Critics had seized upon the phrase as evidence of racism in the Royal family, almost exactly one year after Harry and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview in which they claimed a relative had asked about their unborn son’s skin colour.
Scobie, who co-wrote the Finding Freedom biography of the Sussexes, said: “Unsurprised to see backlash against Prince William’s ignorant remark. Europe has seen some of the bloodiest conflict in the past two centuries – Balkans, Yugoslavia, Germany and Kosovo to name a few. But sure, let’s normalise war and death in Africa and Asia.”
After video of the real encounter was shared, critics of the Duke doubled down to point out even the phrase “alien to Europe” had been problematic, despite the qualification about “our generation”.
Jake Tapper, a CNN anchor with 3.3 million Twitter followers, shared a photo of Wallis Simpson and Prince William’s great-uncle Edward, the Duke of Windsor, meeting Adolf Hitler, writing: “Read a book about your own family, dude.”
Chris Ship, the ITV Royal reporter who released the transcript, said the Prince would have been 10 when war erupted in the Balkans.
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“He did say ‘for our generation’ and his generation (born 1982) would have been 9- or 10-years-old when the war in the former Yugoslavia began. Even though he was educated at Eton College and might have been expected to have a good understanding of world affairs, the first war he might have been aware of as a young man in his early twenties would have been the second Gulf War in 2003. So for his generation, it could be considered accurate to describe this as ‘very alien’ in Europe.”
The Telegraph London
Prince William misquoted on war in Europe but critics double down
Source: Philippines Alive
