Britain and its royal family absorbed the tremors Monday from a sensational television interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, in which the couple said they encountered racist attitudes and a lack of support that drove the duchess to thoughts of suicide.
In a two-hour soul-baring interview by Oprah Winfrey, the couple painted a deeply unflattering picture of life inside the royal household, depicting a cold, uncaring institution that they had to flee to save their lives.
Meghan told Winfrey that at one point “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.” She said she sought help through the palace’s human resources department but was told there was nothing it could do.
Meghan, 39, admitted that she was naive at the start of her relationship with Harry and unprepared for the strictures of royal life.
The former television star, who identifies as biracial, said that when she was pregnant with son, Archie, there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Harry confirmed the conversation, saying: “I was a bit shocked.” He said he would not reveal who made the comment, though Winfrey said he told her it was not either of his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II or her husband, Prince Philip.
Harry and Meghan, known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced they were quitting royal duties last year, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media, and moved to North America. That split became official this year, and the interview was widely seen as their first opportunity to explain their decision.
In a clip released Monday that was not broadcast the night before, Harry reiterated that racism was “a large part” of the reason the couple left Britain — and he blamed the “toxic” British tabloid press.
“The U.K. is not bigoted,” he said. “The U.K. press is bigoted, specifically the tabloids.”
The implications for the interview — which was broadcast Sunday night in the United States and will air in Britain on Monday night — are only beginning to be understood. Emily Nash, royal editor at Hello! Magazine, said the revelations had left her and many other viewers “shell-shocked.”
“I don’t see how the palace can ignore these allegations, they’re incredibly serious,” she said. “You have the racism allegations. Then you also have the claim that Meghan was not supported, and she sought help even from the HR team within the household and was told that she couldn’t seek help.”
Anti-monarchy group Republic said the interview gave a clearer picture of what the royal family is like — and it’s not pretty.
“Whether for the sake of Britain or for the sake of the younger royals this rotten institution needs to go,’’ Graham Smith of the campaign group said.
Harry, born a royal prince, described how his wife’s experience had helped him realize how he and he rest of the family were stuck in an oppressive institution.
“I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped,” Harry said. “My father and my brother, they are trapped.”
Meghan, he said, “saved me.”
The younger royals — including Harry, Meghan, Harry’s brother, Prince William, and William’s wife, Catherine — have made campaigning for support and awareness around mental health one of their priorities. But Harry said the royal family was completely unable to offer that support to its own members.
“For the family, they very much have this mentality of ‘This is just how it is, this is how it’s meant to be, you can’t change it, we’ve all been through it,’” Harry said.
The couple had faced severe criticism in the United Kingdom before the interview. Prince Philip, 99, is in a London hospital after recovering from a heart procedure, and critics saw the decision to go forward as being a burden on the queen — even though CBS, rather than Harry and Meghan, dictated the timing of the broadcast.
In the United States, sympathy for the couple poured in after the interview. Britain could be less forgiving, since some see the pair as putting personal happiness ahead of public duty.
Tennis star Serena Williams, a friend who attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding, said on Twitter that the duchess’s words “illustrate the pain and cruelty she’s experienced.”
“The mental health consequences of systemic oppression and victimization are devastating, isolating and all too often lethal,” Williams added.
Meghan — then known as Meghan Markle, who had starred on the American TV legal drama “Suits” — married Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
But even that was not what it seemed: The couple revealed in the interview that they exchanged vows in front of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby three days before their spectacular wedding ceremony at the castle.
Archie was born the following year and in a rare positive moment in the interview, the couple revealed their second child, due in the summer, would be a girl.
Harry said he had lived in fear of a repeat of the fate of his mother, Princess Diana, who was covered constantly by the press and died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.
“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,” Harry said.
Both Meghan and Harry praised the support they had received from the monarch.
“The queen has always been wonderful to me,” Meghan said.
But Harry revealed he currently has a poor relationship with William and said things got so bad with his father that at one point Prince Charles stopped taking his calls.
“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.”
While clips of the interview have been shared online, and the British press covered the major points, much of Britain won’t see the full interview until Monday night — and many will want to know how the palace addresses this saga. The palace has not responded to the interview.
The royal family has known scandal before — most recently over Prince Andrew’s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. That led Andrew, Harry’s uncle, to being sidelined from royal duties.
“I’m very sad for the queen,” said Ernest Lee, 76, when questioned in London. “I think she has a lot of problems at the moment, what with one of her sons (Andrew) and scandals and now her grandson busting up, pulling away from the royal family. … We have enough problems in this world without people making more.”
Time to abolish the Monarchy; especially if they can’t support their own family. Charles should never be King. He’s married to a divorcée!
These are truths and abolish the Monarch!!!!
Harry & Meghan CHOSE to cut themselves off from the palace; they had no reasonor right to expect “support” from that quarter now. They, or at least she, expected to have the cake, but eat it too, and things didn’t go her way. She has no one to blame but herself.
Shes just trying to stay in the lime light. Hasn’t done much and a B actress at best. I’am not a big king. queen fan either but they should not have been dropped on like that.
People forget that she is an actress, and was probably lying through her teeth! She needs the attention for whatever she plans next! Most people with any sense do not care what Harry and Megan think!
So true!
This was a horrendous interview manipulated by Meghan the actress. Harry looked like a pawn and he also looked very sad. This should be private family matters. And the racial comments about skin color was irresponsible and manipulative. Especially Oprah’s reaction. This will go viral and the entire monarchy will be automatically be accused of racism. Not sure if this relationship will last for the long term. We have already discovered that the queen and prince were not responsible for saying these things about skin color. It seems Harry may not tell but he sure wanted whomever said it to feel regretful. I think he is the most traumatized by his mother’s demise and is desperately still trying to deal with it.
Attention seeking spoiled children. I really feel sorry for them. They need to write a book about how hard they have it and probably will, then a movie of it could be made. Then that dizzy bi..h could star in it! Idiots.
The Duchess of Sussex (aka. Ms. Markle) excelled in this interview as a PR personality in her own interest by pulling every dead fish there was from the muddy sea of Hollywood.Her whinings about her alleged “victimhood” plays the ‘cheater’s card’ we have seen now in every Wild West saloon, from “Me Too” to “I can’t breathe”, and it follows the same pattern:You jump into something you don’t know (or only from Disney movies) and complain when you bump into corners that are visible but ignored by you – because you want to appear “different”.In this corner of “the palace”, she becomes a medium summoning the spirit of ‘Diana’ to ride on it as “her own sad fate”, thus, also invoking differences and splits in her husband’s family.And, when I look at all the pictures and videos shown on all these “obliging” TV channels, the “Duchess” has created her “own people” in her Duchy and they’re Not the ones she grew up with:Like in the case of Ms. Kabbala Harris, we can expect the Duchess to “memorize”, at any time, her happy childhood with “Kamzaa under the Christmas tree”.And it’s true: We need new “family TV series” (before family is forbidden) on our screens, because all the old ones have become “Cancelled Culture” for this or that “wrong” little detail.And the United States need a new “ideal” or “royalty”, as the old Kennedy and Clinton and Epstein clans from the Duchy of Martha’s Vineyard have grown infected mould all around.But, will the new “royal court” on the West Coast be any shinier with this new “Nobility”? Let’s face it: Hollywood is as immoral as Martha’s Vineyard, and anyone respecting themselves should what?Put a long distance between them and those two directions! Not that I liked London very much (when I worked and researched there) – but there are still better places to choose.The one which the Duchess has chosen would be good if one loved a deep dive into a swamp – but who does? – normally?