Succession's Brian Cox clarifies his comments and has 'enormous sympathy' for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Succession’s final season aired in the United Kingdom on Monday, with the patriarchal Logan Roy in an even more curmudgeonous mood given the developments after the first episode. But for the actor portraying Roy, Scottish-born Brian Cox, he’s instead discussed his sympathy for Meghan Markle and Harry, Duke of Sussex - having to clarify some of his previous comments about the pair.

“I’m a bit angry about that because that whole thing has been taken out of context,” Cox told the Radio Times in his most recent interview. “I actually have enormous sympathy for them. They’re the product of an institution which is moribund and shouldn’t exist any more. But that’s a difficult situation where she comes from, and it’s understandable that she sees something – and it does look like a fairy tale. But it was a fairy tale that went horribly wrong.”

He added: “I think they’re victims.”

Brian Cox cleared up his thoughts on the Sussexes after being scrutinised for comments in a previous interview where the actor, 76, accused Markle of “[knowing] what she was getting into” and “the childhood dreams of marrying Prince Charming and all that s**t we see as fantasy that could be our lives in our dreams.”

Has Cox’s stance on the royals softened then as he winds downplaying everyone's favourite Machiavellian media magnate?

Yes to an extent, having revealed in his 2021 memoirs that he shared an “intimate” encounter with Princess Margaret while only 23 and excusing himself before the encounter became any more “intimate,” though admitting Princess Margaret “was an extraordinary creature.”

Despite being staunch with his political outlook, including being an advocate for Scotland to become independent from England, he accepted his CBE in 2002 because of his sister. “If it wasn’t for my sister, I wouldn’t be here. She was my constant in my life. And she was a great royalist. So the reason I accepted the first time around was [because] it honoured her as much as anything else. Because she was a believer.”

But asked if he would ever accept a knighthood, Cox was adamant with his response to the Radio Times journalist: “Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” We would expect the same answer from his character Logan Roy, just with a few more clever swear words included in it.