Lady Susan Hussey and activist Ngozi Fulani reconcile after Buckingham Palace row

Trends

Comment

A prominent British royal aide 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 pledged to learn from the incident, according to a joint announcement released on Friday.

Lady Susan Hussey, 83, who was a long-standing lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II and godmother to royal heir Prince William, met with Ngozi Fulani, a British activist and chief executive of domestic abuse charity Sistah Space, on Friday at Buckingham Palace, where she apologized.

Hussey “pledged to deepen her awareness of the sensitivities involved and is grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the issues in this area,” according to the statement, which noted that Fulani had “unfairly received the most appalling torrent of abuse on social media and elsewhere.” Fulani accepted the apology and said “that no malice was intended.”

The controversy arose after an event at Buckingham Palace last month, designed to raise awareness about 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 she named “Lady SH” shortly after she arrived.

The woman had asked a series of questions, Fulani said, including, “What part of Africa are you from?” and “Where do you really come from?”

“I just stood at the edge of the room, smiled [and] engaged briefly with who spoke 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 was several minutes,” she said.

Buckingham Palace announced the following day that a royal household member had “stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect” after an investigation had concluded that “unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments” had been made.

Though she was not named, it soon became apparent who the royal household member was.

Hussey was a well-known royal fixture, having served in an unpaid role since 1960. She was depicted in the new season of “The Crown” on Netflix as a close friend and adviser of the queen — a role she played in real life too, earning the nickname “Number One Head Girl” and the official title “Woman of the Bedchamber,” which effectively meant she was the queen’s right-hand woman.

Her remarks sparked a wave of criticism of the royal household, which has struggled with reports of racism in the past. But some people took aim at Fulani for publicizing the incident.

Sistah Space, which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage affected by domestic abuse and sexual assault, posted a statement to Instagram last week announcing that it had to “temporarily cease many of our operations to ensure the safety of our service users and our team.”

Fulani’s team and family received “some horrific abuse via social media,” she said in a statement quoted by British media.

After their meeting on Friday, Fulani and Hussey said they would seek “peace to rebuild their lives in the wake of an immensely distressing period for them both.”





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_riaIcon_order in /home/thenewsintel/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 165

Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_inhaIcon_order in /home/thenewsintel/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 166

Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_mastodonIcon_order in /home/thenewsintel/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 177

Notice: Undefined index: sfsi_mastodon_display in /home/thenewsintel/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-social-media-icons/libs/controllers/sfsi_frontpopUp.php on line 276
error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)

Instagram
Telegram
WhatsApp