Idris Elba has come out in defense of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry following the backlash over their controversial tell-all interview with Oprah on CBS.
Elba, 48, told Entertainment Tonight that he supported Markle and Harry’s decision to sit down with Oprah for the interview. He said they have the right to speak up and let people know how they feel.
“I would say that everyone has to have the opportunity to speak up about what they feel,” Elba said. “You cannot take someone’s voice away, that’s all we have to communicate.”
Elba is a friend to Markle and Harry. He and his wife Sabrina Dhowre attended the royal wedding in May 2018. Elba served as a DJ during the wedding reception.
Elba is a British actor known for playing Heimdall in Marvel Studios’ Thor and Avengers film series. He also played the villain Brixton in Hobbs & Shaw.
Markle and Harry sat down for a tell-all interview with Oprah last month
Elba’s comments come after Markle, 39, and Harry, 36, dropped bombshells during a two-hour sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, March 7.
During the interview, Markle accused the Royal Family of refusing to support her when she was having suicidal thoughts. She also alleged that they failed to protect her from negative media coverage.
She accused the Royal Family of racism. She claimed that some Royals did not want her son Archie to be a prince because of his mixed race. She also alleged that one of the royals expressed concern about Archie’s skin color. She said she believed that the Royal expressed concern because they thought it would be a “problem” if Archie was born with a dark skin tone.
Other celebs have recently defended Markle and Harry
Elba is the latest actor to speak up in defense of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
Monsters and Critics reported that Markle’s Suit co-star D.B. Woodside also spoke in defense of the Royal couple. Woodside, who played Jeff Malone on the hit legal drama Suits, told Entertainment Tonight that the Royal Family “picked the wrong woman to mess with.” He also advised the Royals to “back off” and apologize.
He praised Meghan, saying that she was a “strong and resilient” person and one of the “sweetest, nicest, most intelligent, thoughtful human beings that I have ever met in my life.”
Actor Patrick J. Adams, who co-starred with Markle as Mike Ross on Suits, also took to Twitter earlier in March to lash out at the Royal Family. He described the Royal Family as an “archaic and toxic institution” and said their spat with Markle was “just another stunning example of the shamelessness of an institution that has outlived its relevance.”
Others who have defended the Sussexes include Chrissy Teigen and the biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
Scobie and Durand accused the Royal Family of double standards. They claimed that while the Royal Family refused to protect Markle from negative media coverage, they protected Prince Andrew when he came under fire over his alleged association with the late billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sexual offenses.
Was this supposed to be news?? Of course he does.