From heirs to spares: SHOCKING times royal family members were forced to issue apologies

Life as royalty guarantees an everlasting golden ticket to wherever the nobility express may want to take a stop — however, there are dead ends where even members of the Crown are left with no way out.

While you may not want to hold your breath to hear or read King Charles issue an apology for his family’s history with the slave trade — “None of us can change the past”, he said at a summit in Samoa last year, with the BBC explaining that “the use of ‘sorrow’ carefully avoids saying sorry” — there have been other instances when the rest of his family have dropped their condolences for different reasons here and there.

On the other hand, it also makes for an interesting observation that members of royalty other than the British have explicitly apologised for their role in slavery.

Read all about that moment and other apologetic royals here:

Queen Elizabeth

The late Queen Elizabeth had issued one formal apology during her entire reign —when she penned one to the Waikato–Tainui tribe among the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand in 1995.

The tribe signed a Deed of Settlement with the Crown, pertaining to the latter’s infliction of wars and territorial seizure on their land, which awarded them a sum of $170 million for all of the past damages.

While the letter of apology began with, “The Crown expresses its profound regret and apologises unreservedly for the loss of lives because of the hostilities arising from its invasion.”

Prince Andrew & Sarah Ferguson

The former married couple and the Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson had to issue separate apologies due to their involvement with notorious sex trafficker and businessman, Jeffrey Epstein.

While the Duke’s disastrous interview with the BBC did little to curtail the wrath spurred on by the allegations against him, mostly due to his own ignorance, he apologised on air for disappointing his family — and only that.

“We try and uphold the highest standards and practices. And I let the side down, simple as that,” he offered.

Though his ex-wife Sarah was a bit more direct with her condolences, for having accepted financial help from the deceased accused, as she told The Evening Standard, “I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me. I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say.”

Prince Harry

Harry, Duke of Sussex caused an uproar when he donned a Nazi uniform for a costume party that he attended in 2005.

Though his initial apology was merely forwarded through his father, then Prince of Wales’ Clarence House, he did come out and profusely apologise for the incident himself years later.

“Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realises it was a poor choice of costume,” said the initial apology.

While in 2020, at a virtual taping of the Diana Awards, the Duke shared, “My wife said recently that our generation and the ones before us haven’t done enough to right the wrongs of the past. I too am sorry. Sorry that we haven’t got the world to the place where you deserve it to be.”

“Institutional racism has no place in our societies, yet it is still endemic. Unconscious bias must be acknowledged without blame to create a better world for all of you,” his statement further offered.

Meghan Markle

Wife to the Duke, Meghan Markle had to offer her own apology for a false claim she made during the legal proceedings of her invasion of privacy case against Mail on Sunday in 2021.

While the Duchess of Sussex had taken the newspaper’s authorities to court for publishing a private letter she had written to her father, Thomas Markle, she was forced to apologise on her part for misleading the court in the claims she made regarding her involvement with a book about herself and the Duke.

As her team had previously claimed that Meghan “did not contribute” to Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan by Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, it was later found through the Sussex pair’s former press secretary that the book was “discussed directly with the duchess multiple times in person and over email.”

Per the BBC, “In a witness statement to the court the duchess said she accepted that her aide did provide information to the authors of the book with her knowledge but she said the ‘extent of the information he shared is unknown to me’.”

While Meghan Markle herself conceded, “When I approved the passage, I did not have the benefit of seeing these emails and I apologise to the court for the fact that I had not remembered these exchanges at the time.”

Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton was forced to issue an apology in 2024, when amid her public absence, she posted what appeared to be a poorly put together photograph of herself surrounded by her three children on the occasion of Mother’s Day.

Since the Princess of Wales was secretly undergoing treatment for cancer at the time and the matter had not been disclosed to the public, she tried to redirect their curiosity with a well timed family picture — though, not very well edited.

“I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day,” read her social media apology.

King Willem-Alexander of Netherlands

Finally, the moment of truth which was discussed earlier has arrived — the Dutch King’s apology for slavery.

In 2023, King Willem-Alexander labelled the practice a “horror” and stated, “Today I’m standing here in front of you as your King and as part of the government. Today I am apologising myself.”

Accompanied by his wife, Queen Maxima, and addressing the crowd at an event for the 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands, he continued, “Today, I am asking for forgiveness for the crystal-clear lack of action.”

“After acknowledgement and apology, we can work together on healing, reconciliation and restoration,” the monarch added.