Prince Charles stopped taking Harry's calls; palace allegedly concerned about Archie's skin colour

Prince Harry finally cleared the air around speculations on his relationship with his family members in his recent interview with Oprah Winfrey. He revealed that things are not too well between him and his father Prince Charles.

The Duke of Sussex said that he will always love his father, but is "disappointed" in him. Harry said he had spoken to Prince Charles twice before making the official announcement of his and Meghan Markle's exit as senior members of the British royal family in January last year, but then the heir apparent to the British throne "stopped taking his calls" and asked him to put it in "writing," reports CBS.

The father-son duo are on better terms since then, but Harry says there is still "a lot to work through there."

"I feel really let down because he's been through something similar and he knows what pain feels like and Archie's his grandson. But at the same time, of course I will always love him but there's a lot of hurt that's happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship," he said.

As for his brother Prince William, Harry reiterated his previous statement that they love each other but are on different paths. He told Oprah: "As I've said before, I love William to bits — he's my brother and we've been through hell together and we have a shared experience but we're on different paths. Our relationship is 'space' at the moment. And time heals all things, hopefully."

When Oprah asked Harry if he would have stepped back from royal duties were it not for Meghan, he said he wouldn't have as he didn't know he was trapped. He also said that he believes his father and brother, future heirs to the throne, are also "trapped within the system," like the rest of their family.

The Duke also denied the reports that he left his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, blindsided about his announcement of his exit as a working royal, and revealed he had spoken to her three times. He also said that the Queen is his "colonel-in-chief" and she always will be, and in fact, they have spoken more since his exit than they ever did before.

"I've spoken more to my grandmother in the last year than I have done for many, many years. My grandmother and I have a really good relationship. And an understanding. And I have a deep respect for her," he said.

Harry and Meghan have made some quite shocking revelations in the interview, including that there were concerns in the palace about the skin colour of their son Archie before he was born.

"In the months when I was pregnant, all around the same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born," Meghan said, refusing to divulge who were having these discussions with her husband.

The former American actress said that the "idea of the first member of colour in the royal family not being titled" brought a lot of pain to her, not because of convection but because of safety. She was worried about her son's security especially because of her own interactions with the British media.

In fact, the couple said that their immediate departure for Canada after the end of their final round of royal engagements in London was because their security detail was taken away from them on "short notice" due to their "change in status." Pictures of their home in Canada then made it to the news, after which they decided to leave for America.

Harry added that he was cut off financially by the palace in the first quarter of 2020, even though their exit deal promised them support until they get settled down, and this is why they had to sign lucrative deals with companies including Netflix and Spotify.

"That (deal) was suggested by somebody else by the point of where my family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us," Harry said, adding: "I've got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this."

Meghan said that they considered several options for their career, as Harry added, "from my perspective, all I needed was enough money to be able to pay for security to keep my family safe."

"I never thought I would have my security removed, because I was born in to this position," he said. "I inherited the risk. So that was a shock to me," Harry said about the situation. Meghan said that she even wrote to her in-laws requesting to keep her "husband safe" even if she and her son's security are "not a priority," but was told it isn't possible.