‘Disgraceful’: Outrage Erupts Over Claims Royal Named Pet ‘Black Sheep’ After Serena and Venus Williams Despite Years of Friendly Ties

Venus and Serena Williams’ names are at the center of new outrage aimed at British royal Princess Michael of Kent, who allegedly named two black animals after the tennis legends.

These allegations were first mentioned in a 2018 Vanity Fair article titled “Palace & Prejudice” about Meghan Markle’s entry into the House of Windsor and what it meant in the era of Brexit.

Kent is also the same woman who sparked outrage after wearing a racially insensitive brooch with a black man’s face on it to a luncheon with the former Duchess of Sussex the year before.

This discussion about the Williams sisters resurfaced during a recent conversation on the “Tell Me About Your Father” podcast, hosted by Matt Phillips. He spoke with Aatish Taseer, who dated Lady Gabriella of Windsor, the daughter of Princess Michael.

“I think the [story about] Venus and Serena was part of that weird air of abstraction that exists around these people and how they’re not even aware of how shocking or offensive that might be,” said Taseer in the July 14th episode.

Regarding the Vanity Fair article, which was a first-person piece by Taseer himself, he said, “I was extremely indiscreet. In England there is really no crime you can commit greater than that.”

His brief comments were enough to spark outrage and shock among fans online, who voiced strong opinions about the royal family.

“This is the same woman who [wore that] blackamoor broach when Meghan visited,” recalled one person. A second asked, “Is this a compliment or a backhanded insult cause they’re GOATED,” one person asked. A third said, “That is so Rude if it is true.”

If true, a fourth called the claim was still “Disgraceful!!!”

Some felt, “Is it really that deep? Plenty of people name all kinds of animals after celebrities.”

But others familiar with Markle’s exchanges and documented interactions since entering the royal family are not as surprised. “But Meg’s the problem? right,” another noted.

The Daily Beast reported that Princess Michael was forced to apologize for wearing the colonial badge during her first meeting with Markle, who married Prince Harry in 2018.

After being granted the titles of Duchess and Duke of Sussex by Queen Elizabeth, Markle has made several allegations against the royal family, including accusations that they broke royal tradition by allegedly denying their son Archie both a security detail and an official title.

But it wasn’t until 2021 that they revealed that unidentified royals had “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”

During a sit-down interview, she told Oprah Winfrey, “They didn’t want him to be a prince, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security. We have in tandem the conversation of, ‘He won’t be given security. He’s not going to be given a title.’”

Markle, a former actress on “Suits,” has spoken about her upbringing as a biracial woman growing up in Los Angeles with her mother, Doria Ragland, who has a noticeably darker complexion than her. She has been estranged from her father, Thomas Markle, a white man, for seven years. He was uninvited to their wedding following remarks he made about her and Prince Harry in the weeks leading up to the event.

In 2021, The Guardian revealed that the British royal family used a legal mechanism called “Queen’s Consent” to influence legislation and secure exemptions from anti-discrimination laws. Archived documents showed that in the 1960s, the monarchy negotiated to exclude itself from the 1968 Race Relations Act, allowing it to ban ethnic minorities from office roles in the royal household. While the Palace claims to follow equality laws today, critics note this compliance is voluntary, as the monarchy remains formally exempt from certain legal protections.

However, it remains unclear why the claim about the Williams sisters and the royal family drama continues to resurface, despite having maintained a friendship with Markle since as early as 2010.

Over the years, Markle has traveled around the world to see her friend’s Grand Slam tennis tournaments at Wimbledon, where Serena has often been asked about their friendship during press conferences. She also asked Serena to be the first guest on her “Archetypes” podcast, which aired on Spotify.

The two have exchanged conversations and advice about motherhood, ambitions, the challenges of being famous and dealing with paparazzi.

“Her personality just shines,” Serena told Vanity Fair in 2017 about Markle. “I told her, ‘You’ve got to be who you are, Meghan. You can’t hide.’”