The British royal family has been involved in a number of racism-related scandals in recent years.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was accused of turning a blind eye to the monarchy's racist past by failing to publicly apologize for its support for the slave trade before her death in 2022. And before King Charles' coronation in May 2023, royal commentators called for him to hold the monarchy accountable by offering an apology.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan said the royal family never acknowledged the tabloids' racist treatment of Meghan and that unnamed royals had conversations about how dark their son's skin tone would be before his birth.
In a statement issued after the interview, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that issues of race would be "taken very seriously" and would be addressed by the family privately.
More recently, The Independent reported on Monday that a royal catalogue published in 2008 was found to contain offensive racial language.
The Royal Collection Trust — a department within the royal household responsible for managing the royal art collection — used 40 mentions of offensive racial terms in the catalogue, the publication reports.