On Friday, the Telegraph dropped their exclusive report about the letters exchanged by then-Prince Charles and the Duchess of Sussex. These letters were exchanged following the Oprah interview in 2021, so I would say Charles probably wrote to Meghan in May or June of that year, and she likely wrote back promptly. No one heard anything about these letters until “someone” leaked their existence and some partial content to the Telegraph last week. Meghan didn’t mention the letters in any of her interviews or the Netflix series or anywhere else. So it was hilariously stupid when all of the royal reporters began parroting the same line late Friday, that Meghan had “leaked” the letters to the Telegraph. That talking point was quickly refuted by Meghan, via her spokesperson.

The whole “who leaked the existence of the letters” kerfuffle overshadowed the real story, which is that Meghan and Charles both named the “royal racist,” the senior royal figure who told Harry he shouldn’t marry Meghan because their baby’s skin would be too dark. After the Windsors hung their hats on “recollections may vary” for years, it turns out that everyone’s recollections were exactly the same, and people within the family know exactly who said what to whom. The distraction has a purpose – the palace leaked the letters’ existence as a way to clear Charles of the “royal racism” charge ahead of his coronation. The intention was never to examine or identify the culprit(s). Which is why there has been precious little follow-up reporting – everyone in Windsor World knows who said racist sh-t, and I suspect the royal reporters know as well. But they expect Meghan and Harry to do their dirty work and they’re mad as hell that the Sussexes are taking a longer view. Speaking of, the Daily Beast’s Royalist had one of the few follow-ups on the Telegraph’s original report. After giving a (biased) accounting of what has happened thus far in the racism saga, Tom Sykes reported this:

The issue has, of course, continued to simmer away in the background, although most would argue the royals have successfully moved on. As a friend of the king’s told The Daily Beast: “The queen tried to just keep calm and carry on, and Charles is taking the same approach.”

The Sussex camp has denied suggestions that they leaked the information [to the Telegraph], and Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the matter. What seems likely, however, is that an increasingly large number of people now know exactly who it was that Meghan and Harry allege had “conversations” with them about the likely color of her unborn child’s skin. This in turn increases the likelihood that, eventually, the person who made the remark will be identified.

Intriguingly, the Telegraph went so far as to identify them as a “senior” member of the family, an assertion which remains in the published piece. Shortly after the allegation was first made a Buckingham Palace insider furiously upbraided this reporter in an off-the-record conversation for suggesting the person who made the comment was a “senior” member of the family, as had been suggested to us by several sources.

Buckingham Palace declined to respond to a request for comment by The Daily Beast, but the notion that it was a “senior” figure who made the comment seems to be becoming an accepted part of the narrative. So who could it be? Well, at some point over the past few years, every leading member of the family has been named to this reporter, in private conversations, and journalistic gossip, as the royal family’s skin tone inquisitor.

Prince Charles, as he then was, was one of the very first to be publicly named, by the writer Christopher Andersen, who said that Charles made a comment musing on their children’s likely skin color while he was having breakfast with his wife, Camilla, in front of footmen and other domestic servants. Of course this doesn’t quite mesh with Meghan’s claim that “there were several conversations about it” but then Meghan’s version of events—which says that the conversations were had with Harry who then relayed them to her—conflict with Harry’s account of who spoke to him and when.

Camilla has frequently been bandied about as a possible suspect, although friends of the queen have told The Daily Beast that they think she would be highly unlikely to have made such a comment. “It’s unthinkable,” one friend told The Daily Beast.

Princess Anne, who is widely rumored to have been no great fan of the marriage in the first place, has also been mentioned as a suspect. In large part, however, this seems to be based on her reputation for blunt speaking, and her perceived overall coolness towards Meghan, rather than any specific knowledge of something she may or may not have said.

William, of course has, has also come under suspicion in this messy game of Clue. In recent months speculation has intensified because of the extreme way in which he was attacked in Harry’s book, Spare, which did not repeat or clarify the allegation made to Oprah. We do know that he advised Harry to pause and reflect before marrying Meghan, warning him against rushing into marrying somebody that the family didn’t know.

Of course, William is the only member of the family to have specifically reacted to the allegations, telling a crowd of reporters shortly after the interview aired, “We are very much not a racist family.” And that pretty much sums up the attitude from friends of William who say he would never have made such a remark. It is all a refinement, if you like, of “recollections may vary.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Here’s the thing – the letters’ existence and the fact that Charles was the only one in the family to write to Meghan show that Charles was not the one saying sh-t about how dark the baby’s skin would be. Charles wouldn’t write to Meghan and bitch her out for revealing something that he said. I mean, maybe he would, but it seems far more likely that Charles would only write the letter if he wasn’t the main culprit AND he knew the identity of the culprit. Anyway, how do I say this? Most of us pegged out the identity of the royal racist long ago.

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Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.