After weeks of press leading up to the bombshell interview between Oprah Winfrey and Meghan Markle, the actress finally sat down with the prominent interviewer and former daytime host to talk about a slew of topics. The interview, which aired on CBS and streaming through CBS’ site, touched on topics including Meghan Markle’s relationship with Kate Middleton, her struggles while Prince Harry was at work and her feelings that she “just didn’t see a solution” to how she was being portrayed and treated as part of the Royal Family. There were numerous bombshells like this playing out during the episode, and we’ve highlighted some of the biggest from Prince Harry and Markle here.
Meghan Markle Knew She Wasn’t Going To Fit Into The Royal Family Very Early On
Meghan Markle's point of view about the Royal Family is that she was very naive about what she was getting into, having never really known much about royalty prior to meeting Prince Harry. The turning point came the day she met the Queen. In fact, she and Harry were in the car when he asked her a question she says she never expected to hear.
He says, ‘OK, my grandmother is there, so you are going to meet her.’ I said, ‘Oh great, I love my grandmother, I used to take care of my grandmother, this is great.’ He goes, ‘Great, do you know how to curtsy?’ ‘What?’ He said, ‘Do you know how to curtsy?’ Now I thought genuinely that was what happens outside. I thought that was part of the fanfare. I didn’t think that’s what happens inside. I said, ‘But it’s your grandmother.’ He said, ‘But it’s the queen’ That’s the first moment that the penny dropped.
Prince Harry mentioned later in the interview that his grandmother had been "amazing" throughout and that everyone had been receptive about Meghan Markle early on and it was after the Australian tour that people really saw what she was capable of. But there were other issues lurking that led to them leaving their duties.
Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Had A Secret Wedding Before The One Aired On TV
Millions of people watched Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Royal Wedding on TV. No one but the Archbishop of Canterbury saw their vows, their real vows, play out in a backyard in advance of the public nuptials.
I was thinking about it, but three days before our wedding we got married. No one knows that, but we called the Archbishop and we just said look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us, so that the vows that we have framed, just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury, just the three of us.
OK, most of us don’t have the Archbishop of Canterbury at our disposal, but this was one of the few bombshells from the special that was very sweet.
Meghan Markle Claims Kate Middleton Made Her Cry Over Flower Girl Dresses… Not The Reverse
You know the stories. Allegedly Meghan Markle made Kate Middleton cry over the flower girl dresses at her famous nuptials to Prince Harry. That story has been running around for a long time, but Meghan Markle denied them during her big TV moment with Oprah Winfrey. Instead, she says that it was Kate who upset her and later apologized, though the bit about the flower girl dresses was true.
That was a turning point. The narrative with Kate, which didn’t happen, was really really difficult and something that I think that’s when everything changed really… No, the reverse happened and I don’t say that to be disparaging to anyone because it was a really hard week of the wedding and she was upset about something and she owned it and she apologized and she brought me flowers and a note apologizing….what was shocking was what was that, six, seven months after our wedding that the reverse of that would be out in the world.
She also told Oprah she didn’t want to get into the details because Kate apologized at the time. Markle also stressed for a bit that the issue that was “hard to get over” in regards to “being blamed for something I didn’t do but that happened to me.” She said she wasn’t sharing this “to be disparaging” to Kate, but she wanted people to “understand the truth,” though whether or not Meghan Markle would throw Kate Middleton under the bus was a topic of debate before the big interview.
Meghan Markle Felt Trapped Living With Palace Restrictions, Particularly With Prince Harry Working
Meghan Markle talked about wanting to go lunch to her friends and was told no because the tabloids had reacted poorly to her in recent weeks. She says she gently mentioned she wasn’t going anywhere most days and needed an outlet, but felt as if she was up against something bigger than her. In her own words she told the Institution:
I’ve left the house twice in four months. I’m everywhere, but I am nowhere. From that standpoint, I continued to say to people, I know there’s an obsession with how things look, but can anyone talk about how it feels. Because I couldn’t feel any lonelier.
Unfortunately, the loneliness that was building wouldn’t get better and it wouldn’t go away. Prince Harry also admitted he “didn’t have anyone to turn to” during this time and was ashamed of trying to get Meghan Markle help, just because of the way things are and have always been.
Prince Harry Confirmed Awkward Conversations Were Had About His Relationship With Meghan Markle And The Color Of The Skin Of Their Kids
On Monday, Oprah Winfrey said that conversations about Archie’s skin color were not the concern of the Queen or Prince Philip; however, both Meghan Markle and Prince Harry said they had actual conversations about what Archie would look like with members of the family. They declined to mention who had that conversation with them ahead of Archie’s birth, with Prince Harry noting there were other issues and conversations that should have been red lights for the couple.
That was right at the beginning, when she wasn’t going to get security, when members of my family were suggesting that she carries on acting, because there was not enough money to pay for her, all this sort of stuff. Like, there was some real obvious signs before we even got married that this was going to be really hard.
Harry also revealed his dad stopped taking his calls for a time as he and Meghan Markle made plans to move forward outside of their Senior Royal duties. He is now speaking with his father, but there's a lot to unpack there.
Why Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Reportedly Didn’t Take The Newborn Picture
The rumor mill was really hard on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle when they didn't take the famous newborn photo with little Archie. According to Meghan Markle, however, due to Archie not getting a title, they were never asked. She says it wasn't actually a choice.
We weren’t asked to take a picture. That’s also part of the spin that was really damaging I thought. Can you just tell them the truth? Can you say to the world: We’re not giving him a title and we want to keep him safe and if he’s not a prince then it’s not part of the tradition. Just tell people and they’ll understand. But they wouldn’t do it.
Prince Harry did not touch on this particular incident, but he was very clear that he had compassion for his family and what they are and are not allowed to do. He said of his father Prince Charles and his brother Prince William: "They are trapped. They don't get to leave. I have huge compassion for that."
Meghan Markle Was ‘Depressed’ And Ashamed To Tell Prince Harry, Couldn’t Get Help
In one of her most notable confessions, Meghan Markle said she went to HR and asked for help in regards to her mental health. But because she wasn’t a paid employee of the Institution and because the Institution felt her seeking professional help would not look good to the press, “nothing was ever done.” She finally admitted her feelings to Harry, noting,
[I was] ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he suffered, but I knew that if I didn’t say it that I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. That was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he just cradled me and I was, I went to the Institution, and I said I needed to go somewhere to get help. I’d never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the Institution.
Markle says she wasn’t sure who to even turn to, but eventually, she spoke to one of Diana’s best friends and that helped her to start to grasp what was happening to her in the Royal Palace. Oprah Winfrey asked her if she could have sought help on her own, to which Meghan Markle replied, ‘I couldn’t just call an Uber to the Palace.”
The Truth About The Event At The Royal Albert Hall She Attended With Prince Harry
Shortly after admitting to Prince Harry that she was depressed, the two went to an event at the Royal Albert Hall she felt she had to attend. Harry asked her not to go, but she didn’t want to be left alone, so they attended and in the dark she says she wept. Later, a friend showed her a picture of herself at the event, looking beautiful and charming, and all she could see was the stress she was carrying.
Right before we had to leave for that [event] I had just had that conversation with Harry [about being depressed] that morning and it was the next day that I talked to the Institution… we had to go to this event. And I remember him saying, ‘I don’t think you can go.’ And I said, ‘I can’t be left alone.’ And we went and that picture [that was taken] if you Zoom in what I see is how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine -- you can see the whites of our knuckles -- because we are smiling and doing our job but we’re both just trying to hold on. Every time those lights went on in that Royal box I was just weeping.
Later in the interview, Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey she wasn’t trying to be “shocking,” but that this is the “truth” she lived with while still under the grips of the Institution. She wanted to clear up some of the “falsehoods” and felt like it was time to speak out, noting, “There’s a lot that’s been lost already.”
Why Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Moved To The U.S.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry both seemed a little bit overwhelmed by their security being taken away. According to both of them, they proposed part-time work with the Royal Family, even after moving to Canada, but their security was still taken away, with the Institution citing a “status change” as the reason for why.
In March of 2019, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry left and moved to Canada, but security was cut off after the move and given a lockdown was coming and the whole world knew where they lived, Prince Harry says they needed to go elsewhere. By March of 2020, Meghan, Harry and Archie decided to relocate to Los Angeles and figure out what they wanted to do next. During this time, Tyler Perry provided security while the two got off their feet with Archwell.
We only wanted to have the same type of role that exists right? There are Senior members of the family and then there are non-Senior members. We said specifically, we’re stepping back from Senior roles to be just like several -- and I can think of several right now -- who are all their Royal Highnesses, or Prince and Princess, Duke or Duchess, who earn a living, live on Palace grounds, support the Queen when called upon, so we weren’t reinventing the wheel here.
According to the formerly Royal couple, they took Tyler Perry up on the offer because they felt security was paramount and the family was not providing the “support” they needed. Prince Harry also felt that it wasn’t working, comparing what was happening to Meghan to what happened to his mother. He didn't want the conclusion to his story with Meghan Markle to end the same way.
At the end of the day, a lot was learned from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's perspectives, including the fact that they never had a plan after leaving for Canada and then the United States. The Netflix deal and more was spawned only after being cut off financially, though Harry says he still has his legacy from his mother. It will be interesting to see if anyone from the Royal Family speaks out in the coming days. In the meantime, Oprah Winfrey also spoke out this morning on her interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, touching on a few more moments that came up in the special. You can check it out on CBS.com.
