Hello I'm rosa kins each week on the BBC world service. I look in depth that one of the biggest stories in the news, In this edition. It's the harry and meghan interview and how the royal family, Mr Jones, the is It was a wedding like no other it all black gospel choir sung for royalty and for the watching world. It was a moment of happiness, a moment of change and a moment of difference. Ok, look at.

Guess what's coming, there's idris Elba yeah! Oh, my goodness, is that Oprah Winfrey is. We just saw a shot of Serena Williams is here. The sermon was different to Meghan Markle's, the first, strange woman to marry into the royal family, and on that day she sat next to prince Harry and they listened the african american bishop, Michael curry, referencing the leader of America's civil rights movement, the late after martin Luther king once said, and I quote, we must discover the power of love. These differences, but deliberate hurry and meg wanted to send a message and for many young british women of color. The message was received. It's kind of a big moment: You never seen. Anyone like making megan families to see someone like a market in that family does send a symbolic message and symbols and is very powerful that they don't have to be exclusively. Why and also that you can wear your blackness with pride and yet this week.

not even three years later, that sense of optimism is gone. In advance warning the duchess of sussex, has told Oprah Winfrey. She had suicidal thoughts. He also revealed that when she was pregnant, questions about the color of their skin were asked within the royal household. We can't know what happened in that conversation in the words of the palace recollections may vary and principles harris. Brother has given this response with that they re coming over. The bridge of you has sparked a passionate debate about racism, whether it exists in the roll family, whether it exists in the uk media, but whatever the role of the press, whatever happened in that particular conversation, the upset is real,

Hurry and megan have cut their ties. They live in california and in the eyes of many like the broadcast, attrition god, the rule families lost a chance to change and stay relevant maiden was a huge, missed opportunity because Harry and make it more obviously screaming into their pillar, not being heard. I thought initially after the injury arthur. Oh that's it. a family really really quite blown. It form a BBC royal correspondent. He to hunt is more direct. Still. He wrote that the monarchy fail to embrace a young african american woman and instead reverted to being white, predominantly mail at a tad stale. So where did it all go wrong? Why did this huge opportunity slip away? There are two key contradictions that help us understand the story. The first is the role families desire to live private lives, while being one of the most famous families on earth.

Let's go back to nineteen thirty six. The british empire faces on extraordinary crisis. Not for centuries have these houses of parliament witnessed so dangerous political struggle. Shall king edward, the eighth mary, mrs Svensson, king edward, the eighth in a bind he wanted to marry the divorced american socialite wallace simpson, and this clashed with his duties- is king and as head of the church of england, so we abdicated and the

old country, voraciously consumed this royal soap opera and that public glare has continued cameras poking out of every corner and recording every twitch you make, so you can deduce to certain extent extended on those occasions. You accept that that's part of it. I think if you don't try to work out in your own mind some kind of method for existing and surviving this kind of thing, you would go mad. I think that spring charles a day before his wedding in nineteen. Eighty one charles says, each royal must find their own method of dealing with the media. Well for harry and Meghan, their method was to leave. We all know what the british press would be like drawing my mental health. I realise this is toxic, so I didn't want any

her husband and whatever the father would do is like. I need to get my family out ahead. Ninety thirty six, nineteen, eighty one and twenty twenty one. Three times we see the same tension, private versus public as the BBC royal correspondent, jonny diamond, says it's the merging of personal and private roles, the competing interests of public accountability, ceaseless media attention and the need to remain relevant, and that last point leads us to the second contradiction I want to explore. How can this royal family manages global reputation when it's preference is always to say next to nothing? It represents not just a sable of historic oppression, but ass. We see with hurry megan the continued residue of the discrimination and racism made british empire that sky human.

He's a former minister in barbados in the caribbean for him. This week's ferule placed directly into barbados his decision to become a republic later this year, his countries governor general sondra mason, announcing the change last year. The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind barbarians want a barbarian. State that sentiments being heard in many parts of the commonwealth? This week I was reading an editorial on the website news america's earlier. It asks when will caribbean nations finally drop, the queen, The head of state and then there's australia where support for the royal family, high, but where this week the republican question returned it's our country itself. constitution. You know our head of state should be an australian citizen should be one of us, not the quaint old king of the united kingdom. That's it

homer australian prime minister, Malcolm tumble, whose a leader of the republican movement there and its statements like these from barbados tool, failure that show why harry and megan matter as the common data janelle older. It explains its part of a much bigger discussion about the future of the monarchy. A our part, the common They leave the commonwealth. They are united, leading a diverse country. So I think there are issues that were raised do effect ass. They do in fact more than just their family. They

do and the split with harry and Meghan connects to different views of where the royal family fits into the world and, crucially, how and if the family talks about that, we'll have to see if the silent strategy will be enough in the long term, and if those are the contradictions within the family itself, the uk, as a country, has one of it's own. This is the writer Bonnie greer. If there's such a thing as a brand, if you're talking about it in relation to a country, this country's brand has been tarnished to use Bonnie greer words, the royal family is part of the ukase brand. It's also central to the EU. A sense of self, the british are enthusiastic loyalists and it's worth us thinking back to that sunny spring day in twenty eighteen and listening to this young woman reacting to the music at meghan and harry's wedding, it was so it's just like everyone from different nationalities,

like, even though the so much going on in world. It's like this brought us together, the british, historian, professor David. All, the sugar has since august, was this image of a confident modern nation at ease with multiculturalism and unified, really so hard to live up to. Well, perhaps for the royal family for parts of the press for parts of the country, the answer is yes Perhaps it should not be a surprise that how hereditary monarchy fits into a modern multi. Cultural democracy remains a work in progress. Why should it be a surprise that an institution steeped in tradition moves at its own pace? The risk is, though, that it gets left by. Thank you for listening. There will be more from the document she podcast sin. The documentary is just one of our bbc world service podcast. There are many others to tease

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