Back in 2018, it was different.

A was a moment of joy.

It was almost also it was also a moment of change, a moment of difference and diversity for the royal family, from the guests to the performers to the service.

They're going to have an impact long after I've flown back to the US, they're going to have an impact through their lives, and the difference was noticed and celebrated.

It's kind of a big moment because we've never seen anyone like Megan, the royal family.

But now, less than three years later, Harry and Megan have stepped back from royal duties.

They live in California, they've been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, and relations with the rest of the royal family are strained.

Race is still part of the equation, but for very different reasons.

Megan told Oprah Winfrey she considered taking her own life during her lowest point.

In a wide ranging interview on CBS, she also spoke of conversations in the household about how dark their unborn son Archie's skin might be.

We can't know what happened in that conversation, in the words of the palace.

Recollections may vary, and this is Prince William's response.

Was the royal family a racist family?

Sir, there were very much not a racist.

What is certain is that the upset and the division within this family is real.

And in the eyes of many, this is a lost chance to change and stay relevant.

I think Megan was a huge missed opportunity because Harry and Megan, obviously screaming into their pillows, not being heard after the interview, I thought, Oh, that's it.

The royal family have really, really quite blown it.

The Independent put it this way.

Meghan and Harry could have been Britain's greatest asset, but we screwed it up royally.

And here's the former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt, arguing that the monarchy failed in the 21st century to embrace a woman of African American heritage.

They've reverted to being white, predominantly male, and as things stand a tad stale.

And while the royal family would not accept that description, this definitely wasn't the plan.

They really wanted this to work and they will be looking very closely now at the reasons why it didn't.

They're looking closely.

So is a watching world.

So why didn't it work?

Why did this chance pass by?

That, of course, is very hard to answer.

But there are three apparent contradictions within the British monarchy that may help us understand.

The first is how a very public family can lead a very private life.

That's long been the Royals goal, and it's long looked near to impossible.

Let's go back to 1936.

The British empire faces an extraordinary crisis.

Not for centuries have these houses of Parliament witness so dangerous a political struggle.

Shell King Edward, the Eighth Mary, Mrs Simpson.

In fact, he abdicated to do just that.

King Edward.

The eighth decision to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson mattered, in part because it changed the head of state but also because the public were voracious consumers of the royal soap opera and that public glare has continued.

In 1981 Prince Charles spoke about it.

I didn't even Diana, but but I'm more used to it, I think probably now, knowing for years that cameras poking at you from every quarter and recording every twitch you make so you can get used to a certain extent, and on those occasions you accept that That's part of it.

I think if you don't try to work out in your own mind some kind of method for existing and surviving this kind of thing, you you would go mad.

I think each royal has to find their own method, says Charles.

This current split connects to a disagreement over what method that should be.

For Harry and Megan, the method was simply to leave.

Prince Harry has revealed that the pressure caused by newspaper reports damaged his mental health.

In an interview with presenter James Corden, the prince said his decision to move to the United States was what any husband and father would do from 1936 to 1981 to 2021.

We see the same tension private versus public, but the idea that everything has to be kept in house risks Looking out of date, This is Hillary Clinton this week.

You know, this young woman was not about to keep her head down.

You know this is 2021 this is all connected to what the BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond calls the merging a personal and public roles of tradition, the mix of public accountability, ceaseless media interest and the need to remain relevant.

And that last point from Johnny leads us to a second related contradiction.

How the British monarchy manages its global reputation and stays relevant while saying next to nothing.

Bear in mind, the queen is head of state to 16 Commonwealth countries, and that number is going to go down.

Barbados in the Caribbean will leave the Commonwealth later this year, and its former high commissioner, Guy Hewitt, explains how this week's Farrah or plays directly into that decision.

It represents not just a symbol of historic oppression, but as we see with Harry and Megan, the continued residue of the discrimination and the racism that made British empire history has been and is part of the royal family selling point.

It's a symbol of a long connection between Britain and other countries, but in some places, that connection is being reappraised because of shifting views of colonialism and because of this week, News America's publishes across the Caribbean and Latin America.

It ran this editorial which asks.

Will Caribbean Nations finally dropped the queen as their head of state?

The article goes on.

If the Megan Harry tea spilling has revealed anything, it's the obvious racism that exists at the top of the so called royalist ticket.

Now, as we heard, the royal family denies there is racism, but this illustrates the challenge.

A two hour Harry and Meghan interview creates one powerful impression.

A short statement is the palaces response and these different approaches irrelevant because of debates already underway.

For example, in Australia, it's our country, It's our Constitution and our head of state should be an Australian citizen.

Should be one of us, not the queen or king of the United Kingdom.

Now let's be clear.

There's no sign Australia is about to become a republic.

The point is, though, that the story of Harry and Meghan is in part the story of the royal family's future role in the world.

It's a point we've heard throughout the week, the royal family.

They are part of the Commonwealth.

They lead the commonwealth.

They are leading a diverse country, and so I think there are issues that were raised do affect us.

They do affect more than just their family.

They do.

And the split with Harry and Meghan is connected to different views of where the royal family fits into the world and also, crucially, how and if to talk about that.

And if that is the family, My third point concerns the UK itself.

If there is such a thing as a brand, if you're talking about in relation to a country, this country's brands been tarnished.

And to use Bonnie Greer's word, the royal family is part of the UK's brand.

It's also central to the UK sense of self.

The British are enthusiastic royalists.

Recent polls showed every age group supports the monarchy being the head of state and looking back to that sunny spring day in 2018 and the girl we heard from earlier, The possibilities for the UK and the royal family were palpable.

Everyone from different nationalities just singing together, and it was like even though there's so much going on in our world, it's like this brought us together, this wedding historian Professor David Dollar Sugar, has written.

At the couple's wedding, the nation looked confident, modern and at ease with multiculturalism was living up to that image really so difficult.

He as well, perhaps for the royal family.

For parts of the British press, even for parts of the country, the answer is yes.

Perhaps there is an unresolved contradiction in trying to reshape a hereditary monarchy to fit into a modern, multicultural 21st century democracy.

It is, at the very least, hard.

We've seen that this week.

It's also no surprise that an institution steeped in tradition moves at its own pace.

The risk, though, is that it gets left behind mhm.