Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, you’d know that recently the Queen of talk and my heroine Oprah Winfrey interviewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan and Prince Harry. The much-anticipated interview followed the decision of the duo to step down from their roles as working royals. A highly controversial decision that shocked many! 

I will never forget the day I found out that Meghan was half black. I saw her mother and thought wow! I  knew nothing about her but had assumed she was Native American or mixed native American with European heritage, for example, Italian. I saw her mother and gasped. Not because I felt a black person or a biracial person should not marry into the Royal Family, but because I never expected Harry would be allowed to marry a black or biracial lady. Not in my lifetime anyway!  

I told people I could not believe it. One of my aunts kept telling me ‘Why not?’. I wished them the best naturally but I had my doubts that it could ever work. I thought maybe Prince Harry got away with it because he lost his mother, Diana, through tragic circumstances. That they were not going to pressure him to marry a certain person. After all, his father was pressured and look what happened there.

But then came the fairy tale wedding which gave me hope as I thought it was the most amazing, unique and enchanting spectacle on the most beautiful of spring days. I found the additions, contributions and touches of blackness from the fantastic choir to an exuberant preacher a complete surprise and delight.  

I am a fan of the pomp and ceremony of Royal events, no one does it better. Although I know their wealth comes from cruel colonisation I think the royal family is one of the best assets Britain has. However, I completely understand the other side considering the cost of these spectacles. Meghan’s wedding made me feel the world was maybe actually changing before my eyes! I watched the wedding twice through because I was that impressed. 

It feels like an incredibly quick descent into mayhem from that occasion. I don’t follow the tabloid newspapers so only heard the whispers of all not being well. I heard people saying that she looked happy out and about with Harry by her side. I remember commenting that we wouldn’t really know. Just because she smiles doesn’t mean she’s happy! As a person myself, who smiles even though my heart may be breaking, I guessed she could just be doing what is expected of her. 

She says as much to Oprah, “Even those who smile the biggest smile it seems..” She spoke of feeling fried but continuing to smile and do her job, she answers Oprah that nothing is what it seems when it comes to smiles and beautiful pictures. 

Oprah probed them hard but not too hard. Oprah brought up the bullying incident with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. Meghan did not volunteer this information and clearly tells Oprah that she has no intention of putting Kate down. 

It has been reported as if Meghan could not wait to tell on Kate once Oprah had asked the question, what was she to do? Not point out that actually, it was Kate who had made her cry? She went on to mention that Kate had apologised and brought her flowers.

Speaking about the details of how and why Kate made her cry she said to Oprah:

“I don’t say this to be disparaging to anyone because it was a really hard week of the wedding and she was upset about something but she owned it and apologised....I would never have wanted that to come out about her  ever even though it had happened. I protected that from ever being out....It wasn’t a confrontation.”

She continued. “And I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that  because she apologised and I’ve forgiven her right.”  

Meghan says everyone welcomed her to the family but describes this incident with Kate as a turning point. The start of the campaign to vilify her. 

The claim that even when Prince Charles becomes king, Meghan’s son Archie will not get the title of Prince and hence will not be protected is seriously suspect. As for the claim backed by Harry that a royal member was concerned about what colour Archie’s skin would be is definitely racist but not that surprising to me. Oprah was visibly shocked at that.

The aunt I mentioned above always talked positively of the union between Harry and Meghan while I kept bringing up the negative. Being realistic in my eyes, it’s my nature. She always used to add “...and I hope they have a black baby!” So I am not surprised one of the royals was concerned. If there is racism anywhere, why wouldn’t it be at the top within the aristocracy?  

We witnessed how Lady Diana Spencer was treated as a supposed outsider, commoner and she was a white and beautiful English rose. So how much more someone with black blood?

To my great surprise, I had no knowledge of this before but there have been biracial queens of England. For one, Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), a claim made by historian Joel Augustus Rogers which has not been rejected or disputed by anyone. Unbelievable, she is powdered up and made to look as white as possible but none the less half black. 

Meghan confirmed that she was silenced having been an activist for women’s independence and rights in the past. I could not imagine she thought she’d be using her voice again in that way once she joined the family. I suppose as she said to Oprah, she did not research the family or what it would be like living within the confines of a royal institution. So maybe she felt that would not be a problem. She admits she was naive…

The funniest part of the interview was when Meghan chuckled as Oprah read out one of the papers negative comments about Meghan eating an avocado compared to Kate doing the same thing. Kate was doing it to help her morning sickness while Meghan was “wolfing down a fruit linked to water shortages, illegal deforestation and all-round general environmental devastation.” Before Oprah finished she laughed saying, “that’s a loaded piece of toast!” Oprah exclaimed and laughed too. 

Another funny moment was when Meghan was asked if she knew how to curtsy when meeting the Queen for the first time. She didn’t because she told Oprah she thought all that was for outside but not within the family, just meeting her husband to be and his grandmother. She learnt to curtsy in 10 minutes outside the building where the Queen awaited her. And she did a great deep curtsy apparently! 

The most shocking part of the interview was when Meghan claims “I just didn’t want to be alive any more!” And worse when she tried to get help no one would help her! She was left to suffer on the verge of suicide. This Harry says was when he knew he was going to have to take matters into his own hands and act to save his family. And furthermore, stop history from repeating itself which he feared I.e. to stop another tragedy like what happened to his mother. 

I for one believed what Meghan and Harry said and thought they came across as sincere, genuine and thoughtful. I don’t just support her because I am black, I tend to support the underdog and I totally was on the side of her mother in law the late Diana Spencer. May she continue to rest in peace. 

As a black person with roots in Gambia, West Africa, I have learnt from all that has happened in the last year or two. The Black Lives Matter Movement has shown me just how bad racism is around the world. I suppose we as black people dismiss it to a point because if we dwelled on it we would not go out or try. And I am sure the most vulnerable of us do just that due to racism. I have also learnt just how well some black people in history have done, I had no idea. I am not sure even my aunt who has a PhD in history knows about the number of black people who excelled in the past because it is not celebrated or acknowledged. She knows about those in our family way back doing great or special things but wider than that no, I doubt it. 

In the last 10 years, I was evicted from a housing association flat after 19 years there. After a decade or so as a resident there, a couple (she was white and he almost white from Afghanistan) moved in and started taking and cooking Class A drugs. The awful smells and fumes were coming down to me in my flat below, turning my beloved home into a drug den. I was also getting the worst symptoms such as chest pains, loss of consciousness, headaches from hell, nausea, tummy upsets,  coughing, choking fits and more. I had to call the paramedics who took me to hospital due to chest pains. 

No one helped, clues were ignored and dismissed. For nine years I was left to suffer. Left living and sleeping with doors and windows open, but still I could not get rid of the smells and developed a respiratory condition because of it. 

I was eventually turned into the perpetrator and evicted. I knew that racist stereotypes were used to get me out, but now I can understand just how I was perceived:

• Too ‘uppity’ one of the criticisms laid at Meghan’s door. I suffered terribly for nine years and I had no doubt what was going on in the flat above, but as I say signs were ignored and dismissed. They thought I should shut up and be grateful. And if not they would shut me up. 

• The addicts, the housing association and Barnet London Borough Council tried to say and prove I had mental health issues to silence me.

• The housing manager who had known me for 19 years made comments to the Sergeant involved such as ‘..you know how strong she is..’ What the hell does that mean? Everyone is a mixture of strong and weak. What did my strength or lack of it have to do with anything? When you are black you cannot be too strong or that will be used against you?! It will be thought of as stepping out of line. Something else Meghan has been accused of. If I had not tuned into my strength I would have killed myself as it was nothing short of torture and torment. 

• They the perpetrators, housing manager (who was more or less a friend) and Barnet authorities used ‘violence and aggression’ two more stereotypes against me too. Yet in 19 years when had I ever been violent? As if coping with the whole nine years of hell with these neighbours was not proof enough that I was not violent or even capable of violence! 

Plus assertion and being adamant are deemed aggressive where black people are concerned. Of course I was adamant, this was illegal, detrimental to health and no one was bothered. 

This is how they turned me into the monster so they could evict me. Sadly I had a useless barrister who seemed equally as capable of racism and might as well have been on the other side. He even forced me to undergo a psychiatric evaluation… can you imagine?! My own lawyer! That was totally clear which I knew it should be but hey! So I totally believe Meghan and see how badly the media treated her and turned her into an evil witch. 

I hope Meghan and Harry will now live happily ever after with their children, dogs and chickens. Leading a more simple but fulfilled life as they crave.