Don Lemon Pans Royal Family’s Terse, Official Response to Meghan and Harry’s Bombshell Interview: ‘I Don’t Understand What the Palace Is Doing’

CNN host Don Lemon called out the terse and very brief official response from the royal family to the bombshell revelation from Sunday’s interview between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Oprah Winfrey.

The couple stunned the world during the two-hour TV event with an explosive revelation that unnamed members of the royal family expressed racist concerns about the possible dark skin tone of their first-born son, Archie. On Monday, in response, the CNN host had broadly condemned the British monarchy as having been “built on a racist structure.”

Lemon appeared on The Situation Room on Tuesday night when the royal family — after nearly 48 hours of silence — issued a short statement.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the statement read. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. Whilst some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”

Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer noted that Lemon had stressed the need for an official response to the damning allegation. “Now, they have issued a brief public statement. What’s your reaction? What do you make of it?” Blitzer asked.

“I’m glad they finally responded to it. I think it’s good that they did,” Lemon said. “The statement I find, Wolf, is basically ‘I apologize if I hurt you’ kind of statement. Isa went through it. She said the family was saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. This isn’t the first time that Meghan has spoken about how mentally tough it was for her during her time in the U.K.. She talked about that shortly after they said they were going to step back from royal duties. There was a sound bite with her talking about that and we discussed that in the news.”

“As far as not knowing the extent and that racism was an issue, basically they didn’t admit to racism,” Lemon pointed out. “They said the issues raised, particularly that of race, are ‘concerning.’ They didn’t say we have a problem with racism. That was part of the reason they stepped back, that we all discussed here and has been discussed in the British media, especially how Harry and Meghan felt the British media had been racist towards Meghan, comparing the way they treated Meghan and the way stories were centered around Meghan and her counterpart. So I don’t understand what the palace is doing, why they’re saying this is new to them. None of this is certainly new to them.”

“How I read the statement,” Lemon concluded, “it’s a masterful statement that addresses it without really addressing the problem.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.