Harry, Meghan interview: ‘There’s a lot of hurt but we have no regrets’

Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview included claims the royals were concerned about how dark baby Archie would be.

Harry and Meghan speak with talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Picture: AFP.

Harry and Meghan have finished their no-holds-barred interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they pulled no punches in spelling out why they turned their backs on royal life.

As Oprah had suggested in early trailers of the interview, the couple held little back, with Meghan revealing she had contemplated suicide and Harry claiming his father stopped taking his calls during Megxit.

Oprah's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will go down in history, alongside Martin Bashir's famous 1995 interview with Princess Diana. A picture of the royal family, and the English elite, reckoning with race, mental health and celebrity culture.

— Liam Stack (@liamstack) March 8, 2021

Amid the more damaging claims were allegations that senior royals were concerned about what colour their baby Archie might be; and that senior royals refused to let Meghan seek help when she became suicidal.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle talk to Oprah. Picture: Screengrab

The interview began with Meghan on her own. She told Oprah the Queen had never been anything but kind and welcoming to her, adding that the Monarch reminded her of her own grandmother.

She also revealed, startlingly, that she and Harry had married three days before their wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, and that she had practised curtsying just hours before she met the Queen for the first time

But that was where any sense of optimism ended. Early on in the interview she was keen to make it clear that, contrary to claims that she had made Kate, William’s wife, cry in the run-up to her wedding with Harry, it was the other way around.

“The narrative with Kate, which didn’t happen, was really difficult,” she said. “A few days before the wedding she was upset about something pertaining to the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.”

But she saved her most harmful revelations for the “institution”, as both she and Harry called the royal family. First came the claims of racism, with Meghan telling Oprah the family was concerned Archie would be “too brown.” She refused to say who had voiced these concerns on the basis that if she identified the person, “that would be very damaging to them.”

Then Meghan described how she became suicidal, saying “I didn’t want to live any more,” citing negative press coverage and a lack of support from the Firm.

But pleas to the family for help were flatly rejected.

“I went to the institution and I said ‘I need to go somewhere to get help,” she said “I was told I could not, it would not be good for the institution.”

Asked what she meant by “the institution,” Meghan told Oprah: “It was a person.”

Harry’s arrival for the second half of the interview made things more personal. Harry told Oprah that the couple had to leave England because the family refused to support them – and in particular Meghan – as she struggled to be accepted.

Damningly, he said his father, Prince Charles, had stopped taking his calls during “Megxit” talks and instead had asked him to put everything in writing.

Describing a rift that is yet to be healed, Harry said he still felt hurt and let down by his father. “ I feel really let down, because he has been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like, and Archie’s his grandson,” he said.

He insisted that he will always love his father, “but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened.”

I felt trapped says Harry and so are my family. My father and brother are trapped in the system like the rest of my family are. "They don’t get to leave. I have huge compassion for that."#OprahMeghanHarry

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 8, 2021

However he said he felt “compassion” for his father and brother William because they were trapped in their lives.

He said he wouldn’t have left the royal family if it wasn't for Meghan because he was trapped within the institution.

“I couldn’t see a way out. I was trapped and didn’t know I was trapped. Like the rest of my family are. My father and my brother are trapped, they can’t leave this life,” he said.

After two hours of devastating claims, the couple ended the interview on a more uplifting note. Harry revealed that the baby Meghan is expecting in the northern spring is a girl, and both said they felt lucky in their new life, and liberated at being freed from royal ties.

Meghan denied being the architect of Megxit but said the decision to leave the royal family had “saved us.”

“Harry saved all of us, he ultimately called it and said “we have got to find a way. You made a decision that saved my life and saved all of us,” she said.

Harry told Oprah: “I am really proud of us. I am so proud of my wife,” while Meghan insisted the couple was not just surviving but “thriving.”

When Oprah asked: “So, your story with the prince does have a happy ending,” Meghan answered: “It does.”

“It’s greater than any fairy tale,” she said.

How the interview unfolded

Jacquelin Magnay2.15pm: ‘Greater than any fairy tale’

Despite spending the two hour interview talking about the misery of their lives, Meghan claims their story has a fairy tale ending.

When Oprah asks: “So, your story with the prince does have a happy ending,” Meghan answers: “It does.”

“It’s greater than any fairy tale,” she says.

Anne Barrowclough2.10pm:Conversations on baby’s colour ‘from the beginning’

Pressed by Oprah on Meghan’s claims there were concerns about Archie’s skin colour, Harry says there were conversations on the subject “Right from the beginning.”

“What will the children look like?” he said he was asked.

Asked who it was who asked these questions, he replies: “That conversion, I am never going to share. At the time it was awkward, I was a bit shocked.”

He also says members of his family suggested Meghan “carried on acting because there was not enough money to pay for her”.

He added: “There were some real obvious signs, before we even got married, that this was going to be really hard.”

Wrapping up the interview, Meghan tells Oprah her one regret was believing the “institution” when they said they would protect her.

“I was not supposed to see it, I was not supposed to know,” she says.

Anne Barrowclough1.50pm: ‘I feel let down’ by Charles

Harry says he has spoken to the Queen more in the last year than he had done before Megxit but makes it clear that there is still a rift with Prince Charles.

He says his father is now taking his calls but adds “I feel really let down, because he has been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like, and Archie’s his grandson.”

He insists that he will always love his father, “but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened.”

He says he will always make it his priority to heal their relationship but adds: “They only know what they know. Its what they are told.”

Asked about his relationship with William, he says: “The relationship is space. Time heals all things.”

He adds: “I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together, we have a shared experience, but we were on different paths.”

Anne Barrowclough1.45pm:‘No one teaches you how to be royal’

Meghan says she wrote letters begging the institution to keep Prince Harry’s security detail even if she and Archie would not receive any security. “I’ve seen the letters, I’ve seen the death threats,” she says, explaining that she was desperate for at least one of them have some level of protection.

She also adamantly denies she was the architect of “Megxit,” saying she approached the job wanting to do well but had been given no training.

“No one tells you how to be royal,” she says,” adding that she had to google the National Anthem because no one bothered to teach her it.

Anne Barrowclough 1.40pm:‘I was trapped like my father and brother are’

Harry has admitted that he would never have considered leaving the royal family if it wasn't for Meghan.

“I would not have been able to because I felt trapped,” he says. Grilled by Oprah over how he, a royal, could feel that way, he replies: “I couldn’t see a way out. I was trapped and didn’t know I was trapped.

I felt trapped says Harry and so are my family. My father and brother are trapped in the system like the rest of my family are. "They don’t get to leave. I have huge compassion for that."#OprahMeghanHarry

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 8, 2021

“Like the rest of my family are,” he adds. “My father and my brother are trapped.”

He adds that his mother would be “very angry” if she could see what was happening to him and Meghan.

Anne Barrowclough 1.35pm: Royals ‘scared’ of British tabloids

Harry has said his family are “scared” of the British tabloid press.

“I am acutely aware how scared my family are that the tabloids will turn on them,” he said.

He said that at the start the Queen, his father and William and Kate were welcoming of Meghan but everything changed after the couple’s hugely successful tour of Australia, suggesting the family was jealous of Meghan’s popularity.

“To see how effortless it was for Meghan to come into the family in Australia, Fiji and Tonga and connect with people,” he says after comparing the couple’s tour with Charles and Diana’s tour of the country in the 1980s, when Diana outshone her husband.

Jacquelin Magnay 1.20pm:Harry: My father stopped taking my calls

The couple have claimed they never left the Royal Family but only wanted to step down from senior roles.

Harry tells Oprah they both “asked for help” but it wasn’t forthcoming.

“My biggest worry was history repeating itself and what I was seeing was history repeating itself but far more dangerous because you add in race and social media.

“When I’m talking about history repeating itself, I’m talking about my mother,” he says.

“To receive no help at all and be told ‘this is how it is, we’ve all been through it.

He said the decision to leave was partly because of the tabloid press coverage of Meghan and the lack of support from within the family.

Harry: We told Prince Charles that we would announce our departure and put it all out on 7 January.
In other words, Harry says his father and grandmother knew that the announcement was coming that they were leaving - and they did NOT "blindside" The Queen #OprahMeghanHarry

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 8, 2021

He denies that he “blindsided” the Queen, as has been claimed. He says he had three conversations with the Queen and two with his father “before he stopped taking my calls,” and was asked to put everything in writing.

Asked why Prince Charles had stopped taking his calls, he says: Because I took matters into my own hands, I need to do things for my own family, I’ve got to do something, for my own mental health, my wife’s and for Archies as well, I could see where this was headed.

He said he had proposed living in a Commonwealth country in order to be able to remain a part of the Royal family.

Jacquelin Magnay1.10pm:It’s a girl!’

Harry has joined the conversation, revealing that the couple are expecting a little girl. They add that they will stop at two children, something they have said before in a veiled dig at William and Kate, who have three children.

🍿 pic.twitter.com/EKiEnbAFEX

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 8, 2021

Anne Barrowclough1.00pm:‘I didn’t want to be alive any more’

Meghan has said she contemplated suicide because being in the Royal Family was “almost unsurvivable.”

“I didn’t want to be alive any more,” she says. “That was a constant thought.”

She tells Oprah she told Harry, who “cradled” her.

“I was really ashamed to say it at time and admit to Harry especially, I’ve seen how much loss he’s suffered,” she said. “But if I didn’t say it, I would do it. I didn’t want to be alive any more, that was clear and real and frightening constant thought. I remember how he cradled me”

"I thought it would solve everything for everyone" said Meghan of her thought of suicide.
I went to Human Resources but they said: "There is nothing we can do to help you because you are not a paid member of the institution."
Meghan says: "Nothing was ever done."

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 8, 2021

However when she a “senior member of the institution” she needed help, she was told that wasn’t allowed.

“I went to the institution and I said ‘I need to go somewhere to get help,” she says. “I was told I could not, it would not be good for the institution.”

Asked what she meant by “the institution,” Meghan told Oprah: “It was a person.”

Meghan says that during this time she and Harry had to go to an official event at the Albert Hall; pictures showed them smiling at the crowd but “Zoom in, his knuckles are so white, we were just trying to hang on.” She adds that during the intermission, she could not stop weeping.

“At a certain some point say we are going to tell the truth, if that comes with risk of losing things, a lot has been lost already, and I grieve a lot I lost my father, I lost a baby, I nearly lost my name, “ she says. “There is the loss of identity but I am still standing, to know there is another side and that life is worth living.”

Jacquelin Magnay12.40pm:Concerns over Archie’s colour

Meghan has accused the Royal Family of racism, claiming there were concerns about “how dark” Archie might be when he was born and suggesting this was the reason the royals decided he wouldn’t be given a title.

“In those months I was pregnant … [there were] concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie’s] skin might be when he’s born,” she said.

Meghan goes nuclear https://t.co/bf4sN7iVt6

— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) March 8, 2021

Asked who was having that conversation, Meghan refuses to say because “that would be very damaging to them.”

She said it was a conversation the Royal Family had with Harry. Asked if it was because there were concerns Archie would be “too brown,” she said that was her assumption.

Discussing the lack of a title for Archie, she said: “If it meant he was going to be safe, of course.

“For me I am clear on who I am, most important title for me is mum, but idea of our son not being safe and being the first member not to be titled in same way … it wasn’t their right to take it away.”

However she said the Queen had been kind to her, and reminded her of her grandmother.

“The Queen for example has been wonderful to me. In our first engagement together on the train we had breakfast and she gave me a beautiful gift and I loved being in her company,” Meghan tells Oprah. “In the car between engagements she has a blanket across her knees for warmth and she pulled it across my knees as well. She reminds me of my grandmother.”

Anne Barrowclough12.30pm:‘I was silenced’

Meghan has claimed she was “silenced,” presumably by the royal family.

“That’s the sad irony of the last four years, I’ve advocated for women to use their voice, and I was silent,” she says.

“Were you silent, or were you silenced?” Oprah asks.

Meghan answers: “The latter.”

Jacquelin Magnay 12.25pm: ‘Kate made me cry before wedding’

Meghan has claimed that it was Kate who made her cry ahead of the wedding, not the other way around. Explaining that the issue was over bridesmaid dresses, Meghan said it was a “turning point” for her. “The narrative with Kate, which didn’t happen, was really difficult,” she said. “A few days before the wedding she was upset about something pertaining to the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.”

Oprah: "So all the time, the stories out there, you made Kate cry, you and people around you knew that wasn't true ... So why didn't somebody just say that?"

Meghan: "That's a good question."#OprahMeghanHarrypic.twitter.com/NFavVnnHVe

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 8, 2021

She added that Kate apologised to her and sent her flowers after the incident

“It wasn’t a confrontation, it’s not fair to her to get into the details because she apologised and I forgiven her.

“But I got blamed. Everyone in the institution knew it wasn’t true. It’s important for people to understand the truth,” she said.

“I would hope she would have wanted that corrected, because she’s a good person, if you love her you don’t have to hate me. and if you love me you don’t have to hate her.”

Anne Barrowclough 12.20pm:Couple married 3 days before royal wedding

In a bombshell revelation, Meghan has revealed that she married Prince Harry three days before their Royal wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor. She also said she learned to curtsy moments before meeting the Queen for the first time, practising ‘in front of the house’ after Harry had asked her in the car if she knew how to curtsy.

“Apparently I did a very deep curtsy. It was lovely and easy,” she said.

Jacquelin Magnay12.15pm:Meghan ‘didn’t understand’ what being working royal meant

Meghan has described her wedding to Harry as an “out of body experience,” in an event that was “planned for the world.”

“I slept through the night entirely, woke up and listening to song going to the chapel, make fun and light, we remind selves it was our day, but aware it wasn’t our day but the day planned for the world.

Harry and Meghanat the annual Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London on March 9, 2020. Picture: AFP.

“I didn’t know much about royal family, not in conversation at home. my mum says did Diana ever do an interview, my mum doesn’t even know that,” she says.

I had never looked up my husband online, never needed to, he would talk to me,” she adds.

She adds that she didn’t understand what being a working royal mean.

“I didn’t fully understand what the job was, what is a working royal? We talked about the beginning of the courtship, but no way to understand the day to day”.

The Duchess said she entered the Royal family “naively”, but had since become aware of Diana’s “famous” tell-all interview in 1995.

Jacquelin Magnay 12.05pm:Couple to do gender reveal

The interview has started on a baby note, with Meghan telling Oprah Winfrey she knows the sex of the couple’s second baby this time and will wait for Harry to share it late.

In a trailer released ahead of the interview, Oprah also asks how Meghan felt about their first son Archie not being given a royal title.

Meghan talking about Archie pic.twitter.com/IVRAKhnsOd

— Célia 🍒 (@_MrsWanted) March 8, 2021

‘How did they explain to you that your son, the great-grandson of the queen, wasn’t going to be a prince. You certainly must have had some conversations with Harry about it and had your own suspicions as to why they didn’t want to make Archie a prince,’ Oprah asked in the clip.

Staff writers 11.30am:Queen’s veiled swipe at grandson and wife

The royal family has joined forces in a show of unity ahead of Harry and Meghan’s “tell-all” interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

🌍 In this year’s #CommonwealthDay message The Queen
pays tribute to the way in which communities across the family of nations have come together in response to the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/rOoUMJLlKg

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) March 7, 2021

Senior royals including the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appeared alongside the Queen in a special BBC program to celebrate Commonwealth Day.

Over the weekend, footage and clips of the royals were also released as each marked the annual day in their own manner.

At the heart of the commemoration was a televised address by the Queen, in which she took a veiled swipe at her grandson and his wife as she stressed the importance of “dedication to duty” and of staying in touch with family and friends during “testing times.”

Tim Shipman11.15am: Queen won’t watch Harry, Meghan ‘circus’

The Queen will not watch the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which courtiers have branded a “circus”. They are prepared to retaliate with fresh disclosures about the couple’s behaviour if the monarchy is attacked.

The Queen will ignore the interview — to be aired in Australia on Monday night — and go on a charm offensive this week to show the royal family is “focusing on the big issues” rather than the increasingly toxic PR battle with Meghan and Harry.

Palace officials accused the couple of being “at war” with the royal household and warned that courtiers “will come out swinging” if Meghan and Harry attack individuals in the interview.

A family in Wintney, west of London watch Queen Elizabeth’s address. Picture: AFP.

A senior source accused the Sussexes of undermining the work of the monarchy and said: “The mood in the family is: can everyone just shut the hell up and can we just get on with the day job?”

The Queen, 94, will increase her official engagements in the coming days to leave the public in no doubt about “where the focus is”. A source close to the Queen said: “You will see next week Her Majesty has quite a few things going on. I don’t think anyone should expect Her Majesty to stay up and watch the interview. She won’t”.

Camilla Long11.00am:Bare-knuckle fight Royals can’t win

You simply cannot tear your eyes away from them — the greige canopy, the sprinkling of English-style meadow flowers to remind American audiences which broken royal family we’re talking about today. His scuffed, grey-on-black shoe/sock combo, her Fulham-sexy, possibly nylon dressing gown, throbbing with sub-Beyoncean “fertility” energy.

The camera whirls down on Oprah, struggling to contain her excitement at landing her biggest interview since she told Lindsay Lohan to “cut the bullshit”.

“Were you silent,” pounds Oprah to Meghan, as the Kardashian drama music rises, “or were you silenced?”

I don’t think there’s a single person in Britain who doesn’t know the full, unexpurgated answer to this question. Yes, the duchess was silenced — but who wouldn’t want to silence every word of what Oprah cloyingly calls Meghan’s “truth”? Meghan’s “truth”, we’re discovering, is an unstoppable Krakatoa of toxic sniping and petulant Marie Antoinette revelations that is now dragging the entire “Firm”, as even Meghan calls them, down to her level. I’m not sure any of it qualifies as actual “truth” — I’m inclined to believe Meghan wouldn’t know her “truth” if it clopped in on a silver platter from Mohammad bin Salman. But who cares, when there are pregnant pauses to be made and multimillion-dollar deals to be done?