Queen Elizabeth responds to Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview, will address allegations 'privately'

Two days after Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's shattering interview with Oprah Winfrey, Buckingham Palace issued a four-sentence response, saying the couple's accusations of racism and lack of support are taken "very seriously" and will be addressed by the royal family "privately."

The statement from the palace, issued Tuesday on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry's grandmother, arrived by email to USA TODAY after 5.30 p.m. London time. 

"The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning," the statement read. "While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members."

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The message was typical of palace statements on behalf of the queen: Calm and anything but fulsome.

There was no immediate comment from Harry and Meghan, their spokeswoman told USA TODAY.

Nor was it clear if they, too, have agreed to deal behind closed doors with the whirlwind they and Winfrey set loose on "The Firm," as the royal family sometimes calls itself, and on the British crown. 

The palace statement was a sharp contrast to the tsunami of shouting media coverage on the shocking revelations the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made to Winfrey about why they stepped down from their royal roles and fled to America last year. 

Their claims that racism and lack of support drove them away left the British monarchy in "crisis" – again – as media commentators in the U.K. took turns condemning Harry and Meghan or seeking answers from the palace about their allegations.

The two-hour interview, which aired Sunday on CBS in America, was shown on ITV Monday night in the U.K. It was not clear whether the queen or other senior royals, such as Prince Charles, Harry's father, watched it, but it was reported that the queen was briefed on it by palace officials.

All day Monday and Tuesday, TVs were filled with non-stop Sussex coverage and repeated replaying of clips from the interview on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Meanwhile, demands for a statement from the palace mounted. Once it was issued Tuesday, the parsing of its few sentences began: What did it mean?

Were the queen and the rest of Harry's close relatives unaware of the "extent" of Harry and Meghan's distress? Were they told Meghan had thoughts of suicide? Did they know she sought help from the palace human resources department and was turned away?

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Amber Melville-Brown, British-born head of the media and reputation practice at the international law firm Withers, says it's significant the palace responded even briefly instead of falling back on its usual “never complain, never explain" tactic. She describes the tone of the statement as "more in sorrow than in anger."

"The royal family would have been damned if it did not respond, and damned if it did," Melville-Brown told USA TODAY. "At times, a 'less is more' approach is the more dignified choice than strapping on the boxing gloves and coming out fighting in a battle that only the media, in publicizing it, can win."

Judging from the palace statement, there won't be further explanation soon, if ever. The royal family typically resists thrashing out differences in public until it can't be avoided, as in the disintegration of Harry's parents' marriage in the 1990s: After a 1995 bombshell interview by the late Princess Diana, his grandmother was forced to urge Diana and Prince Charles to divorce.

Members of the royal family will now seek to deal with the rifts in the family exposed by the interview – between Harry and his father, and Harry and his brother, Prince William –as quietly as possible.

Melville-Brown contrasted Harry and Meghan's communication strategy – attempting to take control of their family’s narrative via a blockbuster interview – with the palace's stiff statement, built on centuries of protocol.

"By responding, the palace has picked up the glove thrown down. But it has in its few carefully chosen words invited private discussion, not public squabbling, which may ultimately allow the parties to address their wounds and not to inflict further harm on each other," Melville-Brown said.

Nothing has been heard from any other royal so far. Prince Charles made his first public appearance since the interview on Tuesday, and said nothing in response to reporters' questions.

The engagement, long in the Prince of Wales' diary, was at a London church, Jesus House, serving many Black parishioners, and was part of the ongoing royal effort to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations in Britain. Charles visited a temporary vaccine clinic and met with healthcare workers, church staff and people due to receive their shots.

Maziya Marzook, a patient who was at the event, said “private matters didn’t come up at all” during Charles’ visit. “He didn’t bring up anything, he was more interested in how the vaccine was and how we feel,” she said, according to the Associated Press.

The two most toxic allegations that Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, made in the interview concerned her description of the palace's cold indifference to her mental stress, and their claim that an unnamed royal family member expressed "concern" about "how dark" their son Archie's skin would be.

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This allegation, if true, is devastating to the British monarchy, which is why the queen's statement made sure to allude to it. As the head of the Commonwealth, an organization of 54 nations, most of them former British Empire colonies and many of them overwhelmingly populated by people of color, the queen, 94, has always hailed the Commonwealth's diversity. 

Now this lifetime of work – she's been on the throne for 69 years – could be undermined by accusations of racism within her own family. Her husband of seven decades, Prince Philip, 99, is still in the hospital, and she is still in a pandemic bubble at Windsor Castle.