According to reports, the Duchess of Sussex and her husband Prince Harry had their team contact the BBC to make sure panels discussing their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey were not populated by “old white men”.
A member of the Public Relations staff based at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’ Beverly Hills-based company, Archewell, contacted the BBC asking them to ensure that a “broad range of contributors” were used for any post-mortem discussions on the Oprah interview.
In the interview, which aired on Monday in the UK, Meghan complained that her son had not been made a Prince and accused some in the Royal Family of making racially-charged remarks.
There have been a number of backlash comments made as a result of the contact with the BBC.
One source in comments reported by The Sun said: “This is the UK, not China. You can’t tell the BBC how to conduct its journalism, which frankly, was more than fair and balanced.”
The official line from the BBC was that” “While we are contacted by PRs all the time, we would never confirm whether the representatives of anyone had been in touch.”
The claims suggesting the former Royals tried to put pressure on the BBC to analyse their interview in a certain way come as it was revealed that Ms Markle had formally complained to broadcaster ITV after controversial media personality Piers Morgan said during Good Morning Britain that he did not believe her claims, which concluded with his resignation from the show.
A poll conducted by JL Partners found that a majority (53%) thought that the interview was the “wrong thing to do”. 51% believe that the Duke and Duchess should be stripped of their titles.
