What are the racism rows to hit Buckingham Palace in recent years?
Lady Susan Hussey, the Queen’s former lady-in-waiting, has stepped down from her honorary role over racism scandal
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
A top aide to Buckingham Palace has resigned after being embroiled in a racism row over comments made to a black charity boss.
Ngozi Fulani, a domestic abuse campaigner, said she was asked racially offensive questions about her heritage at a royal reception by the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting.
She said Lady Susan Hussey, who is also Prince William’s godmother, repeatedly challenged the charity boss and asked where she “really came from” after being told she was British.
Buckingham Palace said it took the incident “extremely seriously” and called the comments “unacceptable and deeply regrettable”.
It is not the first time Palace has been embroiled in a racism scandal.
Here is a look at some of the other controversial moments in recent years:
Buckingham Palace staff diversity
Buckingham Palace began publishing figures on its levels of ethnic minority staff for the first time in 2021.
In June, royal accounts showed that the Royal Household has yet to hit its diversity target, with its proportion of ethnic minority staff standing at just 9.6 per cent, having set a goal of 10 per cent for 2022.
“We’ve still got a little way to go,” a senior royal source said at the time.
The year before that, the figure was 8.5 per cent. The Palace admitted at the time it needed to “do more” to improve racial representation.
Weeks before the figures were first published in 2021, The Guardian reported Buckingham Palace had banned ethnic minorities from office roles until at least the late 1960s.
In the UK, around 18 per cent of the population is from a minority ethnic background, according to the 2021 Census data.
Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a number of explosive claims in their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey last year. This included allegations a member of the family made a racist comment about their son.
The duchess told the US TV host a fellow royal - not the Queen nor Duke of Edinburgh - was worried about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.
Two days after the Oprah interview, Buckingham Palace released a statement on behalf of the Queen. It said the issues raised by the couple, “particularly that of race”, were “concerning”.
“While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately,” the statement added.
Prince William later defended the monarchy, saying: “We’re very much not a racist family.”
King Charles ‘tells woman she doesn’t look like she is from Manchester’
Four years ago,then-Prince Charles was embroiled in a race row after reportedly telling a woman whose mother was born in Guyana that she did not look like she was from Manchester.
Anita Sethi, a writer, said the incident happened at the Commonwealth People’s Forum in London where she was giving a talk on injustice.
“I feel angry that there could be such casual ignorance in the corridors of power,” she wrote inThe Guardian afterwards.
Clarence House declined to comment at the time.
Princess Michael of Kent jewellery row
The royal caused controversy over a brooch worn to the late Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace in 2017.
Princess Michael of Kent was seen wearing a prominent piece of “blackamoor” jewellery as she arrived for the event, where she is believed to have first met Meghan. Blackamoor art often depicts dark-skinned Africans in subservient roles.
Her spokesperson later said she was “very sorry and distressed” that the brooch had caused offence and the item “was a gift and has been worn many times before”.
Prince Philip comments
The Duke of Edinburgh was well-known for causing controversy.The Independent has even compiled 90 of his most excruciating remarks made over the years.
One that raised eyebrows included the moment when he asked an aboriginal entrepreneur in Australia in 2022: “Do you still throw spears at each other?”
Before that, on a visit to China in 1986, he told British students: “If you stay here much longer you’ll all be slitty-eyed.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments