Britain’s royal family was yesterday absorbing the tremors from a sensational television interview by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — also known as the duke and duchess of Sussex — in which the couple said they encountered racist attitudes and a lack of support that drove Meghan to thoughts of suicide.
The couple gave a deeply unflattering depiction of life inside the royal household, depicting a cold, uncaring institution that they had to flee to save their lives.
Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that at one point, “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore” and had uncontrollable suicidal thoughts.
Photo: Reuters
She said she sought help through the palace’s human resources department, but was told there was nothing they 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 US actress, who identifies as biracial, described 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,” but said he would not reveal who made the comment.
Photo: AP
Harry described how his wife’s experience had helped him realize how he and the 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 “saved me,” he said.
The younger royals — including Harry, Meghan, Prince William and William’s wife, Kate Middleton — have made campaigning for support and awareness around mental health one of their priorities.
However, Harry described a royal family 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,’” he said.
Early last year, Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media.
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.
The couple praised the support they had received from Queen Elizabeth II, Harry’s grandmother.
“The queen has always been wonderful to me,” Meghan said.
However, Harry revealed he currently has a poor relationship with his brother, William, and said things got so bad with his father that at one point Prince Charles stopped taking his calls.
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