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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Ellie Harrison

Whoopi Goldberg demands apology from Royal Family for slavery

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Whoopi Goldberg has demanded that the British Royal Family apologise for its history of slavery.

The actor and presenter, 66, said on her talk show The View: “We cannot ignore the fact that Britain ran roughshod over India for years… Let us not forget, when we talk about what needs to happen, all the folks that need to apologise.

“Listen, this is not new. I suspect Charles, when he was in Barbados [in 2021], had some idea because he went on and apologised as he was releasing the hold that Britain has.

“So perhaps somebody is listening, and it’s the new group of folks – I don’t know if it’s Charles, William, but one of them is supposed to be the person.”

Goldberg’s remarks come in the wake of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s “charm offensive” in Jamaica, where Prince William described the slave trade as “abhorrent” and expressed “profound sorrow”, but stopped short of apologising for his ancestors’ role in it.

The Cambridges arrived in the Caribbean nation on Tuesday (22 March) to calls from some quarters for the country to drop the Queen as head of state and become a republic.

Kate Middleton and Prince William play the drums in Jamaica (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the British High Commission in the Jamaican capital Kingston urging the monarchy to pay reparations for its role in the Transatlantic slave trade.

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