Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, has spoken about how she was driven by racism and lies in the British royal family the point of contemplating committing suicide.
Meghan,39, whose has a Black mother and a white father, was married into the royal family in 2018.
But in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS late on Sunday, she said prior to the celebrated marriage, she had scant knowledge about how deep seated the problem of racism was in the British monarchy.
She said she was close to self-harm on more than one occasion after the marriage after pleading for help on a number of issues without getting any.
Citing the example of her son’s experience, Meghan said Archie, now a year old, was denied the title of prince over concerns within the royal family about how dark his skin was.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince. There were conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born,” Meghan said in the interview.
Meghan did not mention who expressed such concerns. But she said her husband, Harry had on more than once occasion complained about his family starving them of financial support, while his father, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, refusing to take his calls.
Reuters is quoted to have said that Buckingham Palace was yet to react publicly to the interview, which many observers say would shake the British monarchy.
Meghan cast the British royal family as uncaring and mendacious, and accused Kate – the wife of her husband’s brother Prince William – of making her cry before her wedding.
During the interview, while the royal family, including Prince Charles, came in for open criticism, 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 United States.
Harry, 36, said they had stepped back from royal duties because of a lack of understanding and that he was worried about history repeating itself – a reference to the 1997 death of his mother Diana.
“I feel really let down,” Harry said of his father. “My family literally cut me off financially.”
Harry denied blindsiding Queen Elizabeth, his grandmother, with his decision to shun life within the monarchy, but added that his father 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?”
Their detractors say the couple want the glamour of their privileged positions without the dedication it requires or scrutiny it brings.
To their supporters, their treatment shows how an outdated British institution has lashed out against a modern, bi-racial woman, with undertones of racism.
There have also been allegations of bullying against Meghan which first appeared in The Times newspaper in the buildup to the couple’s appearance.
Buckingham Palace said it would investigate the claims, adding it was “very concerned.”
In response to the report, a spokeswoman for Meghan said she was “saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself.”
Meghan told Winfrey that people within the royal institution not only failed to protect her against malicious claims, but lied to protect others.
“It was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family,” Meghan said.
“There’s the family, and then there’s the people that are running the institution. Those are two separate things. And it’s important to be able to compartmentalize that, because the queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.”
Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, cry before the wedding and said it was a turning point in her relations with the media.
Asked if she made Kate cry, Meghan replied: “The reverse happened.
“A few days before the wedding, she (Kate) was upset about something, pertaining to yes the issue was correct about the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings.”
Meghan said she had not realized what she was marrying into when she joined the British monarchy.
“I will say I went into it naively, because I didn’t grow up knowing much about the royal family,” Meghan said. (Reuters/NAN)
