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London (AP) - For days, the allegation has been floating like a dark cloud over Buckingham Palace.

The Royals - a stiffened, ultra-conservative clan that sees darker skin tones as an unacceptable threat?

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry created exactly this image in their internationally acclaimed interview with US presenter Oprah Winfrey from the other side of the Atlantic.

Now one of the royals speaks personally for the first time.

Prince William denies racism allegation

"We are not a racist family," said Harry's brother Prince William on Thursday while visiting a school in London.

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It is a succinct answer to reporters' questions, thrown in passing, but nonetheless determined and without room for doubt.

Heir to the throne number two strikes clearly clearer tones than the official line of the royal family.

Archie's skin color was debated in the palace

Meghans and Harry's most serious accusation has it all: it was in the royal family before the birth of their son Archie how dark his skin color would be, the two said.

The palace is said to have seen a dark-skinned baby as a possible problem.

The 39-year-old Duchess is the first in the Windsor family with African American roots, her mother is black.

A high-ranking royal had expressed the consideration of how the skin color could work outwardly to Harry, it said.

The couple does not want to reveal who that was at any price.

Only Her Majesty - Queen Elizabeth II personally - and Prince Philip were subsequently taken out of the line of fire.

British royal family take the allegations "very seriously"

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The palace took its time to react after the interview, which was initially broadcast on US television on Sunday evening, triggered shock waves across the Atlantic.

"According to insiders, various crisis meetings should have taken place in the background."

Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, the answer was: Take the allegations “very seriously”, according to a written statement.

The issues raised, especially the accusation of racism, are worrying.

Although the memory is partly different, the allegations are processed privately by the family.

Harry, Meghan and Archie "beloved family members"

It is not an independent explanation of how ingrained racist mindsets are in the British monarchy even today.

The public will probably never know what the “private reappraisal” should look like or what it may reveal.

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Nevertheless, the carefully chosen words from the palace are not a clear denial.

They are cautious, empathetic, trying to calm things down.

Harry, Meghan and Archie remained "beloved family members", so the last sentence.

Harry and Prince William: a strained relationship

It is all the more significant that Prince William refills it just two days later and with his cancellation probably destroys even the slightest hope that the palace could seriously deal internally with unpleasant questions about its own attitude.

He has not spoken to his brother yet, said William, whose relationship with Prince Harry has long been considered tense.

"But I'll do that."

Royals under general suspicion

The closest royal family is under general suspicion.

Is Prince Charles, who is said to have temporarily refused Harry's calls, the suspect?

Or William himself?

Maybe even Duchess Kate?

British bookmakers are betting in full swing.

Commentators criticize that due to the vague accusations hardly any royal can lean back and relax, but certainly not be able to defend them.

And so it rumbles on in the royal family - with no prospect of smoothing out the waves anytime soon.

© dpa-infocom