EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding photographer accuses the fashion industry of having a race problem

Daily Mail​

23-06-2025

Prince Harry and Meghan caused outrage when they accused unnamed members of the Royal Family of racism in their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
Now, their wedding photographer has made his own accusations of racial prejudice against unnamed figures in the beauty industry.
Alexi Lubomirski, who is white, claims that one senior magazine editor told him: 'Black girls don't carry high fashion.'
He says the Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o first alerted him to the insidious issue of racism in showbusiness when he photographed her.
'She said to me, 'I really love these pictures. Can you make sure, when they're retouching the photos, they don't lighten my skin?'
'I said, 'Yeah, of course'. But I began to look at past shoots I'd done with darker-skinned models and I noticed that there was a definite difference between the images I'd submitted to magazines compared to the images that came out.
'When I looked through my archives, I also noticed how rarely I'd been allowed to shoot different types of beauty, rather than just Caucasian girls.'
Lubomirski, 50, who also took the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's official engagement photos, is descended from Polish aristocracy. He says he was told that women of colour don't sell magazines.
'I would ask these editors-in-chiefs, and I'd say, 'Why don't you let me photograph dark-skinned girls on covers?'. And they'd say, 'It comes down to economics, Alexi. We know that if we put a dark-skinned girl on the cover, we're going to sell 40 per cent less copies.'
'And I said, 'Why do you think that is?' They said, 'Well, probably because we don't put them on the cover that much', and I said, 'Right, exactly.'
'Then one editor-in-chief told me, 'Listen, Alexi, the fact is, dark-skinned girls and other ethnicity can't carry high fashion'.'
Alexi, who lives in New York with his wife and two sons, was recounting the story behind his decision to create his 2016 photobook, Diversity, featuring photos of mixed ethnicities.
He says: 'I did end up losing a bunch of magazine jobs, because nobody wanted to have that conversation.
'They didn't want to be made to feel guilty about the fact that they were just putting Caucasian girls on the cover.'
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Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner debriefed the Labour leader after television footage was broadcast last week showing her chauffeur narrowly avoiding mowing down Larry the Cat, No 10's resident moggy, while driving Rayner from Downing Street.
'Angela had a close encounter,' Sir Keir admits in an interview with Peter Cardwell for the former special adviser's forthcoming book, Political Animals, about the secret lives of the dogs and cats of Westminster and Washington.
'I was at the G7 in Canada and Angela actually sent me the clip with a message saying, 'All under control here, boss!''
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And the Duke of Rutland's eldest daughter, 31, who exchanged vows with Bill Garnock, 34, a Scottish viscount, at the weekend, joined the band on stage at her wedding reception party.
She could be found dancing wildly with her pal Rosanna Falconer on stage next to a set of bongo drums.
The raucous bash was held in the cellar at Lady Violet's ancestral home, Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. She made a more demure appearance earlier on in the day in her Phillipa Lepley gown and the Rutland tiara.
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What does Sir Andy Murray have to hide?
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Served up in his usual upbeat and fizzing style, no doubt.
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'We miss her every day. But she wanted this music to come out, and I'm happy people get to hear it.'
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