Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on Sunday (March 7), Meghan sat down with Oprah first; Harry joined them later on. During the sit down, the couple shared their views about life as royals.
Meghan revealed her struggles with mental health, the “concerns and conversations” members of the Royal Family had surrounding Archie’s skin color, and more, while Harry opened up about his current relationship with his brother, Prince William.
Here are some of the biggest revelations the couple made:
Meghan and Harry secretly tied the knot before their May 2018 wedding.
“Three days before our wedding, we got married,” Meghan told Oprah. “No one knows that.”
“We called the archbishop, and we just said, ‘Look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us,'” she shared. “So, like, the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
“It was just the three of us,” Harry added.
Meghan says she didn’t make Kate Middleton cry – it was the other way around.
“A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining — yes, the issue was correct — about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings. And I thought, in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, that it didn’t make sense to not be just doing whatever — what everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive, knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot,” Meghan said.
But Meghan also added that it wouldn’t be fair for her to go into more details since Kate had already apologized and she had accepted her apology.
“I’d forgiven her,” Meghan said. “What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do, but that happened to me and the people that were part of our wedding going to our comms team and saying, ‘I know this didn’t happen. I don’t have to tell them what actually happened, but I can at least go on the record, and say she didn’t make her cry.'”
Meghan struggled with her mental health when she was pregnant with Archie – but says she was denied help.
“I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought,” Meghan said. “And I remember how [Harry] just cradled me.”
“I went to the Institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help I said that ‘I’ve never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere,'” she recalled, referring to a small group of members that work for the Royal Family. “And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the Institution.”
“It’s a person. It’s several people. But I went to one of the most senior people just to — to get help,” she added. “And that… I share this, because there’s so many people who are afraid to voice that they need help. And I know, personally, how hard it is to not just voice it, but when you voice it, to be told no.”
There were “concerns and conversations” regarding Archie’s skin color
“In those months, when I was pregnant, all around this same time, we had in tandem the conversation of he won’t be given security, he won’t be given a title…and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin will be when he’s born,” said Meghan. “That was relayed to me from Harry, that was from conversations that family had with him. It was really hard to see those as compartmentalized conversations.”
It was the palace that decided Archie wouldn’t have the title “prince.”
“They were saying they didn’t want him to be a prince or princess, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” Meghan said. “This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I was going, hold on for a second. They said [he’s not going to get security], because he’s not going to be a prince. Okay, well, he needs to be safe so we’re not saying don’t make him a prince or princess, but if you’re saying the title is what’s going to affect that protection, we haven’t created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid fodder you’ve allowed that to happen which means our son needs to be safe.”
Meghan and Harry actually wanted Archie to have the title for safety reasons.
“If it meant he was going to be safe, of course. All the grandeur around this stuff is an attachment I don’t have…the most important title I will ever have is mom,” Meghan said.
“It’s not their right to take it away,” Meghan said. “And yet, they did. Even though I have a lot of clarity on what comes with the titles, good and bad, and, from my experience, a lot of pain. I, again, wouldn’t wish pain on my child, but that is their birthright to then make a choice about.”
Harry and Meghan share their views on their royal exit.
Harry said he and Queen Elizabeth II discussed their royal exit months before the announcement – he even put everything in writing.
“I put all the specifics in there, even the fact that we were planning on putting the announcement out on the 7th of January,” he said.
Meghan also addressed allegations that she wanted to take Harry away from his family.
“Can you imagine how little sense that makes? I left my career, my life. I left everything because I love him, right? And our plan was to do this forever. I mean, I wrote letters to his family when I got there, saying, ‘I am dedicated to this. I’m here for you. Use me as you’d like,'” she said.
As for Harry, he admitted he wouldn’t have left the family without her. “I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped,” he shared. “Trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are.”
Prince Charles stopped taking Harry’s calls.
“When we were in Canada I had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls,” Harry said. He also explained, “I was desperate…I went to all the places which I thought I should go to to ask for help. We both did. Separately and together.”
When asked why, Harry responded, “because… by that point, I took matters into my own hands. It was like, ‘I need to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody. It’s really sad that it’s gotten to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental , my wife’s, and for Archie’s, as well, because I could see where this was headed.'”
Later on in the interview, Harry shared that he and his dad have since reconnected – but they’re still in the process of rebuilding their relationship.
“He is [taking my calls]. There’s a lot to work through there. I feel really let down, because he’s been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And Archie’s his grandson. But at the same time, of course I will always love him. But there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened. And I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship. But they only know what they know, and that’s the thing. I’ve tried to educate them through the process that I’ve been educated,” Harry said.
Harry gets candid about his relationship with his brother, Prince William.
“I love William to bits, we’ve been through hell together. We were on different paths,” Harry said.
“The relationship is space at the moment. Time heals all things,” he added. “I’m really proud of us. I’m so proud of my wife…we did what we had to do.”
Harry reveals they were totally cut off financially.
Harry and Meghan have signed deals with Spotify and Netflix, but Harry says those deals were “never part of the plan.” However, they needed to find a way to make money to pay for their security since they were cut off from the Royal Family “in the first quarter of 2020.”
Harry and Meghan are having a girl!
During the interview, the couple confirmed that they are expecting a baby girl – and Meghan is due to give birth this summer.
“It’s a girl!,” Harry beamed. “To have any child…would have been amazing. But to have a boy and then a girl. What more can you ask for?”
But after they welcome their baby girl, they’re done having kids, saying, “two is it.”
