoped the family rift could be healed.
‘The thing I hope for, and I think about: this first and foremost is a family, and I pray for forgiveness and healing for them,’ she said.
‘So they can use this as a teachable moment for us all.’
She told Hager that public service was ‘a bright, sharp, hot spotlight,’ that most people did not fully understand.
‘The thing I always keep in mind is that none of it is about us, in public service,’ she said.
‘It’s about the people that we serve.’
The former First Lady formed a close friendship with Prince Harry during her husband Barack Obama’s presidency, as well as a relationship with Meghan in recent years.
Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, made several extraordinary and damaging allegations about the royal family during their primetime interview, including claims that an unnamed member of the monarchy had been worried about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.
And while Obama did not openly offer her support to one side or the other, in an interview with Access Hollywood – to promote her new Netflix show – she seemed to side with Meghan and Harry when she urged the couple to ‘forgive’ the royal family in the wake of the bombshell interview.