Right royal revelations as couple meets Queen of Talk
Harry felt trapped by royal life as wife Meghan entertained thoughts of suicide, interview reveals
In a wide-ranging interview aired yesterday, Harry and Meghan described painful discussions about the colour of their son’s skin, losing royal protection and the intense pressures that led the Duchess of Sussex to contemplate suicide.
The interview with Oprah Winfrey was the couple’s first since they stepped down from royal duties and the two-hour special included numerous revelations.
Harry told Winfrey that he felt trapped by royal life and was surprised that he was cut off financially and lost his security last year. He also said he felt his family did not support Meghan, who acknowledged her naivete about royal life before marrying Harry, as she endured media attacks and false stories.
Meghan, who is biracial, described that when she was first pregnant with son Archie, there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”. The statement led Winfrey to ask “What?” incredulously.
In a rare positive moment in the interview, Harry and Meghan revealed their second child would be a girl. The interview opened with Winfrey gushing over Meghan’s pregnancy and lamenting that Covid19 protocols kept them from hugging.
The interview aired yesterday in the United States, a full day before it will air in Britain. The revelations aren’t over: Winfrey teased additional bits of the interview would be shown today on the CBS network.
In response to a question from Winfrey, Harry said he wouldn’t have left royal life if he hadn’t married Meghan, but that it was their relationship that revealed the strictures of royal life.
“I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped,” Harry said, before adding, “My father and my brother, they are trapped.”
Harry acknowledged that he does not have a close relationship presently with his brother William, who is heir to the throne after their father, Prince Charles.
The prince disputed rumours he intentionally blindsided his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth
II, with his decision to split. He suspects the rumours came from the institution.
Meghan, too, was complimentary toward the Queen, despite saying at one point she realised some in the palace were willing to lie to “protect other members of the family”.
Winfrey at various points in the interview ran through headlines about Meghan and at one point asked about the mental health impact. Meghan responded that she experienced suicidal thoughts and had sought help through the palace’s human resources department, but was told there was nothing they could do.
Meghan said she grew concerned about her son not having a royal title because it meant he wouldn’t be provided security.
Meghan said digesting everything while pregnant was “very hard”. More than the “prince” title, she was the most concerned about her son’s safety and protection.
“We’re not saying don’t make him a prince or princess, whatever it’s going to be. But if you’re saying the title is going to affect their protection, we haven’t created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid fodder. You’ve allowed that to happen, which means our son needs to be safe.”
Meghan said it was hard for her to understand why there were concerns within the royal family about her son’s skin colour.
Harry, too, said there are lasting impacts about Meghan’s treatment and his relationship with his family.
“There is a lot to work through there,” Harry said about his relationship with his father. “I feel really let down. He’s been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And Archie is his grandson. I will always love him, but there is a lot of hurt that has happened.”
Harry said the royal family cut him off financially at the start of 2020, but he was able to afford security for his family because of the money his mother, Princess Diana, left him.
Yesterday’s interview opened with Meghan describing how naive she was about the ground rules of royal life before she married her husband, nearly three years ago. “I didn’t fully understand what the job was,” she said. She also noted that she did not know how to curtsy before meeting Queen Elizabeth II for the first time, and didn’t realise it would be necessary.
“I will say I went into it naively because I didn’t grow up knowing much about the royal family.
“It wasn’t something that was part of conversation at home. It wasn’t something that we followed.”
Markle starred in the TV legal drama Suits. She married Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018, and their son, Archie, was born a year later.
Meghan said she and Harry were aligned during their courtship because of their “cause-driven” work. But she did not understand the pressure of being linked to the royals.
“It’s easy to have an image of it that is so far from reality,” she said. “And that’s what was really tricky over those past few years, is when the perception and the reality are two very different things. And you’re being judged on the perception, but you’re living the reality of it.”
At the top of the interview, Winfrey ran through several key points: that the production was following strict Covid-19 protocols, no topic was off limits and Meghan and Harry were not being paid for the special.
Royal interviews that aren’t tied to a specific topic are rare, and prior televised sessions have often proved problematic. Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC interview about his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to his own departure from royal duties after he failed to show empathy for Epstein’s victims.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal duties began in March 2020 over what they described as the intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media toward the duchess.
In Britain, the interview is seen as poorly timed. It will air while Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather Prince Philip remains hospitalised in London after undergoing a heart procedure.
It is unclear what public reaction the Queen and other royal family members will have to the interview. The UK’s Sunday Times newspaper, citing a source, reported the Queen would not watch it.