Tina Brown recently appeared on Katie Couric’s YouTube show for some kind of “year in review” type conversation. I didn’t watch it, but you can see it here. I’d just as soon forget everything that happened in the garbage year of 2025. Obviously, Tina Brown is still obsessed with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and she writes about them regularly on her Fresh Hell Substack. Brown has been trying to convince everyone, including herself, that Meghan and Harry are doing poorly in California and what Harry needs most of all is to leave his wife and return to the UK for doormat duties. Well, Brown and Couric’s conversation eventually veered into discussing the Sussexes, and Brown revealed a never-before-heard anecdote about Jane Goodall. Goodall was friendly with the Sussexes and Goodall was one of the first people to meet Archie when he was a baby. Of course Brown asked Goodall (who passed away earlier this year) about Harry and Archie.
Prince Harry told primatologist Jane Goodall that his son Prince Archie was “my little African child” after he was born, according to the former magazine editor Tina Brown.
Brown told Katie Couric’s YouTube show she went for lunch with Goodall before the scientist’s death in October and the subject of Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal exit came up. Goodall was a friend of the couple and was already known to have visited them after Archie’s birth but Brown’s account of what was discussed had not been made public previously.
“Jane Goodall before she died, I had a lunch with her,” Brown told Couric, “and she said that she went to see… she was one of the only people outside the family that went to see Archie when he was born. And Harry said, ‘This is my little African child.’ It’s going to be my child who essentially… you know… wild child, essentially… they were going to have this time together living a life off the grid as it were. She said she was absolutely stunned when he chose the life that he did.”
A representative of the Duke of Sussex declined to comment. It is not possible to verify Brown’s account with Goodall because she has passed away.
Brown told the anecdote as part of a wider argument that the royals had long been aware of the possibility Harry might want to leave royal life, but had not expected him to pursue a celebrity lifestyle in America.
“I’m told that the Queen always thought that Harry would go off and want to be out of the royal family,” Brown said. “But they all thought that he would do something like… they all expected him to kind of go to Africa and become a person who focused on conservation of animals in Africa and live a kind of off-the-grid life, is what they all thought. Nobody expected him to go to Montecito and live the opposite of the off-the-grid life, which is the kind of celebrity life. And I don’t think that Harry thought he was going to do that either.”
Do we think that Harry told Jane Goodall that Archie is his “African” child? No. Do we think that Jane Goodall used those words in conversation with Tina Brown? Also no. I think Tina Brown is twisting something Jane Goodall probably said innocently, possibly about Harry wanting to bring his wife and child to Botswana or something along those lines. Brown’s “retelling” of a conversation which likely never happened is also really uncomfortable – the association with Africa and “wild child” and “off the grid.” The British press simply cannot stop being weird about Meghan’s race for two g–damn minutes, right?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid, Meghan’s IG and SussexRoyal IG.
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- Tina Brown at the American Institute for Stuttering 12th Annual Freeing Voices Changing Lives Benefit Gala at Gustavino’s. New York City, New York – Monday July 9, 2018.,Image: 515596965, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dennis Van Tine/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, holding their son Archie, meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, September 25, 2019.,Image: 538025348, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES ** Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their son Archie at the Old Granary Building in Cape Town, on September 25, 2019, for a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs Tutu at the 3rd day of their official visit to South Africa. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 25 SEPTEMBER 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- USA Rights Only – Berkshire, UK -20190723-Prince Harry at Roots and Shoots Global Leadership Meeting at Windsor Castle -PICTURED: Prince Harry and Dr Jane Goodall -PHOTO by: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Images/INSTARimages.com -44271216.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Prince Harry and Dr Jane Goodall Where: Berkshire, England, United Kingdom When: 23 Jul 2019 Credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Images/INSTARimages.com **USA Rights Only**
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- USA Rights Only – Berkshire, UK -20190723-Prince Harry at Roots and Shoots Global Leadership Meeting at Windsor Castle -PICTURED: Prince Harry and Dr Jane Goodall -PHOTO by: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Images/INSTARimages.com -44271218.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Prince Harry and Dr Jane Goodall Where: Berkshire, England, United Kingdom When: 23 Jul 2019 Credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Images/INSTARimages.com **USA Rights Only**
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- 2022 Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala at Guastavino’s in New York Featuring: Tina Brown Where: New York, New York, United States When: 11 Jul 2022 Credit: ROGER WONG/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
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- British zoologist and primatologist Jane Goodall acknowledges the audience before giving a lecture at the UNESCO House Featuring: Jane Goodall Where: Paris, France When: 19 Oct 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- MANDATORY CREDIT: Chris Allerton – copyright SussexRoyal NEWS EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO COMMERCIAL USE. NO MERCHANDISING, ADVERTISING, SOUVENIRS, MEMORABILIA or COLOURABLY SIMILAR. NOT FOR USE AFTER FRIDAY JUNE 7, 2019, WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE. This photograph is provided to you strictly on condition that these conditions and restrictions will apply (and that you will pass these on) to any organisation to whom you supply it. There shall be no commercial use whatsoever of the photographs (including by way of example only) any use in merchandising, advertising or any other non-news editorial use. The photograph must not be digitally enhanced, manipulated or modified in any manner or form and must include all of the individuals in the photograph when published. All other requests for use should be directed to the Buckingham Palace Press Office in writing. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are joined by her mother, Doria Ragland, as they show their new son, born Monday and named as Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, to the Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle.
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- Britain’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, holding her son Archie, meets Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, September 25, 2019.
Ugh, ugh and ugh. So tired of the tabloids ventriloquizing dead women to be weird about race. This is up there with the dead Queen’s dead cousin saying something about Meghan.
The Sussexes wanted to relocate to SA. Apparently, the plan was okayed by QEII before someone put a stop to it. It was well after this that they went to Canada, then had no choice but to head for LA after security was pulled and Covid struck. TB and JR must be aware of this 🤔
As JG’s no longer with us, there’s no way of checking. Would make a change from QEII speaking from beyond the grave, though 😁
This is what Harry said-:
In the 2019 ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, Prince Harry said Cape Town would be an “amazing place to base ourselves,” but admitted he couldn’t see how they could make as much difference as they’d want to due to the complex problems and judgment surrounding such a move, though Africa would remain a focus for his life’s work. He expressed deep affection for the continent, calling it a place that “held an embrace he will never forget,” but felt torn between the beauty and potential and the harsh realities of inequality and violence.
Unless Jane Goodall had memory issues at the end of her life, she would not have said this.
Funny how vocal the dead are to the racist hateful rota and royal writers.. it is sickening.
Just another bottom feeder demanding to make money using Harrys name. Claims to be one of Princess Dianas besties, claims to be an insider but there is no proof whatsoever. A big mouth, demanding attention, but nothing can be verified, she uses dead people claiming they shared their innermost feelings with her. A lady should and would not behave in such a way, a very common “Z” grade gossip creator.
Tina Brown seems desperate and thirsty and will do anything for attention.
Yes Brown is thirsty for attention. She thinks Sussex Squad will amplify this to get it more traction in the news. Also she knows Jane and Harry were very close friends. Her, Bowers, and Eden are obsessed
Tina Brown LOVES capitalizing on woman that have died because the press can’t ask them to verify. She has done it with Princess Diana for years (and it was also with a lunch she had with her) I don’t believe her one bit and I really think she twisted Jane’s words to fit a narrative. She is gross.
She did that with Diana’s mother. Diana’s mother left an interview (with her biographer not Tina) saying she did not interfere with Diana’s plans to marry Charles. Tina says Frances interfered and ignored Frances’ own words. Tina also said that Diana was “all over Charles” and “seen” sitting on his lap when they first met at that weekend party. Diana said the opposite that Charles made a pass at her, and conveniently Diana was deceased then and not around to deny the story by Tina. Now she’s pulling the same stunt with the Late Jane Goodall.
This is awful. I remember Jane gave an interview after Harry and Meghan left and she said Harry wasn’t going to raise Archie the same way he was raised. Nothing at all about him being ‘his Africa child’ or going off the grid in Africa.
I hope he didn’t say this because it’s highly offensive. Plus the way these white British journalists talk about Africa is down right racist. I’m starting to think that this narrative about Harry wanting to leave to live in Africa was made up by the Palace and the British press. Even if he had done that the British press would’ve still accused him of abandoning the Royal Family.
The more I read those comments the more I think Tina Brown made them up. They don’t make any sense and I would think Harry would impose a false character on Archie as the Palace and press did to him. It is very convenient that Jane Goodall is no longer here to confirm or deny this story.
When Harry and Meghan did their tour in South Africa Harry said to Tom that he has no plans to ever live in Africa so Tina’s whole thing doesn’t make sense.
I’m like 99% certain he didn’t. This feels like Tina putting her weird deranged take on a conversation especially now Jane can’t verify. You can tell Tina is deep in deranged spaces as she’s pushing a theory I’ve seen: that if Harry had to leave the BRF it would only be to living a ‘pared down’ existence in ‘Africa’ & it’s fame thirsty Meghan that’s forcing him to live the ‘celebrity’ lifestyle in ‘Hollywood’. Because of course Tina knows Harry best 😒
This is despite fact they live in Montecito which the British press keep venturing to to declare how boring it is & Harry & Meghan have barely been to Hollywood events in the 5 years since moving to California. It’s taken 5 years for Meghan to even go to a fashion show.
The only thing Jane has publicly said is that Harry told her Archie wouldn’t be doing the royal wave. The timeline of these supposed comments doesn’t even seem to work because if it was after Archie was born in May 2018 by April that year KP leaks to the press had blown up a proposal for H&M to be based in South Africa & the times reporting of the time was that such move wasn’t feasible. Tim Shipman reported that it was more likely a fed up H&M may end up going to live in California. So I doubt Harry was talking to Jane about moving to Africa at all.
I have no idea if he said it or not. Given how virulently racist the media was being about the child and his mother at the time, I can see many different contexts.
Also, what is so offensive about African children? I get the context that people are taking it in. I get the WILDLY offensive way Tina Brown chose to characterize African children. I lived in Africa for almost twenty years. I am 100% positive that there is no way that Jane Goodall or Harry view African children as being “wild” and “off-grid.” African children are just like children everywhere.
The only person being offensive in this is Tina Brown.
He may have discussed moving long term to Africa with Jane Goodall, but it’s unlikely he used that exact phrasing precisely because it would be co-opted and used in a racial, colonial context.
Having lived in Africa for so long, I see it a bit differently. To me, it reflects the difference between insider language shaped by long connection to the continent and the way the same words can be used by outsiders whose interpretation is shaped by exactly what you mention. In this case, there are several possible contexts for both of Archie’s parents. All embody love and respect. None are pejorative or colonialist.
The thing that is offensive is the way Tina Brown assigned negative colonialist racism to Harry’s view of his own adored child. Goodall was unwise to share that personal moment between her and Harry without condisering how it could be twisted.
Africa is a pretty large and diverse continent. Did you live in Cairo? Johannesburg? A safari retreat in Zimbabwe? Harry is the father of a child whose ancestry makes him a target for racism in Britain and the US. Saying that he wants to raise his child in an African nation is one thing, but accusing him of referring to his African-European child as his African child is not for former Peace Corps volunteers to casually dismiss.
@Mightymolly: Lol! I was not a Peace Corps volunteer. I lived in Southern Africa and did not work in government or tourism.
Hang on, the Sussexes had wanted to relocate to SA at one point. Apparently, the plan was okayed by QEII before someone put a stop to it. It was well after this that they went to Canada, then had no choice but to head for LA after security was pulled and Covid struck. TB and JR must be aware of this.
Besides which, the JR piece suggests that the ‘wild child’ comment was Jane Goodall’s interpretation of what Harry meant, not his words. Could also be Brown spin. No way of checking now. How convenient.
I’m fairly certain this was Tina Brown’s spin on things. I don’t think Jane Goodall held such an interpretation of the continent where she spent so much of her life.
Harry mentioned that in the Netflix documentary, it was a plan but was put aside once it entered the public conversation.
This conversation sounds suspect. Tina Brown is a convinced royalist and takes every opportunity to shade the Sussexes, especially Meghan.
I read this as “Tina Brown is a convinced racist,” and yeah, that works, too.
I view everything that thirsty has-been says skeptically.
I get the feeling someone else said this about Archie and that woman trying to put it on Harry and added Jane to this.
I read it as someone inside the British Royal Household, be it the principle or their staff, said this about Archie, and Tina used it to smear Harry & Dr. Goodall.
As the spokesperson for Harry said, it’s pretty low and disgusting to put words on a dead person’s mouth.
Well first it was the dead queen then the dead Philip and now the dead Jane Goodall. They are morbidly digging up dead people, who can’t defend themselves, for a bit of nonsensical tat.
It’s really disgusting right? I mean…imagine the moral vacuum of this woman’s soul to create a world where she thinks smearing the words of the dead is good practice.
Horrid. There is no way Harry said this. And there is no way Jane Goodall, one of the kindest souls to walk the Earth, would say that to Tina F-ing Brown.
I’m sure in time Tina Brown will claim Diana and the queen mother had an opinion on Meghan.
LMFAO
Well ew. Hopefully that wasn’t said cuz it’s gross. Since this is coming via Tina Brown, and knowing how weird she is about the Sussexes and that fact that she has her own racism, I’m gonna side-eye. But thanks for letting us know, after a woman has died, what she supposedly said. Bc that’s not suspect at all.
She is obviously twisting something that Jane said because it sounds like absolute gobbledygook. I can’t stand Tina Brown.
I don’t even know if it’s a twist so much as a delusion. If Harry had said that, Jane could’ve share it at any point in her life. But she apparently only told Tina Brown. GMAFB.
OMG! Of course this tidbit is revealed after the person who could confirm it is not longer with us.
Rest in power Jane 💗
Tina and others “quote” deceased people. Disgraceful.
This how she has made a career. She has wrote books on Diana from that lunch she had with her. She goes around thinking she is a Diana expert.
Interesting how they always have these anecdotes after the person has died and can’t refute them. And, it’s so colonial how they speak about Africa. And how they speak about Harry coming there to do conservation work in some sort of white savior role. I doubt he said this or either said it that way.
QEII, Prince Philip, now Jane Goodall all dead people being used to continuously push malignant narratives about the Sussexes. These dead people are not alive so their names can be used to peddle any ridiculous narrative or conspiracy theory and the sad thing is that there is a niche audience that will believe and amplify the nonsense. 🤷♀️
The British establishment is still angry that Harry brought Meghan into the higher echelon of the British establishment and has children with her. 🤦♀️
I don’t expect them to stop the smear campaign, especially since the Sussexes have successfully moved away from the institution and are financially independent.
Hearsay. Inadmissible. 😒
I’m sorry, Tina Brown and Newsweek are always full of crap about the Sussexes. This is total BS and, as you rightly write, Ms. Goodall can’t confirm this conversation and this is borderline racist. No wonder Sussexes’s com refuse to answer… they never do bs.
Oh wow, another British female so-called journalist leaning into racist stereotypes about the Sussexes relatives, first Meghan’s mother, and now her son. I don’t understand the context so not much more to add.
Tina is being racist.
Not only was Jane too classy to say something like and to gossip about Harry & Meghan but the connotation that “African” equals “wild” seems like a stretch from Jane with her three grandkids being African & half-Black.
This was TB’s interpretation of something. She’s the one that is equating an African child with being a wild child and off the grid. That’s her colonialism. And the funny thing is I don’t even think she was meaning it in a negative way. The negative part is her saying that Harry decided to be too Hollywood. She doesn’t even get that her spin is racist. And mostly likely isn’t even what JG or Harry said. This was her racist interpretation. That’s on her. Katie Couric has done a lot of charity work with Meghan and Harry so I even wonder if TB was trying to reign herself in during this convo. Calling him too-Hollywood was mild for TB. Hasn’t she called Harry dim-witted? Guess she held back from saying that with someone who actually does charity work with Harry.
A thing I’ve observed about a sizable segment of white British folks—including liberal ones—is that they will insist the UK is not racist or “obsessed with race” like the U.S. is, but then will go on to say some of the most racist and colonialist shit these American ears have ever heard. And then get super defensive about it when you call them out on it. All of this is to say that I think a core, and maybe *the* core, offense that the royalists think the Sussexes did to them is to call out the RF for its racism. They are still so distressed and defensive over it and they’re always dancing around it, but often afraid to address it directly because they’re so humiliated by it. And I feel that Tina Brown’s lie here—because it is clearly so distorted from any real conversation that it is a lie—all goes back to that. She is trying to make it sound like either Harry is “just as racist” as the other royals he accused, or that that kind of talk is actually not racist because if you say it is then you’d be calling Harry racist—which is impossible because he married a black woman—or Jane Goodall racist, impossible because she is a saint. The subtext is that it’s not the British whites who are racist, it’s those woke Californian celebrities like Meghan running around accusing perfectly innocent color-blind white Brits of being racists who are the REAL racists.
Yes. It’s mind boggling.
Here’s the thing though. Maybe I’m interpreting this wrong but I don’t know that TB was even seeing Harry as supposedly calling Archie his African kid as a bad thing? It didn’t even occur to her. Her whole premise is that Harry ended up being more Hollywood than African, living in Cali rather than somewhere in Africa. The whole thing is such a mess and yeah it’s bc her whole worldview is steeped in colonial racism.
I just can’t take Katie Couric seriously anymore after the revelations about her gross personal hygiene.
JFC, why are the rota rats like this? Do they not know how they sound? Or is racism so normalized in the UK that they don’t realize how racist all of this sounds?
I can’t imagine being non-white in the UK. It’s bad enough in America, but even here, the bigots know it’s a bad look, even as they behave badly. Racism is considered shameful here, even though many embrace it. But Tina Brown gives the impression that this kind of thinking is praise-worthy. She didn’t even bother to rein herself in for the American broadcaster.
Why is she always talking about Harry and Meghan, but never about William and, especially Kate? Shouldn’t she be focused on the REAL, “working” royals?
*if* this is true, which I doubt, is there a possibility Archie was *conceived* in Africa? Perhaps on a short getaway vacation, if it doesn’t line up w/ an official tour? But that’s a stretch!
These so-called journalists are so primitive that they believe everyone else is stupid and that they can feed them any story, even if it is immediately recognisable as fiction. Everyone immediately recognises what this kind of story is – part of a smear campaign. Clickbait. A money-making machine that exploits racism, misogyny and outrage. No European royal family has been so dwarfed and infantilised by the press as the Windsors. Or what business is it of the press how a happy adult makes his decisions? It’s none of their business. None at all.
Harry’s spokesperson has denied it
“ The Duke of Sussex has never said anything remotely resembling what is being claimed. Tina Brown knows exactly what she’s doing by inventing these words and attributing them to a highly respected woman who is deceased and unable to correct the record.”
I’m glad his spokesperson spoke out. We all knew it was a ridiculous lie and that Tina is trash for using a recently deceased woman to spread her racist agenda.
I’m here for Harry calling Tina Brown out. It’s about time after all the bs she has said about Meghan. And that’s without even getting into the fact that TB has been dining out on having lunch with Diana once and maybe seeing her a few other times.
Brown is such a user and thinks she can just put words in peoples mouths to slander the Sussexes. I bet she doesn’t even know that Goodall has Black/Biracial grandchildren.
👏. Pushback. Love to see it.
Sussex spokesperson just called Tina Brown a lying liar and said he never said any of that to Jane Goodall,
Whoa, Tina is talented! She manages to put words in Harry’s mouth by putting words in Jane Goodall’s mouth – that’s so meta. Something like how the egg that made you was in your mother when she was in your grandmother’s womb. Or something like Tina is possibly demented or on drugs.
I wonder did Goodall call her own biracial grandkids African and wild-Goodall has 3 biracial grandkids who live with their parents in Africa=Brown cannot keep putting words in a dead person’s mouth-she does this to Diana. King Phillip and all other dead royals-if she cannot back this up with proof she needs to be carted off to the woodshed,-at Goodall’s funeral her biracial grandson spoke in a loving tribute to her.