On March 7th, Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry sat down with Oprah to do a tell-all interview about their time in the royal family. After distancing themselves from the family and moving to Los Angeles in January 2020, the world was left with questions as to why the couple stepped down.
While opening up the interview, Oprah emphasized that neither Meghan nor Harry were being paid to discuss their experience. They went on to discuss those first months of marriage and what they were like for Meghan. Six months after the couple was married tabloids began reporting that Meghan made her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, cry over an issue with flower girl dresses at her wedding. When brought up by Oprah, Meghan shared that the conflict was in fact the other way around and that Kate made her cry stating, “It made me cry and it really hurt my feelings. And I thought in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding that it didn’t make sense to not be just doing whatever what everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive.”
Meghan went on to share her struggles with mental health. With the tabloids reporting on her constantly and pressure from officials in charge of the royal family’s reputation, she discussed feeling very isolated and lonely. Meghan was told to “lay low” for a time while the press shared stories about her, and she revealed that at one point she had left the house twice in four months. She later discussed her experience when stating “You have no idea what’s going on for someone behind closed doors... Even the people that smile the biggest smiles, and shine the brightest lights, it seems ... [we need to] have compassion for what’s actually potentially going on.”
Later in the interview, there was a discussion about the treatment Meghan and her son, Archie, faced regarding their race. Meghan shared that, “There were concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.” Meghan revealed that royal officials informed her and Henry that their son would not be given a title or receive security. This treatment in particular was not confirmed nor denied to be due to Archie’s race.
Meghan and Harry shared their reasons for stepping down from their roles as senior members of the royal family. Meghan stating, “I don’t know how they could expect that, after all of this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.” Meghan had been facing accusations about treatment towards staff, and the royal family made a statement sharing how they planned to look into the allegations. Many were surprised by this due to the fact the royal family seldom addressed tabloids and rumors. The couple went on to reveal their state of happiness after leaving the family and moving to Los Angeles with Prince Harry sharing, “To have a boy and then a girl, what more can you ask for? But now we’ve got our family. We’ve got the four of us and our two dogs.”
Many are attributing the treatment the royal couple faced to officials behind closed doors, as both Meghan and Harry emphasized that Queen Elizabeth had been nothing but kind to them. The couple seems to be elated about the upcoming arrival of their daughter and shared how much they enjoyed being able to live a fairly simple lifestyle away from the stresses of royal life.