Prince Harry’s wife Meghan says the royal family raised concerns over how dark their son’s skin might be and pushed her to the edge of suicide, in a tell-all television interview that will send shockwaves through the monarchy.
The 39-year-old, whose mother is black and father is white, said she had been naive before she married into royalty in 2018, but she ended up having suicidal thoughts and considering self harm after pleading for help but getting none.
Meghan said that her son Archie, now aged one, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family about “about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”.
“That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations that family had with him,” Meghan recounted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS late on Sunday.
Meghan declined to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry. He said his family had cut them off financially and that his father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point.
Nearly three years since her star-studded wedding in Windsor Castle, Meghan described some unidentified members of the royal household as brutal, mendacious and guilty of racist remarks.
She also accused Kate, the wife of her husband’s elder brother Prince William, of making her cry before her wedding.
But neither Harry nor Meghan attacked Queen Elizabeth directly.
Still, Meghan said she had been silenced by “the Firm” – which Elizabeth heads – and that her pleas for help while in distress at racist reporting and her predicament had fallen on deaf ears.
“I just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me,” Meghan said, wiping away tears.
Harry and Meghan’s announcement in January, 2020, that they intended to step down from their royal roles plunged the family into crisis. Last month, Buckingham Palace confirmed the split would be permanent, as the couple looks to forge an independent life in the US.
Harry, 36, said they had stepped back from royal duties because of a lack of understanding, and he was worried about history repeating itself – a reference to the death of his mother Diana who was killed in a 1997 crash as her car sped away from chasing photographers.
Asked what his mother would say about events, he answered: “I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out and very sad.”
Harry denied blindsiding Queen Elizabeth, his grandmother, with his decision to shun life within the monarchy, but said Prince Charles stopped taking his calls at one point.
“I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, can you put this all in writing?”
There have also been allegations of bullying against Meghan which appeared in The Times newspaper in the build-up to the couple’s appearance. Buckingham Palace said it would investigate the claims, adding it was “very concerned”.
Meghan told Winfrey that people within the royal institution not only failed to protect her against malicious claims but lied to protect other members of the royal family.
Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, cry before the wedding.
“The reverse happened,” Meghan said.
Meghan conceded she had not realised what she was marrying into when she joined the British monarchy and “went into it naively”.
The couple also revealed that Meghan, who is pregnant with their second child, was expecting a girl.
Harry said Meghan had “saved” him from his trapped royal life. “I would disagree, I think he saved all of us. You made a decision that certainly saved my life,” Meghan said.
“This is in some ways just the beginning for us.”
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