10 shocking things revealed by Harry and Meghan during Oprah interview
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey has finally aired in the US.
Harry and Meghan’s much-anticipated chat with the American talk show host focused on their side of the story about what life has been like within the royal family.
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Hide AdThere were many shock revelations throughout the interview - which airs on ITV on 8 March at 9pm - from Meghan’s suicidal thoughts, relationships with other royals and accusations of racism.
So, what were the key things that the couple said?
Here is everything you need to know.
Duchess of Cambridge ‘made Meghan cry’
Meghan spoke with Oprah alone for the majority of the interview, before she was joined by Prince Harry.
One of the major revelations addressed by the Duchess of Sussex was that Kate Middleton made her cry ahead of her wedding to Harry - and not the other way round.
The story published in the media at the time was that the Duchess of Cambridge was reduced to tears by Meghan over a row about flower girl dresses.
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Hide AdBut Meghan told Oprah: "A few days before the wedding [Kate] was upset about the flower girl dresses and it made me cry.”
She said Kate had then apologised, bringing flowers and a note to patch things up.
"I'm not sharing that piece about Kate to be disparaging about her," Meghan said, adding that Kate was a “good person” and that she would have wanted the false reports corrected.
Racism accusations
A shock allegation from the interview was that an unnamed member of the royal family had expressed “concerns” about “how dark” Meghan and Harry’s baby might be.
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Hide Ad"In those months when I was pregnant [there were] concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born," Meghan revealed.
The alleged conversations were with Harry, who told her, she said.
But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex refused to say which royal had said it when pressed by Oprah.
Meghan added: “I think that would be very damaging to them”, while Harry said he would “never” share the conversation, which he described as being “awkward”.
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Hide AdHarry also said he was hurt that the royals didn’t speak out about the “colonial undertones” of news headlines and articles that were published about Meghan.
“No-one from my family ever said anything over those three years. That hurts,” Harry said.
Meghan’s suicidal thoughts
The Duchess of Sussex spoke of the toll life within the royal family had on her mental health.
Meghan revealed that she had experienced suicidal thoughts after losing her freedoms when she joined the institution.
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Hide Ad"When I joined that family, that was the last time until we came here that I saw my passport, my driver's licence, my keys, all that gets turned over," she said.
She said her mental health deteriorated to the point that she "didn't want to be alive anymore".
Meghan said she sought help and even approached one of the most senior people in the institution but her pleas were rejected.
"I went to the institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help, said I had never felt that way before and needed to go somewhere, and I was told that I couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution,” she recalled.
"Nothing was ever done," Meghan added.
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Hide AdShe said when she didn’t know who to turn to she contacted one of Diana Princess of Wales’s best friends.
"One of the people I reached out to who's continued to be a friend and confidante was one of my husband's mom's best friends.
"Because it's like who else could understand what it's actually like on the inside?"
Harry’s relationship with Duke of Cambridge
Harry confirmed that his relationship with his brother William was still fractured.
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Hide AdHe revealed: “The relationship is space at the moment. And time heals all things, hopefully.”
But the Duke of Sussex didn’t criticise his brother, saying: “I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together, we have a shared experience, but we were on different paths.”
In the interview, Harry also said he had been “trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are”.
He went on: “My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave.”
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Hide AdHarry feels ‘really let down’ by Charles
Oprah also asked Harry about his relationship with his father, the Prince of Wales.
The duke revealed that Charles had “stopped taking my calls” after he and Meghan stepped back as senior royals.
"I feel really let down because he's been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like and Archie's his grandson,” Harry said.
"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."
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Hide AdArchie’s title
It had previously been reported that the duke and duchess had decided their son Archie would not have a royal title so he could live a “normal” life.
But during the interview Meghan said the decision had actually been made by the royal family, and that she and Harry had wanted their son to have the title of prince so he would have security for protection.
The duchess was asked by Oprah: “How did they explain to you that your son, the great grandson of the Queen, wasn’t going to be a prince?”
Meghan responded: “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.
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Hide Ad“This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I was going, hold on for a second.”
She explained that she was not given a good explanation for the reasoning and that she would have accepted a title for Archie if it “meant he was going to be safe”.
Baby Sussex is a girl
Harry and Meghan delighted viewers when they revealed that they are expecting a baby girl.
When the duke joined his wife during the second half of the chat, he told Oprah “it’s a girl” and added it was “amazing” to be having a daughter.
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Hide AdThe couple also said they would be “done” with having children after the baby arrives in the “summertime”.
The Queen
There were reports that Harry had “blindsided” the Queen when he stepped down as a senior royal.
But the duke denied this, revealing that he in fact has a “really good” relationship with his grandmother.
Harry said he had spoken to the Queen, who he called his “colonel-in-chief”, more in the last year than he had for many years.
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Hide AdMeghan was also full of praise for the Queen, who she said had given her “some beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace” for the couple’s first joint engagement together.
And talking about the first time she met the Queen, the duchess said she was surprised that she had to curtsy and had believed it was just “part of the fanfare”.
Harry was ‘cut off’ financially
Harry claimed that his family had “literally cut me off financially” in the first quarter of 2020 during the explosive interview.
He explained that the lucrative Netflix and Spotify deals that he and Meghan had signed were so he could “afford security for us”.
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Hide AdMeghan also revealed that she wrote letters pleading with the royal family to not take away Harry’s personal protection officers, saying he was facing death threats.
And Harry said he had “never thought” he would have his security removed after stepping back from the royal spotlight.
He said: “I was born into this position. I inherited the risk. So that was a shock to me.”
The couple said that, after they were cut off financially, American billionaire and media mogul Tyler Perry stepped in to provide them with a home and security when they moved from Canada to California.
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Hide AdThe pair married three days before the wedding
While millions of people watched Harry and Meghan get married at Windsor Castle in 2018, the couple revealed something that no one knew about the nuptials.
The duke and duchess had actually tied the knot in a simple ceremony three days before the public day.
Meghan said: "We called the archbishop and we just said, 'look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world but we want our union between us... just the two of us in our backyard'.”