A member of the Buckingham Palace household has resigned after "unacceptable" comments were made at a reception held by the Queen Consort.
Ngozi Fulani, chief executive of Sistah Space, said she was asked by the household member where she "really came from" during the violence against women and girls reception at the palace on Tuesday. Other guests included Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska and Jordan's Queen Rania.
Ms Fulani, who is black, works as an advocate for survivors of domestic abuse and described the exchange as a "violation".
She wrote on Twitter that the woman "approached me, moved my hair to see my name badge" and then insisted on asking her "what part of Africa are you from".
Despite her saying she is British, the member of staff said: "I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you're from."
It comes after Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, claimed last year that a member of the royal household raised concerns about what colour skin her son Archie would have before he was born.
The palace responded by saying that "issues raised, particularly that of race" were "concerning" and the matters would be addressed privately.
Buckingham Palace said of Tuesday's events: "We take this incident extremely seriously and have investigated immediately to establish the full details.
"In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, received multiple "disgusting and very real" threats against her life when she was living in the U.K., according to the former head of U.K. counterterrorism policing. In an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News, Neil Basu said the threats came from the far-right, which he called the fastest growing source of terrorist threats in the U.K.
"If you'd seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it, the kind of rhetoric that's online, if you don't know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time," Basu told Channel 4 News, adding the police "had teams investigating, and people have been prosecuted for those threats" against Meghan.
The duchess, an American television actress before she married Britain's Prince Harry, dropped her last name, Markle, after her wedding. The royal couple left the U.K. and moved to the U.S. in 2020. They said security concerns were one of the reasons they decided to leave Britain and give up their official royal duties.
The Sussexes had spoken publicly about the racism directed at Meghan during their time in Britain. After the couple stepped back from their royal duties in 2020, the U.K. government decided they should no longer receive police protection during visits, even if they paid for that protection themselves.
Meghan and Harry use private security services in the U.S., but Harry's lawyers argue that this is not sufficient in the U.K., and they are challenging the British government's decision in court.
Basu told Channel 4 News that when he started working in U.K. counterterrorism in 2015, threats from the far right made up about six percent of his department's workload. When he left just over a year ago, he said that had risen to over 20%.
“Earlier this week, the Archewell Foundation Team helped prepare a Thanksgiving lunch for over 300 Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) residents in Los Angeles,” the post on the Archewell website reads. “DWC provides a wide array of resources to decrease barriers and end homelessness for all women including female veterans and their families, women with severe physical and mental health concerns and survivors of domestic violence.”
The duchess’s involvement in the Thanksgiving lunch comes after she revealed that she likes to spend Thanksgiving cooking for her loved ones, including her husband and their two children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, one.
“I love to cook, we’ll be home and just relax and sort of settle in,” Meghan told Ellen DeGeneres last year about her Thanksgiving plans.
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