END OF A FAIRYTALE
The weathered royal couple share the downfall of their once picture-perfect life
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex reveal the truth
Back in November 2017, a beaming Meghan Markle clutched Prince Harry’s hand as they gave their first joint interview as a newly engaged couple. Asked about how she was handling the glare of the global spotlight, the former Suits actress admitted things were difficult, but her outlook was optimistic. “We’ve just focused on who we are as a couple,” she said. “When you take all those extra layers away and all of that noise, it makes it really easy to enjoy being together and tune out all the rest.”
Since their May 2018 wedding and the birth of son Archie a year later, the cacophony of criticism, scrutiny and outright untruths have become harder to block out for the couple. Meghan has opened up to ITV interviewer Tom Bradby about how she felt blindsided by the level of negative press in the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, filmed during the couple’s first royal tour with their five-month-old son Archie. “I had no idea, which probably sounds difficult to understand,” she says. “But when I first met Harry, my friends were so excited, my US friends were happy because I was happy, but my British friends, they were sure he was lovely, but they said I shouldn’t do it because ‘the British tabloids will destroy your life’. Because I’m American I very naively didn’t get it.”
Her husband Harry, on the other hand, has grown up with first-hand knowledge of that toll the spotlight can take.
The prince was just 12 when his
tabloid-hounded mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a 1997 car crash while being pursued by paparazzi. “I think being part of this family – in this role, in this job – every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back,” Harry, 35, says in the ITV documentary. “My mum taught me a certain set of values that I will always try to uphold, despite the role and the job that sometimes that entails. I will always protect my family, and now I have a family to protect.”
Towards the end of their 10-day African tour, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their decision to launch legal action against the Mail on Sunday for publishing a private letter Meghan sent to her father in August 2018 as well as suing two other outlets regarding alleged illegal interception of voicemail messages. Legal documents filed at the High Court in London seen by the Press Association news agency outline that the “private and confidential” letter sent by Meghan to her father, Thomas Markle, was written at a “time of great personal anguish and distress”. Shortly after taking the legal action, Prince Harry also released an unprecedented statement, blasting the British tabloid press. He describes “a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son”, adding that he and Meghan have “continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been”.
As Meghan explained in the documentary, “Any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, and so that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn, you know. And especially as a woman, it’s a lot,” she told Bradby, her eyes welling with tears. “So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mum
or trying to be a newlywed. It’s um … yeah. I guess, also thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I’m OK, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.” Asked by the ITV interviewer if it “would be fair” to say that she’s “not really OK, as in it’s really been a struggle?”, the duchess responds, “yes”.
Now, Prince William is believed to be very “worried” about his brother, a Kensington Palace source has told the BBC. William is said to be hoping the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “are all right” after admitting they were struggling. The palace source said there was a view the couple were “in a fragile place”. To ease the pressure, the young family are gearing up for a break. “The duke and duchess have a full schedule of engagements and commitments until mid-November,” a royal source has confirmed to WHO. “After which they will be taking some much-needed family time.”
It is expected they’ll divide their time between the US – where they will likely spend Thanksgiving with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland – and the UK, where they are expected to spend Christmas with the Queen at Sandringham in Norfolk. Striking a balance between personal and public life is “complicated”, Meghan says in the documentary. “I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair and that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile,” she explains. “I’ve said for a long time to H – that’s what I call him – it is not enough to just survive something. That’s not the point of life. You’ve got to thrive and feel happy. It’s really hard to understand what it’s like.”
Harry also expressed his hurt and issued a warning. “I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum.”
“It’s a very real thing to be going through” — Meghan