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A prominent British royal adviser, who resigned from her role at Buckingham Palace after asking a black British charity director where she was “really” from, has met with the activist to apologize and promised to stay out of the incident to learn, according to a joint announcement released on Friday.
Lady Susan Hussey, 83, a long-time lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II and godmother to the royal heir Prince William, met with Ngozi Fulani, a British activist and chief executive of the domestic violence charity, Sistah Space Buckingham Palace on Friday, where she apologized .
Hussey “promised to increase her awareness of the sensitivities involved and is grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the issues in this area,” the statement said, noting that Fulani was “unfairly the most appalling received a spate of abuse on social media and elsewhere.” Fulani accepted the apology, saying “no malice was intended.”
The controversy arose after an event at Buckingham Palace last month aimed at raising awareness of violence against women and girls. Fulani, one of about 300 guests at the event, later wrote on Twitter that she had “mixed feelings” about the event and described an interaction with a woman who called her “Lady SH” shortly after arriving.
The woman asked a series of questions, Fulani said, including: “What part of Africa are you from?” and “Where are you actually from?”
Mixed feelings about yesterday’s visit to Buckingham Palace. 10 minutes after my arrival a member of staff, Lady SH, walked up to me, tugged my hair to see my name tag. The following conversation took place. The rest of the event is hazy.
Many Thanks @ManduReid & @SuzanneEJacob for the support🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/OUbQKlabyq— Sistah Space (@Sistah_Space) November 30, 2022
“I just stood at the edge of the room and smiled [and] briefly dabbled in who was speaking to me until I could leave,” the activist wrote on Twitter.
Mandu Reid, leader of the Women’s Equality Party and a witness to the interaction, later told the Washington Post it felt like “an interrogation.”
“It was question after question… it wasn’t fleeting, it lasted for several minutes,” she said.
Buckingham Palace announced the following day that a member of the royal household had “resigned from his honorary role with immediate effect” after an inquiry found that “unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments” had been made.
Although she was not named, it soon became clear who the member of the royal household was.
Hussey was a well-known royal figure who had served in an unpaid role since 1960. She was portrayed in the new season of The Crown on Netflix as a close friend and adviser to the Queen – a role she also played in real life, earning the nickname “Head Girl Number One” and the official title “Lady of the Bedchamber”. received, effectively meaning that she was the Queen’s right hand man.
Her comments sparked a wave of criticism of the royal household, which has struggled with reports of racism in the past. But some people targeted Fulani for publicizing the incident.
Sistah Space, which supports women of African and Caribbean descent affected by domestic violence and sexual assault, released a statement on Instagram last week announcing that it had to “temporarily halt many of our operations to ensure the safety of our service users and to ensure our team. ”
Fulani’s team and family have been subjected to “some appalling abuse via social media,” she said in a statement quoted by British media.
After meeting Friday, Fulani and Hussey said they were “seeking peace to rebuild their lives after an immensely trying time for both of them.”