Meghan Markle Reveals Someone in the Palace Fretted Over 'How Dark' Archie Would Be

During Oprah Winfrey's far-reaching interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Sunday night, no stone was left unturned — and issues of race and of how welcomed Meghan felt when joining the royal family were among the most eye-opening topics.

When Oprah asked Meghan if she had thought about how different she was from others joining the royal family — being an outspoken woman, a divorcée, someone with an extensive work history, and biracial — Meghan allowed, "They made me think about it."

Meghan, who described herself as outspoken, was also asked if becoming less so were a case of her being "silent or silenced" once she joined the royal family. She admitted to Oprah, "The latter."

With negative media stories pegging Meghan as a diva and criticizing her for everything from cradling her baby bump to eating avocados, she said what struck her about the Firm — a term for the royal family and the people who run it — during that period was that, "They were willing to lie to protect other members of the family, but they were not willing to tell the truth to support me and my husband."

Could this have been a veiled reference to Prince Andrew's scandals?

Explaining more about who exactly was welcoming and who was not, Meghan said, "It's a family business, right? There's the family, and then there are the people running the institution." She again underscored, as she had earlier in the interview, how much she "loved being in the company" of the Queen, saying her grandmother-in-law had given her pearl earrings as a gift when they made their first working appearance together, and comparing her to her own "warm and welcoming and really inviting" grandmother.

"Everyone welcomed me," Meghan said of the actual family, while still admitting that public family outings were "never what they looked like," referring to them as heavily orchestrated.

She also received advice from within the Firm or the Institution to "lay low" when she was all over the media — even though she hadn't been in public in months. After four months of being cooped up indoors, she said she was being discouraged from going out to lunch with friends.

"I've never felt lonelier," Meghan said of that period, describing trying to tell people within the Firm to consider how things feel, not just how they look to the world outside.

In one of the biggest bombshells of the interview, Meghan alleged that someone in the Firm expressed concern over how dark her first child's skin might be, and that the couple's talk of "stepping back" from their royal duties meant little Archie would not have standard security protections.

It may seem hard to believe that Meghan and Harry's first child would not automatically have security provided by the royal family, but while Megan protested, she was never given an explanation.

Oprah wondered if the couple's refusal to pose for a traditional photo with Archie after his birth had something to do with these changes, but Meghan denied that.

Could it have had anything to do with Archie's race?