MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry considered naming the royal who voiced concerns about their son Archie’s skin colour, it is claimed.
The Duchess of Sussex alleged a senior member of the Firm had questioned how dark the couple’s first child may be during their explosive TV interview with Oprah Winfrey.
She also claimed Archie wasn’t made a prince after “concerns and conversations” were raised about his complexion.
Meghan, 40, declined to reveal the identity of the “royal racist” as it would be too “damaging” for them – though Oprah later said it was not the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh.
But a newly-released chapter of biography Finding Freedom has shed some light.
The updated edition says the couple weighed up “sharing this detail” in the bombshell chat, MailOnline reports.
It reveals a source told authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand that the Sussexes had thought about naming the person in question but had ultimately decided not to.
It also claims that Meghan found the interview “cathartic” and “liberating” while Prince William was left “furious”.
Wills was understood to be “furious that private family matters were being discussed in the public domain”, according to a new chapter of the book.
At the time of the allegations, the prince hit back and insisted the Royal Family was “very much not racist”.
The Duke of Cambridge leapt to the defence of The Firm on a visit to a school in East London with wife Kate Middleton.
Asked if he’d spoken to his brother or sister-in-law since the chat aired, he replied: “No, I haven’t spoken to him yet… but I will do.”
Durand and Scobie wrote the unauthorised book about Harry and Meghan’s departure from the Royal Family and move to the United States.
Read our Meghan and Harry live blog for the latest updates
The new chapter also contains claims that the Royal Family were “quietly pleased” that Meghan couldn’t make it to Prince Philip’s funeral.
The duchess was unable to attend the service at Windsor Castle in April as she was pregnant with daughter Lilibet Diana at the time.
The book claims some royals were happy as they “didn’t want a circus” and feared she would “create a spectacle”.
Harry attended his grandfather’s funeral after making the 5,400-mile journey from his and Meghan’s home in California.
But it was reported at the time that doctors had advised Meghan to stay behind because of her pregnancy.
Harry and Charles were said to be on only “light speaking terms” in the lead up to the day, but the pair chatted after the service.
The updated version of Finding Freedom also explores Harry and Meghan’s “heartbreak” over Philip’s death aged 99.
‘BEHIND THE SCENES’
Publisher HarperCollins said the latest edition will also share “behind the scenes” details of their bombshell Oprah interview as well as their move to the US.
And it will recount “Meghan’s emotional healing journey from losing a child to the birth of their daughter”.
The new edition, which is due to come out on August 31, looks at the controversy surrounding Remembrance Sunday last year.
It claims Harry had wanted a wreath laid on his behalf at the Cenotaph but it was left in a box at the Kent offices of the Royal British Legion instead.
This was because Harry was no longer a “frontline royal”, Scobie and Durand write.
The book adds: “Ten years of service and a lifetime commitment to the military community and this is how it’s been acknowledged by his family.”
A source in the book also claimed that the Royal Family were “trying to discredit” Meghan over accusations of bullying.
The duchess was accused of “humiliating” personal assistants and staff, as well as driving two out of the Palace which she denies.
‘UNDERMINING AND DISCREDITING’
The book’s authors spoke to a source close to the couple who said: “Though the duchess was used to defamatory reports, this front-page story was more worrying.
“It felt like certain individuals at the Palace were doing their very best to undermine and discredit anything they worried the couple may or may not say during the interview.”
The Finding Freedom update is said to have been written with the participation of those closest to the Sussexes.
Scobie, a journalist favoured by the couple, said of the first edition that the couple “did not authorise the book and have never been interviewed for it”.
Harry is now planning his own upcoming tell-all memoir that will give an “accurate and wholly truthful” account of his life.
An expert previously speculated the duke may name the royal who made the remark about Archie’s skin colour in his book.
Richard Kay said: “He will surely have to offer an explanation for this most sensational of claims.”
