Oprah royal interview: Meghan reveals she ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’
The TV special was highly anticipated because Harry and Meghan are now allowed to speak more freely about the royal family due to their effective split from the palace.
And the couple did not hold back.
Meghan began the interview speaking with Winfrey one-on-one outdoors in sun-drenched Southern California, where she and Harry now live. Meghan made several revelations about the royal couple’s private lives, including that the two were married three days before their official wedding and the second child they are expecting is a girl.
But the most powerful portions of the two-hour interview came when Meghan discussed the difficulties of her life as a working royal. Meghan, an American former actress, said she was forced to suppress her outspoken nature and give up her personal freedom. She said she did not have access to her passport, driver’s license or keys after she joined the royal family, and they were only returned when the couple moved away.
Fighting back tears at one point, Meghan said the thoughts of suicide were incredibly difficult to bear, and she was reticent to share them with her husband — who lost his mother, Princess Diana, when he was a boy.
“I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he has suffered. But I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it — and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” she said.
Harry said he was “terrified” by his wife’s admission.
“I had no idea what to do, I went to a very dark place as well, but I wanted to be there for her,” he added.
The prince, who is sixth in line to the throne, said there is a culture of suffering in silence in the royal family. However, Meghan’s race — she is half Black — and the abuse she endured made the situation even more difficult for the couple than it had been for other royals.
Harry said that pushed him to discuss the issue with the royal family. He told Winfrey he believed there were many opportunities for the palace to “show some public support” in the face of continued racial abuse in the press, “yet no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts.”
Harry said the issue was bigger than just the couple, because of what Meghan represented as an influential Black woman in a public position.
“It was affecting so many other people as well,” he said. “That was the trigger for me to really engage those conversation with the palace, senior palace staff and my family to say, guys, this is not going to end well.”
The interview is likely to have lasting consequences for the royal family. It aired at an already fraught time for the royals, with Prince Philip, the Queen’s 99-year-old husband, spending a third week in hospital following a heart procedure Thursday.
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