Ngozi Fulani hasn't heard from Buckingham Palace since she was questioned about her background by Lady Susan Hussey.
Ngozi Fulani hasn't heard from Buckingham Palace
The Sistah Space charity boss revealed on Wednesday (30.11.22) that she had been repeatedly asked where she was "really" from while attending a reception hosted by Queen Consort Camilla earlier this week, and it subsequently emerged Queen Elizabeth's former lady-in-waiting had stepped down from her post in the royal household as a result of the exchange.
And Ngozi has now opened up about the incident but admitted she is still waiting for Buckingham Palace staff to get in touch.
Speaking on 'Good Morning Britain', she said: “People keep saying the palace has reached out to me. Nobody has reached out to me."
Asked if there was a possibility officials had got in touch via her charity, she insisted: “No. I don’t know where this has come from, but I’m telling you categorically, we have not heard from the palace.”
But if Ngozi is asked to visit the palace to discuss her experience, she would attend because she would welcome a "discussion", though she is concerned the row is overshadowing the important message of the queen consort's reception.
She said: “See, what we’re about is positive results, so absolutely, I think a discussion should be held.
“We’re very happy to have that discussion, because we just want to bring it back to 16 days of activism. This is about violence against women and girls, and although I didn’t experience physical violence, what I feel I experienced was a form of abuse.”
Asked how she felt about Susan's resignation, she added: “I want the focus to remain where it should be, which is on the women and girls who are affected by domestic abuse. Having said that, she’s influenced by Buckingham Palace, and it’s their decision and her decision to make, one that I had no part in.”
In a separate interview, the charity boss said the encounter felt like "an interrogation".
She told Radio 4's 'Today': “[It was] like an interrogation. I guess the only way I can explain it, she’s determined: ‘Where are you from? Where are your people from?’”
She admitted she initially wondered if 83-year-old Lady Hussey hadn't heard her answer when she repeatedly asked the same question.
She added: “But it soon dawned on me very quickly that this was nothing to do with her capacity to understand, but this is her trying to make me really denounce my British citizenship.
“This is like a Windrush thing to me. You can’t make me unwelcome in my own space.”
Tagged in Queen Elizabeth