OMG, as a black woman I have so many feelings about this, none of them particularly good about any of the people involved. I'm not in a position now to do a lot of typing.
But I have a serious question. As an American I really don't understand, so I need someone to give me a basic explanation. What is the purpose of the monarchy? In 2021, what purpose does the British (or really any) monarchy serve? The answers might change my perspective.
As far as I have ever been able to determine there is very limited purpose. See
@morqet's posts above for a decent summary of my thoughts too. For me it's mostly the

. They are as fecked up as any other family i know they just do it all in public so the rest of us don't feel so bad

There is a narrative that they bring income and more than they take out but who knows. You can make the numbers tell any story you like when you're dealing with intangibles.
One personal gripe of mine is this idea that somehow the Queen or any of the royals have served any useful purpose in bringing the UK through the pandemic (or any other national crisis). They are a useful PR tool... want people to stay at home roll the Queen out for a special Easter speech to tell us its our duty to stay home. Want people too stay at home a bit longer? Wheel her out for a war commemoration and invoke the blitz spirit. Need at bit of variety wheel out Charles, Camilla, William, Kate for some zoom calls. Need some feel good - show the children clapping outside their country home. Want people to take the vaccine get the queen to say its everyone's duty to take it. Its very well and very carefully executed but ultimately its PR and its led by the government and the optics and message they want to project. As someone wrote into one of the papers today "please explain to me what the queen has done to lead us through the pandemic, more than my own granny"?
This idea that the BRF are now somehow innocent bystanders being rolled over by Harry and Megan is ridiculous. Buckingham Palace controlled the narrative for months regardless of the handful of statements released by H&M over the last 15months or so.
Personally I think Harry and Megan wanted to tell the story their way and they've done that. I don't think they'll get anything out of it and I think it will come back to bite them because how could anyone attack the "poor queen". The British media will close rank on the Royal family I've no doubt and the Royal family will close rank and protect their own. I would say Harry and Megan put themselves outside that circle but its been clear from not too long after the wedding that they had already been put outside it.
As a black woman in the UK i wish I could say that anything that's been said has surprised me. It hasn't and I've said in previous iterations of this thread I had discussions with family and friends when H&M announced their engagement that "called" some of the stuff that happened with the press and on SM in the past as being very likely. I'm sad to say that includes the fact that there would be people in royal circles hoping that their children didn't end up with darker complexions resembling their maternal grandmother. Sad but not surprised. The fact that people want to discuss the "context" of those comments pretty much sums up the gaslighting that black people in the UK deal with regarding racism on the regular.
The idea that the british royal family could be an institution free of racism given previously comments of Phillip and Andrew (and the issues in other British institutions) that have been widely reported is laughable. Prince Phillip should just be left to be because he's from a different era - more than one person has suggested in this thread. Guess what? His racist and otherwise insulting jokes belong to this era when you're the target. With that attitude nothing will ever change.
Let's be brutal - the fact that Harry ever thought dressing up as a nazi was an appropriate choice tells us something about his upbringing as much as it says something about foolish youthful decisions.
So perhaps some of those in this thread could be less disparaging about the fact that he considers he has learned something and thinks that other members of his family could learn something too.