OPRAH Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King has labelled the Royal Family’s planned hiring of a diversity chief a “fallout” PR stunt.
The CBS News presenter was speaking after it was reported the Queen is set to appoint a new diversity tsar to help modernize the British monarchy.
Read our Meghan and Harry live blog for the latest news and gossip…
During a discussion on This Morning, Gayle said: “It will be curious to see the kind of person they choose” before quickly adding “it seems like fallout to me.
“I know you are saying development but it does kind of feel like fallout.”
Gayle and Oprah’s close-knit relationship is legendary and dates back more than 40 years to when they first met as young journalists.
She spoke out about the diversity move days after she claimed Harry had spoken to Charles and Prince William but said the chat was “unproductive”.
The TV host also claimed “no one in the Royal Family has talked to Meghan yet at this particular time”.
However, she has also found herself under fire since the Oprah interview with Piers Morgan blasting her for “acting” as Meghan and Harry’s “PR mouthpiece”
Sources said the Queen’s diversity move would show that “more needs to be done” after Meghan and Harry made claims of racism, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Aides at Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace will take part in a “listen and learn” exercise over the next few weeks.
The exercise will reportedly involve the Palace “seeking independent views” about how the Royal Family can improve its approach to diversity.
A Royal source said: “Diversity is an issue which has been taken very seriously across the Royal Households.
“We have the policies, the procedures and programmes in place but we haven’t seen the progress we would like and more needs to be done, we can always improve.
“The work to do this has been underway for some time now and comes with the full support of the family.
“Lots of measures are being considered. Certainly the idea of someone to spearhead this work and look at diversity/inclusion across the three households is something that has to be considered.”
During the couple’s bombshell interview with Oprah, the Duchess of Sussex said there had been conversations with Harry and a “family” member about what colour their son Archie’s skin would be.
They refused to identify the senior royal who had made the comment – although it was later clarified it wasn’t either the Queen or Prince Philip.
Buckingham Palace has launched a private investigation but said “recollections may vary”.
People reported that Prince Charles “felt enormously let down” by the claims made during the interview.
A source close to the royal household said: “The prince believes in diversity and his actions show that.
“He was the first person to highlight the Windrush generation and the contributions they made to British society. He has worked hard for the Muslim community.
“Of all the members of the royal family, he has taken this issue the most seriously.”
A palace source was also reported to have said that Charles had had a “complicated relationship” with William and Harry and that it was “not a straightforward” father and son relationship.
The fallout from the Oprah chat is still unfolding after Meghan and Harry made a series of explosive claims about their lives as royals.
