Daily Times

It was a tell-all interview with former senior royals and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who now live in the US. As they sat with Oprah Winfrey and poured their heart out – in a pre-recorded televised interview that aired some time ago – they touched upon many important topics, from mental health, to the equation within the royal family, and the gender of their second baby, among other things.

The duchess shared with Oprah her struggle with mental health, stating that she had “methodical thoughts” about suicide when she was in the royal family. “That was a very clear and real and frightening thought. I couldn’t be left alone,” she said, while adding that she went to the “institution” – several senior officials – for help with her suicidal thoughts, asking if she can be checked into a hospital, but was rebuffed.

The duchess said she then reached out to one of Princess Diana’s best friends, but continued to have these thoughts, which was her “breaking point”.

The skin colour of the Sussexes’ first born, Archie Harrison, was also discussed when Meghan was pregnant. She revealed during the interview that there would be talks about “how dark” the colour of his skin would be, since Meghan is a woman of colour.

“In the months when I was pregnant, all around the same time, so 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,” she said. She, however, did not reveal who it was, who was having these discussions, for “it would be very damaging to them”.

Harry’s grandmother, the current monarch in the UK, has always been fond of her grandchildren, especially Harry. It would be natural to assume that she would extend the same warmth for his spouse, former American actor Meghan Markle.

Meghan told Oprah that the queen “has always been wonderful to me”, when the latter asked her if she did not feel supported by the “firm/monarchy”. “It’s hard for people to distinguish the two, because it is a family business, right? So, there’s the family, and then there’s the people who are running the institution. Those are two separate things and it is important to be able to compartmentalise that, because the queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.

“I mean, we had one of our first joint engagements together, she had asked me to join her… on the train… And we had breakfast together that morning and she had given me a beautiful gift and I just really loved being in her company,” Meghan said.

While in the clips that did the rounds before the actual interview, Harry had said he was afraid of “history repeating itself” – suggesting that he was haunted by memories of how his mother, Princess Diana, was treated – he revealed to Oprah in the interview what he actually feels about his father, Prince Charles, today after having stepped back from royal duties.

Harry said they had never planned to make deals with Netflix and Spotify, but the royal family had “literally cut me off financially” in the first quarter of 2020. He also said he thought his mother “saw it coming”.

“I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side, because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself. It’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we have each other,” he said.

While he finds himself closer to his grandmother, Harry said he will always love his father, but he is “disappointed” by him. “I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar and he knows what pain feels like, and Archie’s his grandson But at the same time, of course I will always love him but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship. But they only know what they know – and that’s the thing. I’ve tried to I’ve tried to educate them through the process that they’ve been educated.”

Speaking about the Duke of Cambridge and Harry’s older brother Prince William, he said while he “loves him to bits”, they are on “different paths”. “He’s my brother and we’ve been through hell together and we have a shared experience, but we’re on different paths” Harry and Meghan also revealed during the course of their interview that their second child is a girl. They already have a son together, Archie, who was born in 2019.