Prince Charles appoints his most senior black aide to lead efforts to improve diversity in royal household

HRH Prince Charles has promoted his most senior black aide to boost relations between the palace and ethnic minority groups. Eva Omaghomi,43, who has worked for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall for 13 years, has been promoted to the newly created role of director of community engagement. As well as working with the households, the job will ‘help take forward Their Royal Highnesses’ work with minority groups in the UK, Commonwealth, and globally, building on a legacy stretching back to the 1970s’.

According to a royal insider: ‘Eva is an excellent choice for the new role. She’s loyal and discreet and the Prince trusts her judgment.’ Ms. Omaghomi, who is of British-Nigerian heritage, is a Christian minister and a trustee of the Big Kid Foundation, a charity working to stamp out youth violence. She previously held the role of deputy communications secretary at Clarence House and has most recently spent two years on secondment to the Prince’s Trust Group where she held the position of senior strategic adviser.

This comes as data released in June shows just one in 12 royal household staff are from ethnic minority backgrounds. In their televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markel made series of allegations of racism against the royal family.

Meghan claimed there had been “concerns and conversations” within the royal household around the colour of Archie’s skin when she fell pregnant.

Days later, while visiting a pop-up Covid vaccine centre at Jesus House Church, Prince Charles said: “We are all immensely proud of the role black majority churches play and it is, of course, a profound sorrow to me to know that black communities have been hit particularly hard by this pernicious virus.” Buckingham Palace has said it has taken claims on race made by Harry and Meghan are being taken “very seriously” but added that “recollections may vary”.”It is not that we have not been progressing diversity and inclusion initiatives, it is simply that the results have not been what we would like. We recognize that we must do more.”