That interview by the legendary Oprah Winfrey with want-away young royals Prince Harry-(Oops! Is he still a Prince or Duke?) and his wife Meghan Markle has everyone talking and asking the question: Is the British Royal Family made up of racist, cold, insensitive people?

Markle revealed that such was the anguish she was made to endure, that she considered committing suicide and that her son Archie’s skin tone was considered too dark.

Gasp!

On Harry’s end, he said he felt trapped and that his father refused to take his calls and cut him off financially leading him to having to make a living and doing deals with Netflix and Spotify. He made it clear that his family wasn’t too welcoming of his wife and that he had to leave the UK for a new life first in Canada and then in sunny California.

Through it all, Oprah took a benign approach and at times was very saccharine; after all she was a guest at their wedding and welcomed them into the Hollywood glitterari. There were some raised-eyebrow reactions but, in the main, Oprah was gentle on them.

If I was the inquisitor in that fabulously sculpted verdant garden, here’s what I would have put to the young couple now stripped of royal trappings and all that goes with that:

1. Meghan, do tell us, why did your first marriage fail and what lessons are you carrying into this union with Harry?
2. After a whirlwind courtship you agreed to marry your dashing prince. It was a fairy tale wedding back in 2018 but did you not consider what it would mean to become a frontline member of the British Royal Family and the role you would be expected to play within it? After all, this family goes all the way back to 1066?
3. You have alluded to the Royal Family’s racism and the insensitive way it dealt with your inability to cope so much so that you needed medical, possibly psychiatric, attention. Do you care to elaborate, perhaps give some examples?
4. You have made a living as an actress. With both you and Harry cut off from the Royal purse strings, will you be returning to your craft?
5. You have a somewhat fractious relationship with your own family, estranged from your father and your siblings who did not attend your wedding. They have not, as far as I know, met your son. Now you are set adrift from your husband’s family. You appear to find yourself even more isolated than when you were in the bosom of the Royal Family. What will you be doing to repair your familial ties?
6. Harry, you are no doubt aware of how your great grand uncle Edward Windsor, who too married an American divorcee, ended up living a dissolute life, cut off from his family and short of funds. His fate would not be lost on you. When you go to bed at night, do you ask yourself could this be history repeating itself?
7. How important is it to you both that Archie has a royal title? With you both opting out of the Firm, it does make his position that more tenuous don’t you think?
8. Meghan, your father’s health issues have been well documented and he has expressed his thoughts on your marriage. What manner of man is he? Are there any traits you admire? Do you have any love for him in your heart? Will you be looking to reconcile with him for the sake of your children?
9. You have for all intents and purposes turned your backs on Britain where you, Harry, were well loved and enjoyed the nation’s affections. How do you both see the future of the UK?
10. Will you be raising your children as British or Americans? How will you explain to both of them why you took this decision? Will you say it was because the UK harried your mother out of the country because of racism?
11. Harry, you have said that both your father and your brother, William, are trapped within the confines of the Royal Family but they are successors to the Throne. Isn’t it incumbent upon them to do their duty and represent the country accordingly? After all, they can’t just bail out as you have done?
12. Harry, what will you miss most from not being part of the Firm?
13. Meghan, you seem very close to your mother. What does she make of it all and do tell us what kind of woman is she?
14. Will she be helping in raising your kids?
15. Will you both be insisting on your children being familiar with their black heritage and what it means to be black? Meghan, you have often cited your status as a black woman. Why should your children getting in touch with their black side be so important?
16. In hindsight, don’t you think that both of you should have stuck it out and tried to turn the tide? You are part of a younger generation to whom the world will be looking to for changes. Why not be the symbol of the British monarchy’s evolution?
17. Your mother, Princess Diana, also opted out and decided to live her life away from the Royal Family. What advise would she have given you both today and what are your impressions of her?
18. Do tell me – and you can go first Meghan – how do you see the future of the Royal Family? What will it look like in another 50 years?
19. The Queen is greatly admired the world over. What are her enduring characteristics? What makes her such a good head of state?
20. You both give the impression that you were both cut off from the Royal Family and that your lives within it became unbearable. You are aware that there are those who are of the view that you cannot chose to walk away but expect to benefit from all that goes with being a member of the family. When you give up your gym membership, you can’t go back and use the showers or the elliptical machines. Can you not see that?
21. You have said that there were concerns about the darkness of Archie’s skin. You have chosen not to elaborate here but may I be so bold as to ask you, did that come from the immediate family, distant relatives or the royal courtiers and minions?
22. People have so much to say sometimes, why not show that stiff upper lip and keep calm and carry on. You could have quipped, ‘Whatever his skin complexion, he will be a good- looking boy, so watch out!’
23. Or, ‘The family doesn’t turn out good-looking people. Meghan and I are about to change all that’. Looking at the bigger picture, why should his skin colour matter?
24. Harry, you married an American black divorcee who is an actress, surely you would have expected incoming? At some point things would have likely got hot around the collar. Couldn’t you have braced for it and helped Meghan adapt to life in the Royal fishbowl?
25. Back in 1995, Princess Diana put the spotlight on the Royal Family with her interview with Martin Bashir, accusing it of coldness and insensitivity. She too expressed feelings of alienation and isolationism. That interview was a bomb placed under Buckingham Palace. After the revelations you have both made, I’m sure you are aware you have just punched in the nuclear codes and obliterated everything in sight. There is no coming back from this. Are you prepared for that? Is it worth it?
26. Meghan, you have said that you wanted to end it all after the way you were treated by the Royal Family. How did you envision that? Overdose of pills, shooting yourself, throwing yourself under a train? It’s pretty drastic wouldn’t you say?
27. Harry, what did you make of Meghan’s desperation? How did you bring her back off the ledge so to speak?
28. Do you see yourselves living in California until the end of your days? Can you ever make amends and return to the UK some day?