London’s first black Lord Lieutenant Sir Kenneth Olisa dismisses ‘racist royals’ scandal as ‘nonsense’ and says ‘discussing the features of an unborn child is harmless’

King Charles III‘s representative in the capital has defended the royals against ‘nonsense’ claims that discussing Archie’s skin colour is racist, declaring: ‘In my family discussing the features of an unborn relative is not just harmless, it is part of the joy of anticipation’.

Sir Kenneth Olisa, the first black Lord-Lieutenant of London in the role’s 500-year-old history, has accused critics of failing to keep an ‘open mind’ about what is usually a positive conversation between members of a ‘loving family’.

His comments came after equalities campaigner Sir Trevor Phillips was equally dismissive, declaring: ‘There is no family of colour anywhere in the world where that conversation doesn’t take place’. 

Meghan Markle ignited a race row in 2021 when she told a shocked Oprah Winfrey that a member of the Royal Family allegedly raised questions or concerns about ‘how dark’ the skin of her first child might be.

Omid Scobie‘s book Endgame reignited the row when a Dutch translation named the King and Kate Middleton as the senior Royals alleged to have speculated about the skin colour of Prince Archie, leading to the pair being branded the ‘royal racists’.

But Sir Kenneth Olisa told MailOnline: ‘The alleged exchange was private and so none of the rest of us can possibly have a view. However, in my family and in those of my friends and acquaintances, discussing the features of an unborn relative is not just harmless, it is part of the joy of anticipation’. 

Sir Kenneth, who was named Britain’s most influential black person in 2016, has repeatedly said he has ‘never once encountered the slightest hint of racism’ in his many years of working with the royals. 

King Charles III  listens to Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London Kenneth Olisa (left) as he visits, with Queen Camilla in Harrow in December 2022. Sir Kenneth has said he has never seen ‘the slightest hint of racism’ in his years working with the royals

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Sir Kenneth Olisa, at official events in 2018 and 2019

Prince William and Kate with Sir Kenneth at the “No Time To Die” World Premiere at Royal Albert Hall on September 28, 2021

Queen Elizabeth II and Sir Kenneth at the ceremonial welcome at Horse Guards Parade for King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands in October 2018. Sir Kenneth revealed after she died that she had held his hand when he had been diagnosed with cancer

He believes that if the conversation did take place, many people have been too quick to condemn it as a ‘vulgar, racist question’ – rather a benign, innocent conversation amongst loved ones. 

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline after Omid Scobie’s book raised the issue again, Sir Kenneth said: ‘I commented on this nonsense back in 2021 when it first emerged in the Oprah interview. The intervening years haven’t given me any reason to revise my opinion. Quite the opposite. It is a fact that the only way to understand someone’s comment is to know the context and their intention. Therefore, only those who are privy to a conversation can decide how to react’. 

As Lord-Lieutenant of London since 2015, Sir Kenneth has accompanied many members of the Royal Family on engagements in London, including Queen Elizabeth II, who appointed him.

He represented the Queen in the capital for seven years and is continuing in his role under King Charles III. He has also supported the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Harry and his wife the Duchess of Sussex, when she carried out official duties. 

The prince and Meghan Markle told Oprah that a a member of Harry’s family speculated about what colour Archie’s skin would be when he was born. Oprah was shocked but he claim was never mentioned in Spare or their Netflix documentary

Prince Archie is pictured with his parents at his christening in this official photograph taken in July 2019

Sir Kenneth Olisa with the Princess of Wales at Somerset House in 2019

He has previously revealed in the aftermath of the Oprah interview that a similar conversation was had in his family. An innocent relative had wanted to knit some new baby clothes that would complement the mixed-race child’s skin tone.

But he was clear: ‘Absolutely no offence was intended or taken’. Writing for the Mail he said: ‘My wife Julia and I were asked exactly the same question — in a spirit of benign interest — by my mother-in-law Muriel shortly before the first of our two daughters was born in 1980.

‘I should point out here that, like Meghan and Harry, I am black and Julia is white.

‘My late mother-in-law, excited about the arrival of her first grandchild, was getting her knitting needles out and simply wanted to know what colour baby clothes would suit the newborn’s complexion.

‘She asked in much the same way that any of us might wonder: will the baby have her mother’s hair or her father’s nose? Absolutely no offence was intended or taken.

‘The context of that conversation was a loving family, its intent to resolve the question of buying wool — which goes to show that unless you know both context and intent of what people say, you must keep an open mind’.

Sir Kenneth is a businessman and philanthropist, the founder of two technology merchant banks and the first British-born black man to serve as a Director of a FTSE-100 company, Reuters. 

He enjoyed a good relationship with the Queen, revealing after her death that she had held his hand and consoled him when he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Speaking before Her Majesty’s funeral he said she would have been ‘deeply flattered’ by the huge queues of people who line the streets of London, day and night, to see her lying in state in Westminster Hall.

Talking about his last memories of her, he said: ‘Duty and service to other people are the two big messages, but I have to say absolutely coupled with fun – she had a wicked sense of humour’.

Since King Charles has taken to the throne he has praised his energy. He said earlier this year that his pace is ‘100 times faster’ than the late Queen’s.

Meghan first revealed vague details of the exchange in an interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey in 2021. She claimed there had been ‘conversations’ – suggesting more than one – in which ‘concerns’ were raised to Harry about how dark Archie’s skin might be.

But Harry stated later in the interview that it was one conversation. No other details were provided about who was involved. When Harry was asked about the allegations in a interview earlier this year with ITV’s Tom Bradby, he insisted the couple had accused his family members of nothing more than ‘unconscious bias’. He blamed the media for blowing the situation out of proportion.

The racism row was not mentioned in either Harry’s autobiography Spare or the Netflix series the couple made about their exit from royal life.

The statement from the late Queen about the alleged remarks, that ‘recollections may vary’, suggests it was only Meghan and Harry who considered them racist at the time.

Sir Trevor Phillips said on Friday that the alleged conversation would have been born out of ‘excitement’ and whether the prince would look more like the Duke or Duchess of Sussex.

The former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission believes that discussing a child’s complexion in a mixed-race home should be viewed no differently to discussing the colour of a child’s eyes or hair.

Meghan – whose father Thomas Markle is white and mother Doria Ragland is African-American – claimed in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that there had been ‘conversations’ in which ‘concerns’ were raised to Harry about how dark Archie’s skin might be.

Sir Kenneth arrives for a service at Westminster Abbey in London in 2019 to mark 750 years since Edward the Confessor’s original church was rebuilt under the reign of King Henry III

Sir Trevor, a former Labour member of the London Assembly, told Sky News: ‘I’ll be absolutely frank and say I think it’s a nonsense story. I think that there is no family of colour anywhere in the entire world where that conversation doesn’t take place. I have a grandson who is absolutely gorgeous and delicious and we as a family talk about is he going to look more like his mother, who looks like me, or his father, who is of Puerto Rican heritage. In the same way that I guess your family might talk about what hair colour, what eye colour. We all have the same hair colour. The thing that is different about us is skin colour.

‘So it’s a mark of excitement. I suspect, I have no idea what context the conversation took place – and I imagine the conversation did take place –but I suspect what somebody might have been saying is I really hope this baby looks more like her than it looks like him.’

His comments echo those made by Meghan’s father Thomas. He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain in 2021 he did not ‘think the British Royal Family are racist at all’, adding he hoped the comment on skin tone was ‘just a dumb question’.

Former footballer and father-of-seven John Barnes, who is married to a white woman, also previously said the royal who asked about the skin tone was ‘being realistic’.