Throughout royal history every King and Queen has a sentence that comes to define their rule.
‘We are not amused’ is a statement commonly attributed to Queen Victoria, and while there is no evidence she ever said this, it has come to characterise the popular perception of the Victorians as stern and austere people.
For George VI his defining speech came during Britain’s declaration of war against Nazi Germany in 1939, when he said: ‘In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, for the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war’.
In his speech the King encapsulated the generational trauma of a Britain that found itself once again at war for the second time in 20 years.
While the late Queen Elizabeth II had many iconic sentences throughout her life – such as when she described 1992 as her ‘annus horribilis’ – During the twilight years of her reign there was one sentence that proved despite her old age she was very much still in charge of the Firm.
This came in March 2021 during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s bombshell interview with Oprah in which serious allegations were wedged against the Royal Family.
One claim was the Sussexes’ suggestion that the Royal Family was collectively racist, pointing the finger at one – unnamed – member who, they alleged, had speculated about the colour of their son Archie’s skin when Meghan was pregnant in a racist way.
Writing in his tell-all book Courtiers, royal author Valentine Low reveals how the Queen’s carefully crafted response became ‘the stuff of royal legends’.
During the twilight years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign there was one sentence that proved despite her old age she was very much still in charge of the Firm
In response to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claims the Queen said: some recollections may vary’
The Palace’s response to Harry and Meghan’s interview
After the interview was broadcast the Queen’s first response was to stay quiet.
‘The palace stayed completely silent, because the Queen decided she wanted to sleep on it,’ Low said.
‘She was not going to be rushed into saying anything precipitate.’
Eventually a statement was released the next evening which read: ‘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. 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.’
According to Low, the statement ‘some recollections may vary’ not only instantly became the stuff of legend but it also proved that the Queen was still firmly in charge of the family.
‘The statement was notably for two other things: for the informality – and affection – for which it referred to Harry and Meghan, rather than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex , and for the fact that it dared confront the issue of race,’ Low wrote.
The Queen’s response was widely praised at the time.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sit down for their bombshell interview with Oprah in which serious allegations were wedged against the Royal Family
The Queen with Harry and Meghan in July 2018. According to Low, the statement from the Queen not only instantly became the stuff of legend but it also proved that she was still firmly in charge of the family
Writing in his tell-all book Courtiers, royal author Valentine Low reveals how the Queen’s carefully crafted response became ‘the stuff of royal legends’
Speaking to MailOnline in 2021, Royal author Phil Dampier said: ‘The phrase “recollections vary” is telling.
‘The Queen is really saying that Harry and Meghan might be giving their version of events or their interpretation of a conversation a couple of years ago, without going so for as to say they are lying, which they might not be.
‘Clearly she has spoken to the person who allegedly made the remark about Archie and they have given her their version of events.’
Likewise it was warmly received by the British public, with polls finding an increase in support for the Royal Family after an interview and a decrease in support for the Sussexes.
Ofcom also received over 6,000 complaints about the interview becoming the most complained about show of April 2021.
Members of the press were among the top complainants due to the inaccurate and misleading allegations wedged against the media.
This included headlines that were intended to confirm the Sussexes’ claim that UK newspapers were guilty of peddling racist abuse against Meghan that were often edited to remove context.
One segment showed a headline allegedly from MailOnline about how ‘Meghan’s seed will taint our Royal Family’.
WHAT THE PROGRAMME SHOWED: The mocked-up headline purported to be from this website is reduced to a single quote and appeared as a commentator discussed ‘undeniable racist overtones’ in media coverage
IN REAL LIFE: The story – which was on the front of that day’s Mail On Sunday – was a story exposing the suspension of the girlfriend of the UKIP leader for using the racist phrase that appeared in the headline. Producers removed all that context
However it failed to show the rest of the headline which was about Jo Marney, the then girlfriend of former Ukip leader Henry Bolton, who had made the shocking remark.
The full online headline said Marney had been suspended from the party over the comments.
The mocked-up version, which used a similar page design, included the quote but cut the remaining headline away.
Another story that appeared during the tell-all interview referred to a BBC programme that had portrayed Meghan as a ‘trailer trash American’.
The actual article included an interview with actress Gbemisola Ikunelo, who created the character, explaining she invented it to find ‘humour in the ridiculous’ because it is ‘the opposite of how the Duchess really behaves’.
Speaking to Press Gazette at the time, one unnamed journalist said the programme made ‘inaccurate allegations about the UK media’ describing the interview as a ‘PR puff for the couple’.
