Thomas Markle: I hope the skin colour comment was just a 'stupid question'

Thomas Markle hopes comments about Archie's skin colour were just a "stupid question".

The father of the Duchess of Sussex spoke out for the first time following his daughter and her husband Prince Harry's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, where they claimed there were "concerns and conversations" about how "dark" her son Archie's skin would be.

He said: "The thing about what colour would the baby be, how dark would the baby be, I’m guessing and hoping it’s just a dumb question from somebody. It could be that simple, it could be somebody asked a stupid question, rather than being a total racist."

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And Thomas insists it "wouldn't have been a problem" whatever skin colour the baby had.

He added: "The whole thing about the colour ... is bulls*** ... I married a black woman and had a beautiful child. If she had turned out dark it wouldn't have been a problem. If she turned out anything in between, it wouldn't have been a problem. It's a beautiful baby."

Thomas insists he has "great respect for the royals" and doesn't consider them to be racist.

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Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, he said: "I have great respect for the royals and I don’t think the British royal family are racist at all. I don’t think the British are racist."

In her interview, Duchess Meghan spoke about the conversation an unnamed person - later revealed not to be Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip - had with Prince Harry and suggested the baby's heritage was one of the reasons why the tot wasn't given a title.

She said: "Those were conversations the family had with him. They didn't want him to be a prince or princess, not knowing what the gender would be, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn't going to receive security.

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"In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, 'you won't be given security, not gonna be given a title' and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."