Meghan also opened up about the decision not to make Archie a prince.
It seems there was more behind Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor's title -- or lack thereof -- than previously thought. During Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special, Meghan said it was the royal family's decision not to make Archie a prince -- and implied race may have been a factor.
While speaking with Oprah about the conversation over Archie's title, Meghan said there were "concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie's] skin might be when he's born." She said it would be "damaging" to reveal who had voiced those concerns.
Harry later confirmed that a conversation about Archie's skin color did take place, but said he wasn't comfortable sharing specific details.
"That conversation, I'm never going to share. But at the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked," he said. "That was right at the beginning... 'What will the kids look like?'"
Harry added, "There was some real obvious signs before we got married that this was going to be really hard."
"They didn't want him to be a prince or a princess," Meghan said of the royal family's discussions about her child's title while she was pregnant. "He wasn't going to receive security. This went on for the last few months of my pregnancy, where I'm going, 'Hold on for a second.'"
"We're not saying don't make him a prince, but if you're saying the title is what's going to affect the protection... our son needs to be safe," she added.
"So, how do they explain to you that your son, the great grandson of the queen, wasn't going to be a prince? You certainly must have had your own conversations with Harry about it and your own suspicions as to why they didn't want to make Archie a prince," Oprah said. "Why do you think that is?"
"There's no explanation," Meghan replied. "I heard a lot of it through Harry... it was a decision they felt was appropriate."
Meghan said she wasn't "personally" attached to giving her son a title, but wanted to make sure he was safe.
"The idea of our son not being safe, and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be... the other piece of that conversation is... when you're the grandchild of the monarch, automatically Archie and our next baby would be prince or princess," she said. "It's not their right to take it away."
"While I was pregnant, they said they wanted to take away that convention... why?" she asked.
King George V's 1917 decree stated that only the eldest son of the Prince of Wales' eldest son was entitled to be a prince, meaning only Prince George could receive that honor. However, Queen Elizabeth changed that in 2012 when she declared that all of William and Kate's children would be given Prince or Princess titles. Kate and William are parents to Prince George, 7, Princess , 5, and Prince Louis, 2.
However, the same rule was not in place for Harry's children. Ahead of Archie's birth in May 2019, fans expected he wouldn't be a prince, unless Queen Elizabeth chose to make that declaration. And after his birth, when it was revealed Archie didn't have a title, it was believed to have been Harry and Meghan's decision.
Meghan said in her interview with Oprah that wasn't true.
Meghan and Harry exited their roles as senior members of the royal family last year, and have since settled down in California. Harry previously gave some new details on Archie's life during his recent appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. He revealed that the little tot's first word was "" and that he loved having homemade waffles for , courtesy of the waffle maker his great grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, bought him.
Though Archie made a cameo in the family's artist sketch holiday card, he was not present in his parents' pregnancy announcement photo.
The last time Archie was seen publicly was for a video of his mom to him to benefit Save the Children in honor of his first birthday.
Harry and Meghan announced over Valentine's weekend that little Archie is expecting a sibling. Watch the clip below for more:
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