Race, title, anguish: Meghan, Harry explain royal rift

In an interview with American talk show Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle revealed that members of the British royal family expressed concern to her husband Prince Harry about the potential skin colour of the couple's first child.

Meghan said that her son Archie was denied a royal title and royal protection and that there were "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born."

In her sit-down interview with Oprah, which aired on Sunday, Meghan said the palace decreed that Archie would not have any title, a move she says was "different from the protocol."

"They didn't want him to be a prince . . . which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn't going to receive security," the Duchess of Sussex told Oprah.

She added, "we have 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's born."

An astonished Oprah asked Meghan who made that comment, with the 'Suits' actor declining to answer, saying the revelation would be too damaging.

Regarding the conversations, which Meghan was not part of, Oprah asked, "Because they were concerned that if he were too brown, that that would be a problem? Are you saying that?"

Meghan responded, "I wasn't able to follow up with why, but that--if that's the assumption you're making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand, right?"

Later in the interview, Oprah pressed Harry on the issue, asking him who was behind the comment. "That conversation I'm never going to share. It was awkward. I was a bit shocked," he said.

He also said that the conversation happened early in his romance with Meghan. "That was right at the beginning: What will the kids look like?'"

When Harry and Meghan were married in May 2018, Queen Elizabeth gave them the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Archie was entitled to the "courtesy title," Earl of Dumbarton. However, the couple announced shortly after his birth that they had not given him a courtesy title and he would be known as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Meghan stressed that she and Harry had no say in the decision about Archie not being named a prince.

"It's not our decision to make. Even though I have a lot of clarity with what comes with the titles, good and bad, and from my experience a lot of pain, I wouldn't wish pain on my child, but that's their birthright to then make a choice about," she said. Under current guidelines, great-grandchildren of the monarch are not princes or princesses, except for children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, which is why Prince William and Kate Middleton's children are Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.

Meghan and Harry's CBS special with Oprah marked the couple's first joint interview since their royal exit, which was recently made permanent.

In the interview, the duo discussed the reasons behind their decision to step back from their royal duties, which they had first announced in January 2020.

Since last summer, Meghan and Harry have been living with Archie in their new home in Southern California, not far from Oprah's, near Santa Barbara.

Their interview with the former talk show queen and media mogul aired a month after Harry made a rare TV appearance on 'The Late Late Show With James Corden'.

Markle and Harry, who tied the knot in 2018, welcomed their first child, Archie Harrison, in May 2019.

Meanwhile, during their interview, Meghan and Harry announced that they will become proud parents to a little girl!

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed that they are going to welcome a daughter, with Harry dropping the happy news when he joined his wife in the second half of the interview.

Meghan added that their daughter is due in the "summertime."

"To have a boy then a girl -- what more can you ask for?" Harry candidly said. The couple also revealed that they will not have more children following their baby girl's arrival: "Two is it."

Prince Harry spoke about his feelings upon learning the baby is a girl, "Grateful, having any child, any one or a two would have been amazing, but to have a boy and then a girl . . . now we've got our family and we've got four of us."

Meghan and Harry had announced their pregnancy news last month, with a stunning black-and-white photo that was taken remotely via iPad by their friend and longtime photographer, Misan Harriman.

A smiling Harry looked lovingly at Meghan, who cradled her baby bump as she lay down in his lap.

The Duchess of Sussex wore a flowing dress by Carolina Herrera that was first made when she was pregnant with Archie. Meghan has a longtime rapport with the brand's creative director, Wes Gordon.

The happy news, which they shared on Valentine's Day, comes after Meghan revealed she suffered a miscarriage last July. "Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few," she wrote in a New York Times essay on November 25.