The Royal Family has now deleted a statement from Prince Harry defending Meghan Markle from vile racist comments.

The Duke of Sussex issued a statement against the press in November 2016 as he slammed certain news outlets for the “racial undertones of comment pieces”. The statement was released by former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf just days after Harry’s relationship with Meghan was made public.

It remained live on the royal.uk website for more than seven years. However, the link has now stopped working, with archive data showing the statement was deleted sometime between December 3 and December 10.

Prince Harry had released a strongly-worded statement ( 
Image:
2021 Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese)

The statement Harry released was said to have made both King Charles and Prince William “furious”. Harry explained in his debut memoir, Spare, how the pair worried it made them look bad for not defending their wives in the same way.

The now-deleted statement came following an article in The Mail on Sunday which read: “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed—so will he be dropping by for tea?”

Kensington Palace released the statement on behalf of “the Communications Secretary to Prince Harry”. It read: “The past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment.

King Charles and Prince William were ‘furious’ ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
“Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments. Some of it has been hidden from the public—the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life.

“Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm.

“He knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game.’ He strongly disagrees. This is not a game—it is her life and his.”