Wolf Hall novelist adds that centuries on from Henry VIII, a female royal such as the Duchess of Sussex is ‘still perceived as public property’

Hilary Mantel has said that racism has been an element in the “invective” against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

The novelist, who is about to publish the third part in her trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror and the Light, was asked by the BBC if Meghan had been a victim of racism. She said that “racism is a factor” in the criticism the duchess has faced since marrying Prince Harry.

“I think it’s more deeply embedded in people’s consciousness than any of us are willing to admit,” said Mantel. “So I hesitate to call her a victim but I think there has been an element of racism in the invective against her.”

Harry and Meghan will stop representing the Queen and become financially independent on 31 March. The decision followed what the prince described as a campaign of bullying by the British tabloid press against his wife, “a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son”.

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Mantel, whose novel Bring Up the Bodies depicted the downfall of Anne Boleyn, as engineered by Cromwell, said there was “still an intense concentration on the bodies of royal women”.

“We only have to look at what happens when our royal ladies give birth,” said the novelist. “They are perceived as public property in the same way that Tudor women were perceived. It is simply turning the individual woman back into a breeder.”

Mantel’s comments echo her 2013 lecture at the British Museum, during which she said Kate Middleton appeared to have been “designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss-varnished”.

“These days, she is a mother-to-be, and draped in another set of threadbare attributions. Once she gets over being sick, the press will find that she is radiant. They will find that this young woman’s life until now was nothing, her only point and purpose being to give birth,” said Mantel, in a speech later described as “venomous” and “bitter” by the Daily Mail, and as “completely misguided and completely wrong” by David Cameron.

Mantel pointed out that this was taking her comments out of context, saying: “My lecture and the subsequent essay was actually supportive of the royal family and when I used those words about the Duchess of Cambridge, I was describing the perception of her which has been set up in the tabloid press”.

“I don’t believe for one moment that there was any lack of clarity, after all, I have been practising my trade for a number of years now,” said the novelist at the time. “It was a matter of taking the words completely out of context – twisting the context – and setting me up as a hate figure. I have absolutely no regrets. What I said was crystal clear.”

The Mirror and the Light, concluding Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, is published on Thursday, and has already been longlisted for the Women’s prize. The novelist told the BBC she would be delighted if it brought her an unprecedented third Booker prize. “Oh yes,” she said, asked if she’d like to win again. “Who wouldn’t?”