Harry, meanwhile, acknowledged that his relationship with his father and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his brother, Prince William, had been under great pressure over the past few years, and suggested that the institution might have planted stories in the media that he and Meghan in a negative light.
The palace faced multiple fronts in London on Monday at sunrise.
The interview has been relentlessly predicted in the media in recent days, showing comparisons to a royal tale of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in 1995, which sheds light on the breakdown of her marriage to Charles.
But the revelations in Sunday’s broadcast may even dispel those, as Harry and Meghan’s scorched earth confession was a problem for the palace staff and senior royals.
Perhaps most important was Meghan’s claim that an unnamed family member asked about Archie’s skin color and ‘what it would mean or look like.’ She said Harry’s discussions had been passed on to her.
Harry did not want to name the family member, but said he was a little shocked by the conversation. Winfrey told CBS on Monday morning that “neither his grandmother nor his grandfather were part of the talks.” In Britain, Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, said Buckingham Palace should start an investigation.
Palace officials are also scrambling to respond to allegations by both Duke and Duchess that the institution is ignoring their pleas for help with their mental well-being and safety.
Meghan at one point fought back tears, saying that her thoughts on suicide were incredibly hard to bear, and that she was reluctant to share them with her husband. “But I knew that if I did not say it, that I would do it – and I just did not want to live anymore,” she said.
Harry, whose mother Diana was killed when he was a boy, said he was ‘terrified’ by the recognition of his wife. The prince, who is sixth in line, said there is a culture of suffering in silence in the royal family. But Meghan’s race and the abuse she endured made the couple even more difficult, and their alleged lack of support eventually, above all other factors, led to their dramatic decision to retire in January 2020 as real royals.
They described the most difficult moments in emotional detail – Meghan revealed her thoughts to Harry hours before they were going to an event; the prince challenges every day from work to get his wife crying while breastfeeding their newborn – saying that ‘lack of support and lack of understanding’ were the reasons why they decided to retire.
Harry added that he had spearheaded the case with the royal family. He told Winfrey he believes there are many opportunities for the palace to give ‘public support’ despite continued racial abuse in the press, ‘but no one in my family has ever said anything. It hurts. ‘
“I’m sorry I believed them when they said I would be protected,” Meghan told Winfrey.
CNN asked the royal family for comment.
Harry reveals serious rifts in the family
If there had been even the faintest suggestion that Harry and Meghan could one day rejoin the mission of the royal family, Sunday’s broadcast would probably have put it off for good. The interview exposed the depth of division between the couple and the rest of the family, a rift that would have been unthinkable when they got married in Windsor just three years ago.
They told Winfrey that the family initially welcomed Meghan and that they were committed to their roles when they got married.
But things changed quickly. Harry told Winfrey his relationship with his father Charles had reached the point where the heir to the throne was no longer taking his calls, so angry about the couple’s decision to leave as working royals in 2020. “There’s a lot to work through,” Harry said. “I really feel let down because he was something similar – he knows how pain feels.”
About his brother, William – with whom Harry grew up and whose shared childhoods were closely followed by the media – the prince implied that communication virtually did not exist. “We are on different paths,” he said, adding that “the relationship at the moment is space”, and that “time heals all things – hopefully.”
Perhaps the only silver lining for the family is that the leader survived the interview fairly intact. Harry and Meghan both spoke exuberantly of the Queen and described her from the start as caring and friendly.
“My grandmother and I have a good relationship and an understanding and I have deep respect for her,” Harry said. Meghan said she had spoken to her regularly over the past year, including on the day Prince Philip was admitted to hospital last month.
Meghan added that despite the ordeal, it is important to distinguish the royal family from ‘the people who run the institution’.
She discussed rumors of a dispute with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. According to Meghan, reports that she made Kate cry over the dresses of flower girls at her wedding are untrue, and it was in fact the Duchess of Sussex who cried. But “there was no confrontation,” Meghan said, describing her sister-in-law as a “good person.”
But the seemingly tense family dynamics will overshadow the royals’ upcoming engagements. No statements were issued by any of their communications teams after the interview.
Breathless reaction in Britain
As was so often the case with the couple, the coverage ranged from measured to hysterical. The Daily Mail read a headline titled “Kate Made Me Cry” on its two-hour issue, before leading the way later in the morning on Meghan’s accusation of racism. The web page of the tabloid newspaper also contained a prominent banner that read: “I WANT TO KILL MYSELF.”
The Sun had a new nickname for Meghan amid her split with the royal family: ‘Megxile’, and the Daily Express dismissed the broadcast as a self-serving TV conversation with Oprah.
On Monday afternoon, several journalists used Boris Johnson’s press conference on Covid-19 to ask his thoughts on the Oprah interview. The prime minister did not want to weigh in, except that he always had ‘the greatest admiration for the queen and the unifying role she plays in our country’.
The media’s treatment of the royal couple formed an important part of the interview, and the two both focused on press sections.
Harry said the palace was afraid of media coverage, meaning they had little freedom while part of the family.
“To simplify it, this is a case if you as a family member are willing to wine, eat and give full access to these reporters, then you will get better press,” Harry said. “There is a level of control that exists through generations.”
The interview was to be broadcast in Britain on Tuesday at 21:00, with rural broadcaster ITV winning the race for rights. But the main points of discussion have already been analyzed in detail by Brits and in the media long before it was broadcast in the UK.
Charles Anson, a former Queen’s press secretary, said on Monday that the couple had “raised issues that need to be looked at carefully”, but told the BBC that there was a strict racism in the royal household.
But Julie Montagu, Burgomaster Hinchingbrooke, told the BBC that their revelations were “astonishing”, and that she, as an American woman who married in the British aristocracy, could relate to Meghan’s descriptions. “You do not really know until you are in it, and I think she made it very clear in her interview last night,” she said.