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A
newspaper
is blown
by the
wind
after it
is
placed
on a
railing
by a
television
crew
outside
Buckingham
Palace
in
London,
Monday,
March 8,
2021.
Britain's
royal
family
is
absorbing
the
tremors
from a
sensational
television
interview
by
Prince
Harry
and the
Duchess
of
Sussex,
in which
the
couple
said
they
encountered
racist
attitudes
and a
lack of
support
that
drove
Meghan
to
thoughts
of
suicide.
(AP
Photo/Kirsty
Wigglesworth)
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UK
royals
absorb
shock of
revealing
Harry,
Meghan
interview
By
JILL
LAWLESS
and
DANICA
KIRKA
apnews.com
LONDON -
Britain
and its
royal
family
absorbed
the
tremors
Monday
from a
sensational
television
interview
by
Prince
Harry
and
Meghan,
in which
the
couple
said
they
encountered
racist
attitudes
and a
lack of
support
that
drove
the
duchess
to
thoughts
of
suicide.
In a
two-hour
soul-baring
interview
with
Oprah
Winfrey,
the
couple
painted
a deeply
unflattering
picture
of life
inside
the
royal
household,
depicting
a cold,
uncaring
institution
that
they had
to flee
to save
their
lives.
Meghan
told
Winfrey
that at
one
point “I
just
didn’t
want to
be alive
anymore”
and had
uncontrollable
suicidal
thoughts.
She said
she
sought
help
through
the
palace’s
human
resources
department,
but was
told
there
was
nothing
they
could
do.
Meghan,
39,
admitted
that she
was
naive at
the
start of
her
relationship
with
Harry
and
unprepared
for the
strictures
of royal
life.
The
former
television
star,
who
identifies
as
biracial,
described
that
when she
was
pregnant
with son
Archie,
there
were
“concerns
and
conversations
about
how dark
his skin
might be
when
he’s
born.”
Harry
confirmed
the
conversation,
saying:
“I was a
bit
shocked.”
He said
he would
not
reveal
who made
the
comment.
The
pair,
known as
the Duke
and
Duchess
of
Sussex,
announced
they
were
quitting
royal
duties
last
year,
citing
what
they
said
were the
unbearable
intrusions
and
racist
attitudes
of the
British
media.
That
split
became
official
earlier
this
year,
and the
interview
was
widely
seen as
their
first
opportunity
to
explain
their
decision.
The
implications
for the
interview
— which
was
broadcast
Sunday
night in
the
United
States
and will
air in
Britain
on
Monday
night —
are only
beginning
to be
understood.
Emily
Nash,
royal
editor
at
Hello!
Magazine,
said the
revelations
had left
her and
many
other
viewers
“shell-shocked.”
“I
don’t
see how
the
palace
can
ignore
these
allegations,
they’re
incredibly
serious,”
she
said.
“You
have the
racism
allegations.
Then you
also
have the
claim
that
Megan
was not
supported,
and she
sought
help
even
from the
HR team
within
the
household
and was
told
that she
couldn’t
seek
help.”
Anti-monarchy
group
Republic
said the
interview
gave a
clearer
picture
of what
the
royal
family
is like
— and
it’s not
pretty.
“Whether
for the
sake of
Britain
or for
the sake
of the
younger
royals
this
rotten
institution
needs to
go,”
Graham
Smith of
the
campaign
group
said.
“Some
people
will say
‘well
you
would
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
does not
reflect
British
values.″
Harry,
born a
royal
prince,
described
how his
wife’s
experience
had
helped
him
realize
how he
and he
rest of
the
family
were
stuck in
an
oppressive
institution.
“I
was
trapped,
but I
didn’t
know I
was
trapped,”
Harry
said.
“My
father
and my
brother,
they are
trapped.”
Meghan,
he said,
“saved
me.”
The
younger
royals —
including
Harry,
Meghan,
Harry’s
brother,
Prince
William,
and
William’s
wife,
Catherine
— have
made
campaigning
for
support
and
awareness
around
mental
health
one of
their
priorities.
But
Harry
described
a royal
family
completely
unable
to offer
that
support
to its
own
members.
“For
the
family,
they
very
much
have
this
mentality
of ‘This
is just
how it
is, this
is how
it’s
meant to
be, you
can’t
change
it,
we’ve
all been
through
it,’”
Harry
said.
The
couple
had
faced
severe
criticism
in the
United
Kingdom
during
the
run-up
to the
interview.
Prince
Philip,
Harry’s
99-year-old
grandfather,
is in a
London
hospital
after
recovering
from a
heart
procedure,
and
critics
saw the
decision
to go
forward
as being
a burden
on the
queen —
even
though,
CBS,
rather
that
Harry
and
Meghan,
dictated
the
timing
of the
broadcast.
In
the
United
States,
sympathy
for the
couple
poured
in 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’s
experienced.”
“The
mental
health
consequences
of
systemic
oppression
and
victimization
are
devastating,
isolating
and all
too
often
lethal,”
Williams
added.
Meghan —
then
known as
Meghan
Markle,
who had
starred
on the
American
TV legal
drama
“Suits”
—
married
Harry, a
grandson
of Queen
Elizabeth
II, at
Windsor
Castle
in May
2018.
Their
son,
Archie,
was born
the
following
year.
Holding
hands,
Harry
and
Meghan
sat
opposite
Winfrey
while
she
questioned
them in
a lush
garden
setting.
The
couple
lives in
Montecito,
California,
where
they are
Winfrey’s
neighbors.
Harry
said he
had
lived in
fear of
a repeat
of the
fate of
his
mother,
Princess
Diana,
who was
covered
constantly
by the
press
and died
in a car
crash in
Paris in
1997
while
being
pursued
by
paparazzi.
“What I
was
seeing
was
history
repeating
itself,
but
definitely
far more
dangerous
—
because
then you
add race
in, and
you add
social
media
in,”
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
he
currently
has a
poor
relationship
with his
brother,
William,
and said
things
got so
bad with
his
father
that at
one
point
Prince
Charles
stopped
taking
his
calls.
“There
is a lot
to work
through
there,”
Harry
said
about
his
relationship
with his
father.
“I feel
really
let
down.
He’s
been
through
something
similar.
He knows
what
pain
feels
like.
And
Archie
is his
grandson.
I will
always
love
him, but
there is
a lot of
hurt
that has
happened.”
In a
rare
positive
moment
in the
interview,
Harry
and
Meghan
revealed
their
second
child,
due in
the
summer,
would be
a girl.
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