Prince Harry and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, spoke with raw emotion in a new documentary about the damage that the British tabloid press coverage has had on them personally.
During a series of candid interviews with ITV reporter Tom Bradby, Meghan said adjusting to life in the royal family — and the media attention that comes with it — had been “hard” and “complicated.”
Harry revealed that the intense scrutiny of himself and his wife has brought back the trauma of the death of his mother, Princess Diana, which he described as “a wound that festers.”
The interviews were part of a TV documentary on the couple’s recent tour of Africa that aired Sunday on ITV in the UK and will air Wednesday on ABC in the US.
“I thought I was out of the woods and then suddenly it all came back and then suddenly I realized no, this is something that I have to manage,” Harry said when asked about his mental health.
“Part of this job and part of any job like everybody means putting on a brave face and turning a cheek to a lot of the stuff. But again, for me and for my wife, of course there’s a lot of stuff that hurts, especially when the majority of it is untrue.”
Meghan said that she was unprepared for the tabloid media attention she would be subjected to after marrying into the royal family, despite dire warnings from her British friends when she first started dating Harry.
“I had no idea,” she said. “Which probably sounds difficult to understand here, but when I first met my now husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy, but my British friends said to me, ‘I’m sure he’s great, but you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life.'”
“I didn’t get it,” Meghan said, describing herself as having been naive about the differences between UK and US media. “It’s been complicated.”
The couple has recently taken legal action, suing newspapers for breach of privacy and phone-hacking.
Meghan appeared to be near tears when she talked about the intense scrutiny of the press during her pregnancy and newborn months with son Archie, who was born May 6.
“Look, any woman when they’re — especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, and so that was made really challenging, and then when you have a newborn” she said. “It’s a lot. So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed.”
She then thanked the reporter for asking about how she has been coping with the spotlight, “because not many people have asked if I’m okay.”
“And the answer is? Would it be fair to say not really okay? As in, it’s really been a struggle?” Bradby asked.
“Yes,” Meghan replied.
Her husband Harry talked candidly about the media in relation to the death of his mother, Princess Diana: “I think that being part of this family and part of this role and this job — every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back. So in that respect, it’s the worst reminder of her life as opposed to the best.”
“I will always protect my family and now I have a family to protect, so everything that she went through and what happened to her is incredibly raw every single day, and that’s not me being paranoid — that’s me not wanting a repeat of the past.”
In the weeks leading up to the tour, Harry and Meghan were criticized as hypocrites for their use of private jets after championing the battle against climate change. They have also been attacked for keeping Archie’s christening private, and declining to release the names of his godparents.
In his interview with Meghan, Bradby touched on this, pointing out that she and her husband have “incredible” power, privilege, fame, and wealth — a portion of which is subsidized by the British taxpayers.
“That comes with scrutiny and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad” he said. “How do you counter that argument?”
“If things are fair,” Meghan said. “That completely tracks for me if things are fair.”
“But when people are saying things that are just untrue and they’re being told they’re untrue but they’re allowed to still say them, I don’t know anybody in the world that would feel like that’s okay. And that’s different than just scrutiny,” she said. “It’s a different beast.”
“I never thought it would be easy. But I thought it would be fair, and that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile.” Meghan said when asked about the “obvious” pressure of life in the royal spotlight.
“I’ve said for a long time to H — that’s what I call him — it’s not enough to just survive something, right? That’s not the point of life. You’ve got to thrive, you’ve got to feel happy.”
“I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip,” she said. “I really tried, but I think what that does internally is probably really damaging.”
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