BUCKINGHAM Palace released a statement last night responding to the claims of racism made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which were revealed in an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey on Monday night.

Initially palace officials reportedly had a prepared statement highlighting the family’s love and concern for the ­couple, but it was not signed off by the monarch.

The Times newspaper reported that the Queen wanted more time to consider her response to the lengthy interview.

That response has now been released, it said: “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be ­addressed by the family privately.

“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members.”

In the interview, Meghan and ­Harry laid bare their brief lives as a working royal couple, alleging that a member of the family – not the Queen or Duke of Edinburgh – made a racist comment about their unborn son’s potential skin colour.

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Winfrey was left open-mouthed when the duchess – the first mixed-race member of the modern ­monarchy – said a fellow royal was worried about how dark their son ­Archie’s skin tone could be.

The chat show host was told it had been raised by a member of the royal family with Harry, but the couple did not reveal who.

The interview was aired on Sunday night to US audiences, before being shown in the UK on Monday.

During the candid conversation, Meghan suggested her son was not made a prince because of his race – although rules set by George V meant he was not entitled to be one.

Harry also said it “hurts” that none of his relatives spoke out in support of Meghan following the racism he said she faced in the media.

Royal biographer Andrew ­Morton said the fallout from the interview will “shudder down through the ­generations in the same way that ­Diana’s did”.

In her now infamous Panorama interview in 1995, Harry’s mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales, called royal officials “the enemy” and questioned Charles’s suitability to be king.

Life behind palace doors has not been exposed to this degree since the days of the War of the Waleses, when the turmoil of Charles and Diana’s disintegrating marriage was laid bare in the 1990s.

Other revelations included Meghan’s mental health crisis of when she did not “want to be alive ­anymore”, and Harry’s admission that he has become estranged from his ­father, saying: “I feel really let down”, but added he would “try and heal that relationship”.