tonight, lifting the veil on the royal family. >> you get the palaces and the tiaras and the outfits, but you are on public display, you are a public servant. >> where centuries-old traditions meet the modern world. >> i really thought, wow, the royal family is stepping into the 21st century. >> how new accusations of racism threaten the british monarchy. >> the queen may have called it a private family matter, but this is technically a constitutional crisis. >> tonight, as queen elizabeth battles headlines about division within the family, we take you inside the firm. a capsule a day visibly fades the dark spots away. new neutrogena® rapid tone repair 20 percent pure vitamin c.

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we'll keep bringing you a faster, more secure, and more amazing internet. xfinity. the future of awesome. ♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, the british monarchy weathering a new and potentially devastating crisis. facing allegations of racism among their ranks. the windsors have evolved into much more than a collection of brothers and sisters. but a business empire designed to ensure their continued success. for a look inside the firm, here's abc's maggie rulli. >> the crime may look like an

object, but it is also a person. even more than that, it's the source and center of all power in a kingdom. >> anyone's feelings, emotions, state of well-being, that is always going to come second to upholding the values of the constitutional monarchy. >> i think they do still have a place, but it will depend on how they're able to handle this. >> reporter: it's an institution that's withstood the test of time, shaken but not broken by war. >> none of the family were in the palace -- >> reporter: scandal. >> prince andrew's accuser talking to the bbc -- >> reporter: and tragedy. >> there's been a terrible accident involving diana, the princess of wales -- >> reporter: the british monarchy, bound by tradition and rules, now grappling with its place in a modern world. >> race and mental health. >> buckingham palace bracing for the fallout -- >> reporter: tonight, inside the firm, the family, and the ties

that bind them. >> the americanness of meghan is right at the heart of this. >> reporter: the business of the british throne. what's at stake for the monarchy and the kingdom. >> what i was seeing was history repeating himself, perhaps or definitely far more dangerous, because you add race in. >> when we're talking about the firm, we're talking about the family business of the royal family. >> it's sort of "west wing" world, isn't it? five departments in her household. the private secretary, the keeper of the purse, he deals with money. the master of the household who looks after staff. and the houses the queen uses as head of state. the lord chamberlain's office, responsible for all the ceremonial we see the queen involved with,carriages, intera army to deliver state occasions that we saw, for instance, at harry and meghan's wedding. then finally, the royal collection. because the queen is guarding, on our behalf, the most phenomenal art collection.

>> you get the palaces and tiaras and the outfits. but you are on public display. you are a public servant. the queen gave up her life for her duty. >> reporter: that sense of duty vividly portrayed in the netflix series "the crown." the queen must preserve the monarchy above all else. >> in order to make the marriage work, they were encouraged to focus on the bigger idea. duty. >> to really be able to put duty before family, it means that emotions, empathy, anything in that space, really has to be pushed to the side. because ultimately, they are there to serve the country. >> duty is at the core of what the royal family stands for and represents. >> reporter: from the outside, they serve in splendor. their exact fortune isn't known. their personal finances shrouded in secrecy are. the queen's personal wealth estimated at almost $500

million. but much of the riches do not belong to them personally. the priceless crown jewels and the royal collection of art are both held in trust by the monarch for the nation. >> this may sound ridiculous but the royal family are in some ways cash poor, asset rich. this is a royal family that are almost employees of this business. they have access to it. it's a perk of the job. even harry and meghan had that as perks of the job. essentially, none of this belongs to them, and it always ends up back in the same place as people move on into different roles or pass away. >> reporter: having the royal family is a quintessential part what was it means to be british. >> we know how the royal family are. we've grown with them. >> a majority of the country like the royal family. they feel they're a part of the royal family. >> reporter: taxpayers contribute to funding them. roughly $120 million per year. >> the british public expect service from members of the royal family. and they're very blunt if they don't think they're getting it. so the queen's responsibility is

to balance the support she receives in terms of money from parliament from the taxpayer, with the output of each individual member of the royal family. >> reporter: much of their value to the overall economy is also related to the royal brand. generating tourism, business trade, and even wearing a designer, creates demand for that fashion. royal weddings add billions to the british economy. the queen and prince of wales receive millions of dollars from their land holdings, using it to support their families in public duties. >> prince harry has definitely benefited from prince charles' generosity over the years. in fact, when there were concerns over how much security would cost, prince charles momentarily stepped in to help them as they set up their new lives. >> reporter: but prince harry told oprah that he had no support from his royal family after leaving, which led them to sign luck rative deals with spotify and netflix. >> that was suggested by somebody else, by the point of where my family literally cut me

off financially and i had to afford security for us. >> wait, hold up, wait a minute. your family cut you off? >> yeah. in the first half -- the first quarter of 2020. but i've got all my mom left me. and without that, we would not have been able to do this. >> both prince william and harry inherited the estates, the full estates, from their mother, princess diana. harry, of course, also took inheritance from the queen mother's death as well. and this has allowed him to not only invest his money very wisely over the years, but have >> rorci arge sum available. foblowba mea w. ew promo release for the interview in which meghan essentially says the royal family has been spreading lies about her. >> before this interview happened, people were thinking in terms of bombshells,

tell-all, which were about family scandals or differences. but i don't think anybody expected the more profound threats or questions that it raised. >> meghan shared with us there was a conversation with you about archie's skin tone. >> uh-huh. >> what was that conversation? >> that conversation -- i'm never going to share. >> reporter: it was one of the most damaging accusations ever laid at the feet of the firm. >> 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, he's not going to be given a title. and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born. >> this central question of racism and the question about the color of the newborn baby

really raises major issues. so major that prince william himself has actually come out and felt the need to say -- >> we're very much not a racist family. >> when you heard that revelation that she accuses someone this in the family about asking about her baby's skin color, what did you think? >> disbelief, honestly, was my first thought. with the royal family in this country, there's always a complicated history of colonialism, et cetera. so i expected that there may be some sort of undercurrents of racism that she might face. but to hear that it was so outright was really shocking. really quite scary. >> reporter: these accusations destroying the fairytale of a biracial american actress joining the royal family. >> she's not just a woman of color, she's an american, she's an actress, she's a divorcee. for me i thought, wow, the royal family is stepping into the 21st century. >> i was proud. the fact that she appeared to be

welcomed into the most powerful family in the land, an ancient monarchy, that made me feel hopeful. >> meghan and harry, william and kate, they were supposed to secure and symbolize the future of the british monarchy for years to come. from that joyful day to where we are in 2021 is tragic. >> reporter: we now know behind those perfect images, meghan struggled. >> i will say i went into it naively. because i didn't grow up knowing much about the royal family. it wasn't something that was part of conversation at home. >> we heard meghan talking about some of her lowest points as a working member of the royal family. really seeing the decline of her mental health. >> and i just didn't -- i just didn't want to be alive anymore. and that was a very clear and real and frightening

thought. >> she also describes turning to those within the institution or within the business of the firm and asking for help. >> i share this because -- there's so many people who are afraid to voice that they need help. and i know personally how hard it is to not just voice it, but when you voice it, to be told no. >> now it sounds incredibly cold when we hear how she was turned away or she was told that, actually to go and get help publicly would be a very bad look for the crown, for the institution. but these people who are employed within the institution are there for one reason only, and that is to protect the crown. so anyone's feelings, emotions, state of well-being, that is always going to come second to upholding the values of the constitutional monarchy. and it's a very tough environment to be in. >> reporter: when we come back,

how much damage has been done to the firm? >> i think this could be seismic to the modern monarchy. i'm not sure the british monarchy survives. >> can the most famous brothers in the world repair their relationship? as a repairman, i hear a lot of folks say they feel like they have to rinse off dirty dishes like these before loading them in the dish washer. but new cascade platinum changes all that. new cascade platinum, with 50% more cleaning power! it dissolves fast to start cleaning sooner, releasing the soaking power of dawn. then cascade's food-seeking enzymes latch on and break down food into particles so small they can flow right down the drain. and it's powerful enough for the quick-wash cycle! new cascade platinum with 50% more cleaning power! the #1 brand just got better! i'm morgan, and there's more to me than hiv. more love,... more adventure,... more community. but with my hiv treatment,... there's not more medicines in my pill. prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment

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switch today. ♪ the royal family and the firm built around it is fiercely private and protected.

carefully scripted events like the trooping of the color, the queen's diamond jubilee, and massively choreographed royal weddings have kept that image largely intact. that meticulously crafted facade now in question as the fallout from harry and meghan's jaw-dropping interview roils the globe. >> the future of the monarchy is not 100% rock solid. >> is there a place in the modern world still for the royal family, for this monarchy? >> the narrative in this country is definitely not clear cut. there are a lot of people who still very much support the royal family and very much support the queen, given her life of service. so i think they do still have a place, but it will depend on how they're able to handle this. >> reporter: the queen hasn't weathered such intense scrutiny since the days immediately following princess diana's

tragic death nearly 25 years ago. when the crown failed to grasp the nation's mood of deep sorrow for the loss of the people's princess, didn't remark for nearly a week, that miscalculation dramatically recreated in the movie "the queen." >> i prefer to keep my feelings to myself. foolishly, i believed that was what the people wanted from their queen. >> we have seen from britain and around the world overwhelming expression of sadness for diana's death. >> reporter: queen elizabeth eventually addressed the nation nearly a week after diana died. now the crown is not only grappling with allegations of racism, but also a deep rift among its most popular members. >> i feel really let down. i will always love him. but there's a lot of hurt that's happened. >> reporter: prince harry revealing at one point, his father wasn't taking his calls. >> why did he stop taking your calls? >> because -- i took took t

by that point, i took matters into my own hands. it was like, i need to do this for my family. >> no one wants to hear a child speak that way to his father, but it may be difficult for americans to understand the gravity of the situation. not only is he talking about his father, he's talking about the future king that way. >> i myself think it was both hurtful in personal terms for harry to talk about his father like that, but for him to put a question mark over the "fatherliness" of the future king was a big blow twards charles. >> reporter: the interview also laying bare the relationship between prince harry and his brother, prince william. >> the relationship is -- space. at the moment. and, you know, time heals all things, hopefully. >> right at the heart of this

schism is real intense, personal bad feeling between the two brothers. for william to be royal, to be a future king, to uphold the values of the royal family and his grandmother, is so important to his identity. and he really does feel betrayed by harry. so for william to come out and say, as he has just said, grudgingly, he's going to talk to his brother -- >> have you spoken to your brother since the interview? >> no, i haven't yet but i will do. >> is actually a great step forward. >> reporter: whether the firm can evolve after this latest crisis is the main topic of conversation these days. >> this is a crisis now for the country. because the country has to look at itself in a very hard way. >> the uk is becoming more and more diverse, then you have the royal family, not diverse. do you think there's a role for this family to be representative of such a diverse country and a diverse commonwealth? >> we can't fix diversity in the

royal family immediately, but what can be done is a clear and conscious effort to hire individuals in the household that are diverse. i'm not sure about the ethnic makeup of the royal staff in the royal household, but i think it may have made a difference in meghan's journey and in her time in the royal family if it were a bit more diverse. >> the fact that she left, was this a missed opportunity for the monarchy? >> i do think it was a missed opportunity. because i think she had the ability to attract a whole different demographic. and slightly the same way as princess diana was able to touch an entire generation of people. she had that potential. but it will never be realized. >> i'm curious if there can be any positive that comes out of all of this. >> they are going to america to find freedom and outside this constrained and stuffy institution of the royal family. and it poses a real challenge to the royal family in the future. i don't accept the negative connotations, but i do accept the challenge that the british

royal family has got to -- more than smarten up its act, it's got to address these really serious issues of possible racism, and i think over the next few years we're going to see a lot of changes. >> i think the older you are, the more attached you possibly are to the queen. i see a younger generation that have so much energy and are so dedicated to organizing, to challenging, to asking the right questions. i hope we're going forward in the right direction. we'll be right back with "the final note." ♪ ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ ♪ comfort in the extreme.

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