Meghan and Harry: staunch NI royalist hits out over ‘pretty poor’ criticism of family

Billy Moore, general secretary of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, made the comments in the wake of the couple’s interview this week with Oprah Winfrey.

In a transcript of the interview published by The Sun newspaper, Meghan had said of her son Archie: “When I was pregnant [there were] concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born...”

Oprah said: “Because they were concerned that if he were too brown, that that would be a problem? Are you saying that?”

Meghan replied: “If that’s the assumption you’re making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one.”

Mr Moore, 65 and living in Londonderry, told the News Letter: “Certainly the Royal Family have a lot to put up with.

“There’s always going to be those people that’ll take every opportunity to have a knock at them, have a dig at them, and this was no exception to the rule.

“It’s disappointing. I think it’s disappointing that people should wash their dirty linen in public.

“I believe if there were rifts within the family circles, the best way to heal those rifts would be to have discussions and dialogue within your family circle – not to try to create some sort of feeling of despondency or whatever with the media and a worldwide audience. I think that’s pretty poor.

“I just don’t think it’s right. They surely could’ve tried to resolve their inner circle problems in a more mature manner.

“All families have disputes, arguments, fall-outs. But they resolve them by sitting down and talking amongst themselves.

“They don’t go and hold interviews with worldwide audiences and try to create some sort of feel-good factor for themselves. Very sad.”

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