Meghan Markle's heart-wrenching revelations during the interview with Oprah Winfrey had shocked a lot of people. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex talked about how Meghan's pregnancy was not easy and that life as a royal 'silenced' her. Cradling her baby bump, Meghan recalled that Kate Middleton made her cry before she married Harry; however, "she owned it, and she apologized. And she brought me flowers."
This interview marks one of the Royal Family's most important TV shows since BBC's Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana in 1995.
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The CBS primetime interview broadcast spoke of how the couple experienced firsthand racist treatment from the Royal Family and how their departure from the Royal Family caused the Princes to drift apart from each other.
Speaking to Oprah, Meghan recalls telling her husband how she 'didn't want to be alive anymore.' Yet, she was ignored.
During Royal Albert Hall in January 2019, she attended with Harry while pregnant when her mental health issues peaked.
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She said, "I knew that if I didn't say it, that I would do it. I just didn't want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. I remember how he just cradled me. 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."
She felt restrained and unsupported inside the Palace and sought out one of Princess Diana's best friends for consolation. "When I joined that family, that was the last time I saw my passport, my driving license, my keys - all of that gets turned over." Meghan added that Harry 'saved my life' when he chose to move to LA with her.
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She claims a member of Harry’s family was ‘worried’ about Archie’s skin colour when asked if he was ‘too brown.’
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It continued with when she was pregnant, and Meghan claiming that Harry's relative had wondered that the unborn Prince Archie would be 'too brown' to be a prince of the Royal Family. The Duchess points out that the family was troubled and wondered 'how dark' his skin would be.
Harry was afraid of 'history repeating itself' and likened Meghan to Diana's life story. He thinks his mother would be 'angry and sad' watching the couple. "My father and brother. They're both trapped," said Harry. "I myself was trapped, as well. I didn't see a way out."
They then talked about how they signed with Netflix and Spotify after being cut off financially to pay the bills. Harry previously rejected his father's calls, but now things have gotten a little better. "I feel really let down because he's been through something similar," said Harry. "He knows what pain feels like, and Archie's his grandson. I will always love him, but there's a lot of hurts that's happened."
"I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship."
On his brother, Harry continued, "I love William to bits. He's my brother. We've been through hell together. I mean, we have a shared experience. But we're on different paths."
Harry says he's now on a different path from his brother and could imagine how his mother would feel about this.
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Meghan claimed she didn't do research on the Royal Family and 'naively' entered it. The couple planned their 'Megxit' just six months after they got married. To her, life in Kensington Palace was like the lockdown we're currently going through. She didn't even know she had to curtsy her Majesty on their first meeting at Windsor.
"It wasn't something that was part of conversation at home; it wasn't something that we followed," she explained. "I didn't fully understand what the job was, what does it mean to be a working royal, what do you do?"
The couple also happily announced they're having a baby girl due this summer.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex showed their excitement as they talked about welcoming Archie's sister and raise her in their home, Montecito, California. They also added that they're 'done' with two kids with the girl will be born as a Miss with the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
Harry will also return to see his family this summer, while Meghan is staying behind for 'personal and practical' reasons.
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The Duke of Sussex recalls feeling 'really let down' when his dad rejected his calls after deciding to quit the Royal Family. He explained how they were 'trapped' in their family. Some relatives suggest Meghan continue on her acting career because "there was not enough money to pay for her."
Oprah asked, "So, you just said that your dad stopped taking your calls. Why did he stop taking your calls?"
"Because... by that point, I took matters into my own hands. It was like, I need to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody," Harry explained.
"It's really sad that it's gotten to this point, but I've got to do something for my own mental health, my wife's, and for Archie's, as well, because I could see where this was headed."
While refusing to name the royal that spoke to her as it will be 'damaging,' Meghan talked about skin-color issues.
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"In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, we have in tandem, the conversation of 'He won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title,' and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born," said Meghan.
Seemingly taken aback, Oprah cut her, "Hold on. Hold up. Stop right now. There's a conversation... about how dark your baby is going to be?"
"Potentially, and what that would mean or look like," she replied. "I wasn't able to follow up with why, but if that's the assumption you're making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand, right?"
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The family is also now 'down to basics' as they live in their $14.5 million mansion. The two took Oprah for a look around their chicken coop. "This year has been crazy for everybody, but to have outdoor space where I can go for walks with Archie, and we can go for walks as a family and with the dogs, and we can go on hikes," the family talked about their daily activities since the lockdown.
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"We'll go down to the beach, which is so close - all of these things are just - I guess, the highlight for me is sticking him on the back of the bicycle in his little baby seat and take him on these bike rides, which is something I was never able to do when I was young."
"It's better than any fairy tale," said Meghan.
She claimed that things got worse when they were finally married because the palace was willing to "life to protect other members of the family." At the same time, Meghan added that "they weren't willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband."
Then Oprah asked, "Were you silent? Or were you silenced?"
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She answered that it was the latter.
She compared her royal life to The Little Mermaid that she watched in Nottingham cottage. "I went, 'Oh my God, she falls in love with the prince, and because of that, she loses her voice,'" Meghan commented. "But in the end, she gets her voice back."
Oprah agreed with her, "And this is what happened here. You feel like you got your voice back."
"Now, because we're actually on the other side, we've actually not just survived but are thriving."
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The couple regrets how rifts cracked between Harry and his family, but they believe in the happy ending that they are heading towards.
