Harry to meet Queen and senior royals at Sandringham with Meghan phoning in from Canada in bid to resolve crisis
Prince Harry and Prince William have dismissed a “false story” in a UK newspaper today speculating about their relationship. The joint statement on behalf of the Duke of Sussex and Duke of Cambridge said: “Despite clear denials, a false story ran in a UK newspaper today speculating about the relationship between The Duke of Sussex and The Duke of Cambridge. For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful.”
The statement does not specify which report, but they are believed to be referring to a story in The Times which was headlined “Princes ‘fell out because William wasn’t friendly towards Meghan’”.
With Home Secretary Priti Patel coming out today to say that she had seen no racism in the coverage of Meghan Markle during her journey from becoming Prince Harry’s partner to marrying into the royal family (see 10:14), it might be worth spending two minutes reading Nesrene Malik’s blistering column from the Observer yesterday, where she spoke of “Britain’s racism pantomime”.
“In many ways, any improvement in race relations has come with a proportional decline in self-awareness, and with it a degradation of the public conversation on race. The increased visibility of black and brown people in those spaces where this conversation takes place – in politics and the media – has achieved little apart from sifting them into for and against camps. Whenever a public figure is subjected to racist behaviour, a sort of kangaroo court is set up, one with an impossibly high bar for proving a racist event has occurred – anything short of an explicit slur or a violent attack can easily be explained away. The outcome of the litigation is certain because the whole point of the exercise is the spectacle, rather than the inquiry.”
Related: Britain’s racism pantomime: now starring Meghan and Harry | Nesrine Malik