BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell says Meghan should have been ‘less impatient’ with royal aides who ‘bent over backwards’ to support her – and dismisses Oprah interview claims, saying race wasn’t a ‘significant factor’ in decision to leave UK

BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell has claimed Meghan should have been ‘less impatient’ with the royal aides who ‘bent over backwards’ to support her.

The veteran broadcaster, 70, also dismissed the claims made in Harry and Meghan’s 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, arguing race was not a ‘significant factor’ in their decision to leave the UK for California almost four years ago.

He rejected the idea that the Palace was against them from the start and praised the Sussexes’ team of courtiers, which included Australian private secretary Samantha Cohen and American communication secretaries Jason Knauf and Sara Latham.

Bound by ‘the discipline of being a BBC reporter’ for decades, Mr Witchell has shed light on what he really thinks about the royal family in an honest interview with the Sunday Times Magazine ahead of his upcoming retirement. 

He even revealed how close he was to interviewing Princess Diana for Panorama until he was stood down in place of Martin Bashir, leading to an explosive BBC scandal over how the disgraced journalist secured the chat.

Mr Witchell said Harry and Meghan had been a great loss to the Palace and wished they had tried harder and given it more time.

He added: ‘If she [Meghan] had perhaps just been less impatient, less inclined to see well-meaning people as being in some way against her. It’s sad, particularly the relationship [breakdown] between Harry and William.’

BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell (pictured) has claimed Meghan should have been less impatient with the royal aides who ‘bent over backwards’ to support her

He also dismissed the claims made in the Sussexes’ 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, arguing race was not a ‘significant’ factor’ in their decision to leave the UK

He said the Sussexes’ aides had worked tirelessly and sympathised with Meghan but ultimately it did not work out. He said: ‘I really don’t think race was a significant factor in it, I think it was more nationality and culture than it was race.’

But as well as claiming the Sussexes could have tried harder, Mr Witchell also believes Buckingham Palace should have made more effort with Harry before he and Meghan left the royal family.

He claimed that the Queen found it challenging to understand Harry’s pain when the Sussexes decided to leave the UK to live in California. 

Mr Witchell described Harry and Meghan’s story as ‘tedious’ but claimed it had to be covered because there was more appetite for the more frequent ‘soap opera aspects of the royal family’.

But the royal correspondent heaped praise on Prince William and Princess Kate, who he said have a good image and read the public mood well by focusing on areas such as homelessness, the environment and mental health. 

Mr Witchell said that he knows the soap opera aspect is part of the job despite not feeling comfortable with it.

Amid a glittering career, there are perhaps two soap opera moments Mr Witchell was the protagonist in himself.

Mr Witchell also believes Buckingham Palace should have ‘tried harder’ with Harry before he and Meghan left the royal family

The broadcaster came under fire when a group of gay rights activists stormed the Six O’Clock News studio in 1998 to protest against the Section 28 homosexuality law.

As his co-host Sue Lawley carried on reading the news, Mr Witchell sat on one of the women and covered her hand with his mouth, leading to a Daily Mirror front page the next day which read: ‘Beeb man sits on lesbian’.

Another defining moment in his career was when King Charles described him as ‘awful’ during a photoshoot in the Swiss Alps in 2005.

The journalist had asked a question about the royal’s upcoming nuptials to Camilla Parker Bowles.

While seated next to his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, he said: ‘Bloody people. I can’t bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is.’

William remained calm and politely said: ‘As long as I don’t lose the rings. I have one responsibility and I’m bound to do something wrong.’

Mr Witchell maintains that he was right to ask the question and was doing his job, but he said it was a fact that Charles did not like him for many years.

In 2005, Prince Charles – as he was then – famously insulted the BBC’s royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell

In 1988 the Six O’Clock News studio was invaded by a group of lesbian protesters while Witchell and Sue Lawley were presenting

They are said to have ‘made up’ now and Charles even wished him well for his retirement on a flight back to the UK from the state visit to Kenya last month.

Mr Witchell also made headlines when he announced the birth of Harry and Meghan’s baby Prince Archie in May 2019.

During a live broadcast outside Buckingham Palace, the journalist completely lost his train of thought and handed back to the studio, raising fears online over his health. He suggested that he subconsciously may have switched off because it was about the Sussexes.

Mr Witchell also touched on the Prince Andrew scandal and claimed the royals had no choice but to cut the duke off over his friendships with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

And as he gets closer to being free from the BBC’s impartiality chains, he also said Gary Lineker’s tweets about Tory immigration policy, which he compared with Nazi Germany, was ‘terribly unwise.’

The broadcaster, who did not start out wanting to be a royal correspondent, has been central to the Beeb’s coverage for 47 years.

He joined Huw Edwards in reporting Queen Elizabeth II’s death on September 8 last year, which he was very moved by.

He believes Mr Edwards has been a big loss to the BBC since he was suspended following allegations he paid a young person thousands of pounds and received sexual images. 

Mr Witchell was the first to broadcast the confirmed news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on August 31, 1997 and provided live radio commentary from outside Westminster Abbey at her funeral.

He had met Diana several times and the Princess of Wales had even invited him round for lunch to discuss the opportunity of doing a Panorama interview.

Before he could accept the invitation, he was informed by the Panorama editor that Martin Bashir had been given the now-infamous interview.

Viewed by 23 million people, Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana was hailed as the scoop of a generation. The Princess declared ‘there were three of us in this marriage’ – referring to Charles’s then-mistress Camilla – and spoke of her post-natal depression and bulimia. 

Mr Witchell even revealed how close he was to interviewing Princess Diana on Panorama until he was stood down in place of Martin Bashir, leading to an explosive BBC scandal over how the disgraced journalist secured the chat

Bashir, however, had shown Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, forged bank statements to gain access to the Princess and then tricked her by peddling a string of smears and lies, including claiming that Prince William’s watch had been bugged to record her conversations. 

Mr Witchell first joined the BBC after finishing a law degree at Leeds University, later becoming a BBC reporter in Northern Ireland in 1979, which included covering the assassination of Earl Mountbatten and the IRA hunger strikes.

He then became a news reporter for television news in 1982 where he covered the Falklands conflict, as well as covering Margaret Thatcher’s 1983 general election campaign for the BBC, before returning to Belfast to become the BBC’s Ireland correspondent.

He was one of the founding presenters of the Six O’Clock News with Sue Lawley in 1984.

Mr Witchell went on to become the main presenter of the re-launched Breakfast News programme from 1989 to 1994.

He then returned to frontline reporting for the BBC’s Panorama programme, and then as the BBC’s royal and diplomatic correspondent from 1998.