Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull bolstered his argument for Australia severing its constitutional ties with the UK monarchy.
This was over the controversial interview of Prince Harry and Meghan with Oprah Winfrey that aired on CBS recently.
Prince Harry and Meghan reached an estimated viewership of 17.1 million in the United States.
Turnbull has met Prince Harry and Meghan in April 2018.
Four months later he was replaced by the current Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
He told the ABC:
“It’s clearly an unhappy family or at least Meghan and Harry are unhappy. It seems very sad.”
The former Australian PM added:
“After the end of the queen’s reign, that is the time for us to say: OK, we’ve passed that watershed. Do we really want to have whoever happens to be the head of state of – the king or queen of the UK, automatically our head of state?”
Britain’s monarch is Australia’s head of state.
Turnbull was the chairman of the Australian Republican Movement from 1993 to 2000.
ARM has been an advocate for Australia selecting an Australian citizen as its head of state.
A nation-wide referendum on Australia becoming a republic was defeated in 1999.
