Mirror
Prince William angrily denied racism inside the Royal Family today and said he intended to speak to his brother Harry after their rift.
Asked at the end of a visit to a school if he had spoken to his brother since Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke of Cambridge said: “No I haven’t spoken to him yet but I will do.”
When Sky News reporter Inzamam Rashid asked immediately afterwards if the Royal Family was a racist family, William, 38, said: “We’re very much not a racist family.”
The future King was asked the questions as he and Kate left a school in Stratford, east London, where they helped promote a new mental health initiative in secondary schools.
The couple made their first public appearance since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sensationally made a string of allegations in an interview with Oprah Winfrey which was screened on Sunday.
Harry and Meghan alleged an unnamed royal had made remarks about son Archie’s skin colour before he was born, sparking crisis talks at Buckingham Palace
Faced with competing claims that they and their staff left their sister-in-law Meghan unprotected and suicidal or did nothing to stop her bullying aides, William and Kate signalled their intention to carry on as normal.
They went to School21 in Stratford, east London, to mark children’s return to classes and the rollout to secondary schools of a mental health project for pupils which Kate launched in primary schools in 2018.
It is understood that William and Kate have decided that there is no need to tailor their programme to avoid subjects uncomfortably close to home.
On Tuesday Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying that issues raised in the interview, including an allegation of racism, were “concerning”, and said the matter would be dealt with privately.
In Sunday night’s bombshell interview, Harry and Meghan opened up on their relationship with William and Kate.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey, Harry hinted at tensions with his brother, saying the relationship was “space”.
The lessons are on a website financed from an initial £800,000 grant from the then Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry and launched by Kate at Roe Green Junior School in Kingsbury, north west London, in January 2018.
The future Queen has championed the idea of early intervention by experts to help children struggling with mental health problems.
The royal couple were welcomed to the school by co-head teachers Stephanie Shaldas and Edmund Coogan and were soon introduced to some of the school’s youngest pupils enjoying a play session.
Kate, in a pink Max & Co coat, knelt down to talk to children in a pop-up cafe, while William helped a little girl building a wall in the playground’ construction area.
He joked he he had been taking orders from the construction manager. “I was just doing what I was told,” he said to laughter from teachers.
And Meghan alleged that Kate had made her cry before her wedding – but said there was no rift between them.
Children at School21, a state-funded school for pupils aged 4-18, will be given access to lessons on issues such as anxiety and depression from Mentally Healthy Schools.
Later he sat on a raised floor talking to a little boy who was brandishing a clipboard, as Kate went to a water play area and then joined children in a sand pit hunting for treasure.
“Have you found any treasure yet?” she asked, before chatting to the children about how many teeth they had lost – “Did the tooth fairy come?”
She asked them what it was like to be back at school. “Is it fun to be back with all your friends?”
She and William then joined teachers and staff involved in the Mentally Healthy Schools project to talk about its aims and impact on children.
They sat in a circle outside the school because of Covid restrictions.
Andrea Silvain, deputy head of the middle school at the 1,200-pupil free school, said the last year of lockdowns had brought teachers and parents closer together and families had appreciated the help that the mental health website had given.
“We’ve had some very positive feedback from parents,” she said. “People have been through this lockdown together,” William said. “It’s a really useful tool.”
Charlie Dilger, head of inclusion at the school, said: “We want our young people to enjoy time with their mates. “We want children who are open about their feelings.”
Ms Silvain told the couple that children needed to be happy to be able to learn properly. “We need them to feel well,” she added.
One in 10 children suffers some kind of mental health issue, often because of problems in the family such as abuse, addiction, neglect, or marital breakdown affecting all social classes.
Course materials have been accessed more than a million times since the project was launched as a pilot in January 2018 and nationally in primary schools in March that year.
It comes as the royals find themselves in the spotlight after Harry and Meghan’s scathing remarks.
Meghan claimed that Kate had made her cry in the build-up to her wedding, but reports at the time claimed it was the other way around.
The Duchess of Sussex said that “the narrative” surrounding the incident “was really, really difficult” and “when everything changed”.
She later said it was the beginning of a “character assassination”, and she claimed she was not protected.
She said: “It was a really hard week of the wedding, and she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised, and she brought me flowers and a note apologising and she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone. To just take accountability for it.
This story first appeared in Mirror
