Prince Harry is speaking about the "enormous missed opportunity" of his wife Meghan Markle joining the royal family.
During an interview with Good Morning America's Michael Strahan that aired Monday ahead of the release of his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex said he "genuinely" believes the monarchy should continue — with some modernization.
"I think the same process that I went through with regarding my own unconscious bias would be hugely beneficial to them," he said of his family. "It's not racism, but unconscious bias — if not confronted, if not learned and grown from, then that can move into racism. But there was an enormous missed opportunity with my wife."
Strahan asked Harry to elaborate: "I understand what you mean when you said there was a lost opportunity with your wife, but explain that to those who may not."
"Representation is what she said to me right from the beginning, is representation," Harry said. "And I, as a privileged white man, didn't really understand what she was talking about."
.@michaelstrahan: “Do you think in the 21st century, there is a place for the British monarchy?
— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 9, 2023
”Prince Harry: “I genuinely believe that there is … not the way that it is now.”https://t.co/3H8haerzWR pic.twitter.com/tGeuZocHJp
Speaking with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, Prince Harry said that the treatment of Meghan differed from other women who joined the royal family.
"What Meghan had to go through was similar, in some part, to what Kate [Middleton] and what [Queen] Camilla went through — very different circumstances," Prince Harry said of the scrutiny the women faced because of their respective relationships with Prince William and King Charles III. "But then you add in the race element, which was what the press, British press, jumped on straight away," Harry said.
"I went into this incredibly naïve. I had no idea the British press were so bigoted," he continued. "Hell, I was probably bigoted, before the relationship with Meghan."
Repeating the statement, Cooper asked, "You think you were bigoted before the relationship with Meghan?"
"I don't know," Harry replied. "Put it this way — I didn't see what I now see."
Prince Harry also hopes for reconciliation with his father King Charles III, brother Prince William and the rest of his family.
"If we can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world," he said on Good Morning America. "I genuinely believe that, and that's kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn't happen, then that's very sad."
