Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, has expressed criticism of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and husband Harry putting family issues on “public display” in an interview with U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
The Prince, who has a more hands-on role in the governance of his city-state than Britain’s monarchs do in their realms and territories, made the remarks in an interview with Yalda Hakim of the BBC, who asked him for his reaction to Meghan and Harry’s tell-all interview.
“Well, listen, you know, I think it’s very difficult to be in someone’s place,” he said, attempting to strike something of a conciliatory tone.
“I can understand the pressures that they were under, but I think this type of public display of dissatisfaction — to say the least — these type of conversation should be held within the intimate quarters of the family, and it doesn’t really have to be laid out in the public sphere like that,” the prince chided.
“So, it did bother me a little bit,” he confirmed.
“I can understand where they’re coming from, in a certain way, but I think it wasn’t the appropriate forum to be able to have these kind of discussions.”
Asked if he had any advice for Prince Harry as he starts his “new life”, the European royal sounded cautiously critical, saying: “I wish him the best, but it’s a difficult world there, and I hope that he can have the judgement and wisdom to make the right choices.”
His remarks were still rather more guarded than those of Donald Trump in September 2020. Asked about ‘Megxit’ at a White House briefing, the then-U.S. President said he was “not a fan” of the British royal’s spouse, adding: “I wish a lot of luck to Harry, because he’s going to need it.”
Fallout from the pair’s interview with Winfrey continues to be generated, with the couple admitting that their claims they were married in secret before their publicly-funded royal wedding were false and the Queen reportedly considering appointing a “diversity chief” to address Meghan’s thinly-veiled accusations of racism within the family, among other developments.
Most recently, Meghan and Harry’s Archewell organisation was reported to have teamed up with a “social impact and culture change agency” led by former Hillary Clinton campaigner Genevieve Roth, who has previously alleged that all white people are “rife with internalised racism and unconscious bias”.