Prince Harry Takes Firm Stance On Lady Susan Hussey Controversy

Lady Susan Hussey, who was a longtime lady-in-waiting for the late Queen Elizabeth II, became an international topic in November 2022 when she attended a Violence Against Women and Girls event hosted by Camila, Queen Consort. Hussey spoke with Ngozi Fulani, founder and chief executive of the charity Sistah Spice, and repeatedly asked Fulani, who was born in Britain, where she was from. "No, what part of Africa are YOU from?" Hussey asked, per the Independent, in a long string of unsolicited questions. Hussey, who is a godmother to Prince William, later met with Fulani in person to apologize for the encounter. In addition to an apology, Hussey resigned from the palace.

In response to this, the palace issued a statement, saying that Hussey's comments were "unacceptable and deeply regrettable," per the BBC. Hussey's comments were made while Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, were in Boston and a spokesperson of William's said that "racism has no place in our society," per the Daily Mail. Considering the fact that Prince Harry has become an outspoken voice on the royal family, with both his Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan" and his memoir "Spare," people also looked to him to see what his comments would be about the situation. He was surprisingly lax. 

While speaking with Tom Bradby for ITV on January 8, Prince Harry addressed the controversial comments made by Lady Susan Hussey to Ngozi Fulani. Harry said that he was glad that Fulani received an apology. He also admitted that he and wife, Meghan Markle, were very fond of Hussey. "Meghan and I love Lady Susan Hussey, we think she's great," Harry said. "She never meant any harm at all, but the response from the British press and from people online (because of the stories they wrote) was horrendous, absolutely horrendous."

Many on Twitter were disappointed with Harry's response. "Harry has some way to go to fully understand racism, discrimination and their impact, particularly towards Black women, which is above and beyond his wife," one person tweeted. "If you are only in the fight for your wife, you are not in it at all." Someone else asked, "Is Harry ok?" Another person didn't like Harry's focus of attacking the media. "Bulls**t. I've read the transcript of what [Hussey] said to Fulani — it was a barrage of racist innuendo," another tweeted. "To turn this into more media bashing shows he doesn't really care about many of the causes he tries to promote." So many felt Harry's response wasn't encompassing enough and wanted to hear more from him on the topic of racism within the palace.