LONDON (AP) – Britain and its royal family absorbed the tremors on Monday in a sensational television interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, in which the couple said they encountered racist attitudes and a lack of support. lead the duchess to think of suicide.
In a two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple painted a profoundly unfavorable picture of life inside the royal house, depicting a cold, indifferent institution that had to flee to save its life.
Meghan told Winfrey that at one point “she didn’t want to be alive” and had uncontrollable suicidal thoughts. He said he sought help through the palace’s human resources department, but was told they could do nothing.
Meghan, 39, admitted that she was naive at the beginning of her relationship with Harry and that she was not prepared for the restrictions of real life.
The former TV star, who identifies herself as biracial, described that when she was pregnant with her son Archie, there were “concerns and conversations about the darkness her skin might have when she was born.”
Harry confirmed the conversation and said, “I was a little surprised.” He said he would not reveal who made the comment.
The couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced they would step down from royal duties last year and cited what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. This division became official earlier this year and the interview was widely seen as the first opportunity to explain their decision.
The implications of the interview, which aired Sunday night in the United States and will air in Britain on Monday night, are just beginning to be understood. Emily Nash, real editor of Hello! Magazine said the revelations had left her and many other viewers “shocked.”
“I don’t see how the palace can ignore these accusations, they are incredibly serious,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. Then you also have the statement that Megan did not receive support and even asked for help from the home human resources team and was told that she could not seek help.
The anti-monarchy group Republic said the interview gave a clearer picture of what the royal family is like and that it is not pretty.
“Whether for the sake of Britain or for the sake of younger kings, this rotten institution has to go,” said Graham Smith of the campaign group. “Some people will say ‘well you’d say that,’ but this interview has only served to highlight what a lot of people have known for years: the monarchy is rotten to the core and doesn’t reflect British values.”
Harry, born a royal prince, described how his wife’s experience had helped him realize how he and the rest of the family were trapped in an oppressive institution.
“I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped,” Harry said. “My father and my brother, they’re trapped.”
Meghan, he said, “saved me.”
Younger families, including Harry, Meghan, Harry’s brother, Prince William, and William’s wife, Catherine, have made the mental health support and awareness campaign a priority. But Harry described a royal family completely unable to offer that support to their own members.
“For the family, they have a lot of this mindset of,‘ That’s right, that’s how it should be, you can’t change, we’ve all been through it, ’Harry said.
The couple had faced severe criticism in the UK during interview preparation. Prince Philip, Harry’s grandfather, 99, is in a London hospital after recovering from a heart procedure, and critics saw the decision to go ahead as a burden for the queen. , although CBS, instead of Harry and Meghan dictated the time of the broadcast.
In the United States, sympathy for the couple arose after the interview. It will be shown later Monday in Britain, where some see Meghan and Harry as a couple who put personal happiness ahead of public duty.
Tennis star Serena Williams, a friend who attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding, said on Twitter that the duchess’s words “illustrate the pain and cruelty she has experienced.”
“The consequences of systemic oppression and victimization on mental health are devastating, isolating and all too often lethal,” Williams added.
Meghan – then known as Meghan Markle, who had starred in the American television drama “Suits” – married Harry, a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Her son, Archie, was born the following year.
Holding hands, Harry and Meghan sat in front of Winfrey as he interrogated them in a lush garden. The couple lives in Montecito, California, where they live in Winfrey.
Harry said he had lived in fear of repeating the fate of his mother, Princess Diana, who was constantly covered by the press and died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while being chased by the paparazzi.
“What I was seeing was that history was repeating itself, but certainly much more dangerous, because then career is added and social media is added,” Harry said.
Both Meghan and Harry praised the support they had received from Queen Elizabeth II, Harry’s grandmother.
“The queen has always been wonderful to me,” Meghan said.
But Harry revealed that he currently has a bad relationship with his brother, William, and said things went so badly with his father that at one point Prince Charles stopped receiving his calls.
“There’s a lot to work on,” Harry said of his relationship with his father. “I am just disappointed. He has experienced something similar. He knows how the pain feels. And Archie is his grandson. I will always love him, but there is a lot of bad that has happened.
In a rare positive moment of the interview, Harry and Meghan revealed that their second child, scheduled for the summer, would be a girl.