King Charles should ‘apologize’ for royals’ slave trade involvement

A journalist who quit her job at the BBC in March demanded Monday that King Charles III issue an apology regarding this ancestors’ involvement with the transatlantic slave trade.

“I would hope very much that in the coming years, he can apologize for the royal family’s historic links to slavery and make a meaningful financial gesture that would be seen as reparative,” Laura Trevelyan, 55, told People. “But what that figure is, I have no idea.”

Trevelyan, who currently leads a group of British families looking to make amends for their relatives’ involvement in the trade, donated $127,000 of her savings to the government in Grenada in February after discovering her family had enslaved about a thousand people in the Caribbean country.

The longtime reporter is now asking Charles, who said in April that he would welcome an investigation into his family’s ties to the slave trade, to do the same.

“There would be a great healing power to an apology for slavery and some kind of reparative justice strategy from the king,” Trevelyan told People.

According to Trevelyan, she understands why Charles, 74, hasn’t simply apologized for the actions.

“Presumably there’s a memo somewhere in Whitehall which says you can’t apologize because if you do, that opens you up for liability,” she said.

“[Charles is] clearly doing as much as he possibly can … as a constitutional monarch who can’t step ahead of the position of the government,” the former political correspondent elaborated. “But he is also supreme governor of the Church of England. And the church has apologized for its historic links to slavery and set up a 100 million pound fund.”

According to the writer, who lives in New York City, an apology from the head of state is “not just possible, but it’s important to do.”

The Post reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.

During a visit to Barbados in 2021, then-Prince Charles condemned the practice of slavery, which was legal in Britain and its colonies, including Barbados, until 1834.

“From the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude,” said the former Prince of Wales said. “Emancipation, self-government and independence were your waypoints. Freedom, justice and self-determination have been your guides.”

“Your long journey has brought you to this moment, not as your destination, but as a vantage point from which to survey a new horizon,” Charles continued.

He later condemned slavery during a speech in Kigali, Rwanda, last year when he told locals that it was his wish to build a “new and enduring friendship.”

“I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact,” Charles said in his speech. “Many of those wrongs belong to an earlier age with different — and, in some ways, lesser — values. By working together, we are building a new and enduring friendship.”