Meghan Markle's Oprah race claims left royal aide 'dumbfounded'

Meghan Markle's explosive racism allegations against the Royal Family left a senior former aide to Queen Elizabeth II shocked and in disbelief, a new Channel 5 documentary has revealed.

Ailsa Anderson, a former press secretary to the late Queen, made the remarks in Harry & Meghan: Has America Had Enough?, pushing back firmly against claims the Duchess of Sussex made during her headline-making 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

'I have never ever heard anything of a racial nature'

Anderson, who served the late Queen for nearly 13 years, said Meghan's allegations were entirely at odds with the monarch she knew personally and professionally. "This was not the monarch I recognised. I worked for the late Queen for almost 13 years. I have never ever heard any utterings, in private or in public, of anything of a racial nature, ever. Absolutely ever," she said in the documentary.

"So I was dumbfounded… I really was," she added.

What Meghan told Oprah

During the 2021 Oprah interview, Meghan alleged that members of the Royal Family had raised concerns about the skin colour of her then-unborn son, Archie. "So we had in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born," she told Winfrey.

The comments sent shockwaves through the United Kingdom and beyond, triggering a formal response from Buckingham Palace and renewed scrutiny of the institution.

Anderson's separate remarks on Prince Harry

In a prior interview with the Daily Mail, Anderson had spoken warmly about Prince Harry, distinguishing her views on the couple's allegations and her personal experience of the Duke. "My engagement and my experience with Prince Harry has only been positive. He is very warm and very engaging and kind, so only fond memories of him, truly," she said.