The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have plunged the monarchy into a crisis, accusing an unnamed royal of racism, suggesting the family were jealous of Meghan and revealing that she contemplated taking her own life while pregnant.
Meghan and Harry hit out at the institution and members of the royal family in a series of astonishing admissions during their candid Oprah Winfrey interview.
Appearing vulnerable at times, the duchess revealed that working for The Firm – as the royal family is sometimes known – ultimately left her feeling that ending her life was an option, and how she had not been protected by the monarchy.
Asked explicitly by Winfrey if she was thinking of self-harm and having suicidal thoughts at some stage, Meghan replied: “Yes. This was very, very clear.
“Very clear and very scary. I didn’t know who to turn to in that.”
A member of the royal family – who both Harry and Meghan refused to identify – was worried about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.
Meghan told Winfrey there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born”.
Harry suggested his family were jealous of Meghan’s popularity with the public – just as the appeal of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had reportedly been seen as a threat.
And he revealed he has become estranged from his father, the Prince of Wales, saying: “I feel really let down”, but added that he would make it one of his priorities “to try and heal that relationship”.
Describing how she had been misrepresented in the press, Meghan said the Duchess of Cambridge had made her cry ahead of her wedding – the opposite of reports circulating ahead of the Sussexes’ nuptials that Meghan left Kate in tears at Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress fitting.
In a lighter moment, the couple, who announced in February that they are expecting their second child, said they are due to have a baby girl in the summer.
They also disclosed that they were married by the Archbishop of Canterbury three days before their formal ceremony.
Life behind palace doors has not been exposed to this degree since the days of the “War of the Waleses”, when the turmoil of Charles and Diana’s disintegrating marriage was laid bare in the 1990s.
Meghan told Winfrey she had got to the stage where she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore”.
When she turned to the institution of the monarchy for help, her request was turned down.
“I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help.
“I said that I’ve never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.”
Harry was asked if he told his family that he needed to get help for Meghan, and admitted he could not talk to them: “That’s just not a conversation that would be had.”
He added: “I guess I was ashamed of admitting it to them. And I don’t know whether they’ve had the same feelings or thoughts. I have no idea. It’s a very trapping environment that a lot of them are stuck in.”
When Meghan brought up the subject of Archie’s skin colour causing “concern”, a stunned Winfrey was told it had been raised by a member of the royal family with Harry.
The duchess said: “That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations the family had with him, and I think it was really hard to be able to see those as compartmentalised conversations.”
When she was questioned by Winfrey on who had those conversations, Meghan did not give a name and said: “I think that would be very damaging to them.”
Harry was later asked about the episode and said: “That conversation, I am never going to share. At the time it was awkward, I was a bit shocked.”
He said he was “not comfortable” sharing the question he was asked by the unnamed person, but said it happened “right at the beginning” of their relationship.
