I don’t think anyone needs to tie themselves in knots over Susan Hussey. Ngozi Fulani has every right to find her experience with her unpleasant. Not all people of colour have the same experience or attitude towards an interaction. Some racism is objective, some of it is subjective, some is deliberate and blatant, some is thoughtless. Some people on the receiving end would roll their eyes over it, some would forgive an elderly woman as having a generational attitude that is out of touch but ultimately harmless, some would seek accountability and an apology. Some people wouldn’t have a problem with the “where are you really from” conversation - as I said before, I get this from other people of my own race all the time.
There is zero evidence to suggest that Susan Hussey was guilty of any offensive behaviour or offended anyone prior to the incident with Ngozi Fulani. At the time she was made available to Meghan, she had an unblemished record.
Harry stated in his Tom Bradby interview that the RF was not racist but that unconscious bias was present that needed to be dealt with so that it didn’t escalate into racism. Shortly thereafter came the encounter between Hussey and Fulani. Swift action was taken by William, in the form of Hussey’s dismissal. H&M’s response to this was an expression of their love for Hussey and a declaration that they are sure she meant no harm. They undermined both William and Ms Fulani with these words. We have no way of knowing if they said this truthfully or to undermine their hated brother/brother in law.
Nevertheless, if we take their words as true, all that proves is that, in their interactions with Hussey, and theirs alone, she was never anything other than lovely. And thus, as a potential mentor to MM, there is no reason to doubt that this extremely experienced woman would have been anything other than professional, supportive and helpful to them. There is no need to extrapolate anything else from their words, or decide that if they are truthful once, everything they say is truthful.
I don’t know what is the original source of SH being offered up to MM, but it is written about in Tina Brown’s Palace Papers, who says some fairly ageist and unpleasantly racist things about her/Meghan, as apparently an old, white woman had nothing to offer a thirty something, mixed race woman (apart from many years of insider experience I suppose - and presumably a thirty something mixed race woman can’t/won’t learn from an old white woman in converse).