SUICIDE FEARS
MISERABLE MEGHAN BROKE DOWN AND WEPT AT ALBERT HALL... BUT SAYS ROYAL ‘INSTITUTION’ IGNORED HER CRIES FOR HELP
THE Duchess of Sussex said she thought of suicide as the pressure mounted and her mental health issues were ignored by the rest of the family.
Meghan said she ‘just did not want to be alive anymore’ and broke down during a public event at the Royal Albert Hall when she wept in her seat.
But she claimed her attempts to seek help were rebuffed by royal family members and Palace staff who told her they could do nothing because she was not on the payroll.
‘I remember how Harry just cradled me and I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help,’ she told Oprah Winfrey.
‘And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.
‘I just didn’t want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and
The war of the
frightening constant thought. I didn’t see a solution. I was really ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry, especially, because I know how much loss he’s suffered. ‘But I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it.’
Harry told Oprah he feared a repeat of the fate that befell his mother, Princess Diana, who reportedly attempted to throw herself down a staircase as the pressure of her royal life intensified.
‘What I was seeing was history repeating itself but definitely far more dangerous – because then you add race in, and you add social media in,’ the duke revealed. Meghan said she was ‘haunted’ by photos of her attending a premiere by theatre group Cirque du Soleil in January 019 while she was pregnant with her first child, Archie.
Harry had suggested she stay home but she warned him not to leave her alone in her state of mind.
Haunted by a picture of the event, she said: ‘I was weeping. Right before we had to leave for that, I had just had that conversation with Harry that morning.
‘And that picture, if you zoom in, what I see is how tightly his knuckles are gripped around me. You can see the whites of our knuckles because we are smiling and doing our job, but we are both just trying to hold on.
‘Every time those lights went down in that royal box, I was just weeping.
‘Harry was gripping my hand and it was, “Okay an intermission’s coming, the lights are about to come on, everyone’s looking at us again”, and you had to just be “on” again.’ She said she
first went to ‘one of the most senior’ royals who was not able to help and the Palace’s human resources department, who told her she was ‘not a paid employee of the institution’.
Harry said he too was desperate at their situation and ‘went to a very dark place’ but he said he was also rebuffed when he turned for help.
‘I went to all the places which I thought I should go to, to ask for help – we both did, separately and together,’ he added. She said the lack of support for her mental welfare was a key reason for their flight from royal life.
‘Nothing was ever done, so we had to find a solution,’ she explained.
‘I share this because there are so many people who are afraid to voice that they need help.
‘And I know personally how hard it is to not just voice it but, when you voice it, to be told no.’ Meghan admitted that she did not look troubled in public as she struggled to maintain her role.
‘You have no idea what’s going on for someone behind closed doors,’ she insisted.
‘Even the people that smile the biggest smiles and shine the brightest lights.’
■ I have a lot of sympathy for Harry and Meghan but they do themselves and the late Princess Diana a disservice with their Oprah interview (Metro, Mon).
It was indulging in this very same display of public soul-baring that caused even more distress in Diana’s life and will undoubtedly do the same in theirs.
If you don’t want the pressure of being in the public spotlight, you don’t do an interview with the biggest chat show host in the world to cry about things.
Mike, Dagenham
■ It was sad to hear the couple air family divisions so publicly.
There are no winners here. Harry and Meghan will gain some sympathy but also receive public outrage. What is it they were trying to achieve?
Tony Howarth, London
■ I’ve always liked Harry, especially with his work for the Armed Forces, so I was pleased when he got together with Meghan as I thought they would make a wonderful contribution.
Initially, they seemed to get on well with the Cambridges and I was beginning to think it was marvellous how the royal family was modernising.
But I’m now so sad to see what Harry has become. I had sympathy and respect for them when they stepped away from royal life to attain privacy but I’m very puzzled now.
Working for Disney? A high-profile court case against a British newspaper? Interviews with James Corden on his American chat show? And now an interview with Oprah Winfrey?
How is all that – working for, with, in and against the media – guarding one’s privacy?
Heather, Keighley
■ I’m definitely not buying the trash from the royal family about Meghan ‘bullying’ staff. They were never comfortable with Harry marrying her. They might call her actions ‘bullying’ but I call them self-preservation.
John Bosco Onyeme, via email
■ It was said in your story that the Queen would not be watching the Oprah interview. Instead, she would be ‘focused on helping lead the nation out of the Covid crisis’.
Can someone explain what she’s done, over and above my gran, to help lead the nation out of the Covid crisis?
Jamie, Edinburgh
■ A lot of people I talk to are sick of Meghan playing the
victim. She loves the publicity and financial incentives that accompany it – always banging on about saving the planet by reducing her carbon footprint when they live in a mansion with 16 bathrooms! Moralists are often the worst bullies.
Mark, via email
■ Please, just stop now! This character assassination of a pregnant woman who is telling us she did not feel protected in Britain is nothing I want to read about.
Connor, Manchester
■ A gossipy whinge fest is one way to describe the Meghan And Harry Show, aired with their mate, Oprah.
Total tosh from start to finish, too petty and self-serving really to warrant any comment. Shades of Diana’s ‘three of us in the marriage’ interview. Even the ‘someone said’ tactic was dragged out in reference to allegations of racism within the palace. Name and shame or shut up!
I hope people will see what the intention of the skewed so-called interview was. ‘Their side of things’ is correct and all it was.
I hope the palace’s investigation into Meghan’s behaviour when she was a royal steams ahead, full speed.
Col Blake, Ealing
■ It’s time for The Firm – those people who run the palace – to join the 21st century. The lackeys who sit anonymously in the background stirring up dissent should remember they were responsible for the demise of Diana.
Harry walked away because he wasn’t happy and you have to respect him for that. Happiness is
difficult to find and harder to hang on to. Let the man be.
Brown, Vernantes
I can’t quite understand Harry and Meghan wanting to make public how they feel, despite apparently wanting to walk away from public life.
I suspect this will not be the last occasion on which they have unfettered access to a media of their choice, which is what this is really all about.
That said, the more people want to hear this sort of stuff, the more the media will report on it.
Paul, West Midlands
Whatever happened to royal protocol and family loyalty? Did they very conveniently forget about this while enjoying their new Hollywood life of fame and fortune?
Alan, London
I have long thought that what the royal family did to Diana was unforgivable. She was a young girl when she was wooed by Prince Charles to perpetuate his duty and provide heirs to the throne.
What happened to his duty as a husband and father to his wife and two young sons? He used Diana and continued his affair with Camilla. There were constant rumours that Diana was unstable. This cruel and unfeeling family are privileged robots.
As a boy, Prince Harry went through the horrific loss of his mother. He needed support and help but he was probably told to keep a stiff upper lip by the robots.
Fortunately, he is now with the woman he loves and will have the precious
family he was denied as a child. Good luck to him.
Roger, via email
It’s time this couple, who continually complain about their privacy being invaded while at the same time courting publicity, stopped seeing themselves as victims and realised that they alone are responsible for the negative publicity they get.
J Smyth, via email
Something is wrong with the picture of a ‘lovely, friendly woman’ being mistreated by an ‘evil monarchy’. Andrea, London
I thought Harry and Meghan left the UK to escape the pressures of being in the limelight and being photographed by the media.
Yet they have done a ‘tell-all interview with Ofrah Winfrey’. They can’t have their cake and eat it! How sad for the royal family to suffer yet another smear by disgruntled family members!
Rachel, Brimsdown
The best person to rule and represent the UK is the Queen. Sadly, unless William takes over rather than Charles, The Firm is going to go downhill after her passing.
John, Leicestershire
Do you think Meghan actually realised she was marrying into the royal family? John, Dorking
Who’s bothered what’s going on in the Meghan saga? There are more important things going on in the world.
Roger, Wolverhampton
JURY selection has begun in the trial of a white policeman charged with the murder of George Floyd, whose death sparked the Black Lives Matter protests across the US and the world.
It could take three weeks to pick the 12 citizens to decide the fate of Derek Chauvin, who was filmed kneeling on the 46-year-old’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded: ‘I can’t breathe.’
To address the risk of bias, potential jurors are being sent a questionnaire that asks what they know about the death of Mr Floyd (pictured) in Minneapolis last May.
They will have to say if they have seen the footage of his arrest, if they took part in any protests and what they think of Black Lives Matter. There are fears the process may result in no black people being chosen, in a city where they make up about a fifth of the population.
Prof Aviva Orenstein said: ‘In an ideal world, you want somebody who hasn’t formed an opinion. Do you know a black person who has not formed an opinion about George Floyd?’ Chauvin, who was sacked by the force, denies second-degree murder, which carries up to 40 years in jail, and the lesser charge of manslaughter. His lawyers argue he followed his training in arresting Mr Floyd, who had taken the drug fentanyl, on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store. Three other ex-officers, Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, all face charges of aiding and abetting their colleague.
Chauvin during the arrest of George Floyd last May