The actor, who played the Duchess of Sussex's father on 'Suits,' called her sit-down interview 'insignificant.'
Wendell Pierce, who played Meghan Markle's father on Suits, is setting the record straight on his headline-making comments about her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The 57-year-old actor spoke to Britain’s LBC talk radio station on Monday and called Markle's sit-down interview "insignificant" given the current coronavirus pandemic. "A couple of hundred people are going to die, even this hour, in the U.K.," he said. "It is quite insensitive and offensive that we are all complicit in this sort of Palace...gossip. In the midst of so much death, I think it is insignificant."
However, Pierce spoke to ET's Nischelle Turner from Budapest where he is currently living and working, and clarified his comments. He shared that the interview -- in which Markle talked about having suicidal thoughts at one point -- did not play there and he did not see it. The Jack Ryan star also said his words were twisted by the British press, which he said is a perfect example of some of what Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, have been complaining about in regard to the tabloids.
"My comments were about the obsession around the royal family and it shouldn't take priority over the deaths of the pandemic," Pierce said. "I'm living and working in Budapest. I'm not into the royals and my point was we are all complicit in this whirlwind of royal obsession that feeds the tabloids while so much death is around us. That's the wrong priority. I've known 12 people to die. I didn't see the interview or know it was about her suicidal thoughts."
"I supported Meghan in the press the year I lived in London while I was doing Death of a Salesman and would never demean a person's mental health," he added. "My words were twisted. A classic tabloid trick. That was not the spirit of what I was saying."
Pierce also took to Twitter on Monday to talk about his comments, and said his onscreen daughter would always have his support.
"I just discovered my words are being used as an attack," he wrote. "Well done British Press. Clarity: The British monarchy is archaic in my American eyes. If slavery, colonialism and apartheid didn't educate you that they are racist, you failed history."
"I was fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best," he continued. "Predicting this hellacious maelstrom I also told her she would always have a friend in me. Because I had no interest in the interview doesn't change that. In no way am I insensitive to suicide. Unfortunately my family has suffered the pain of losing someone to suicide. I never was interviewed by the Daily Mail and their story manipulated my words in a radio interview. As I told Meghan, I support her and wish her all the best."
Last February, Pierce shared his support for Markle amid her and Prince Harry's royal exit when ET spoke with him at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards.
"The only reaction that’s important is Prince Harry and Archie and Meghan," Pierce said at the time. "They're just like any other family, just focusing on what’s important, which is pulling together as a family, and appreciating the love that they have for each other. They've decided on their own that to best do that, and prioritize that, is to step away -- and I support anybody [that does that]."
"The last time I saw her, she was really in love with this guy from England called Prince Harry," he added. "I think that when in doubt focus on what is solid and what you know...the love that she has for him, and I'm sure the love that she has for her new child."
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