Oprah Winfrey, 67. America’s richest woman worth $2.4 billion, delivered a blockbuster interview March 7 of 39-year-old former Hollywood actress Meghan Markle and her husband, 36-year-old Henry Charles Albert David AKA Prince Harry. Oprah, true to form, listened empathically as Meghan and Harry told their story why they left the riches and security of their life in the House of Windsor as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, both had royal titles until they decided to sever ties with the Royal Family. Oprah was careful to get Meghan and Harry to clarify aspects of their story, especially when it came to earth-shaking details of how Meghan felt trapped in the Royal family with no way out after their Royal wedding in St. George’s Chapel May 19, 2018. Meghan and Harry told Oprah for the first time they were married by the Archbishop of Canterbury three days before the Royal ceremony breaking tradition.
What became obvious from Oprah’s interview was not how coldly rigid and cavalier the Royal Family but how disturbed Meghan and Harry were, incapable of handling the stress of living as a the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, with all the official duties and responsibilities. Meghan and Harry painted the Royal Family as trapped inside a bubble, unable to see the freedoms of life outside the House of Windsor. While from Meghan and Harry’s perspective, they were crushed by the Royal Family, especially Harry’s Father Prince Charles, not showing the kind of empathy Harry had hoped for in a perfect world. But neither Meghan nor Harry can imagine the humiliation and disappointment of Charles’ with their decision to cut off the Royal Family. But if you followed Oprah’s questioning and Harry and Meghan’s answers, it was two individuals extricating themselves from a Royal cult.
Harry lamented the fact that his father, Prince Charles, “stopped taking my calls,” prompting Meghan to confess that she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” showing that both Harry and Meghan have a lot of growing up to do. Oprah’s questioning tilted toward blaming the Royal Family for mistreating the wayward young couple, when, in fact, Meghan and Harry thumbed their noses at the Royal Family, looking for any excuse or justification to bail out. Meghan and Harry said they would have stayed had they “gotten support from the Royal Family,” something so inconceivable since they both broke every Royal Family tradition, rule or custom imaginable. What makes the story riveting—and infuriating at the same time—is the fact that Meghan is a brash American, always a bone of contention for the Royals, knowing that the United States was founded on rejecting the monarch, King George.
Meghan presented herself in a coolly rational manner to Oprah, fielding her questions with poise and grace, remarkably painting herself and Harry as the victims of a cruel, heartless system, unable to imagine what it’s like outside the Royal bubble. Well, for the venerable Royal Family, they’ve lived by generations of tradition, arcane sets of rules requiring members of the Royal Family to give up their passports, keys and driver licenses inside the House of Windsor. Whether that’s exactly true is anyone’s guess. What’s known for sure is that Meghan felt claustrophobic living in a gilded cage, trapped, removed from her American freedoms enjoyed by a women who, by anyone’s standards, grew up independently, making it in rough-and-tumble Hollywood. While there’s much umbrage felt by the British Press and public, it’s inconceivable to force free spirit Meghan Markle into her confining new Royal role.
When it comes to Harry, it’s obvious he’s madly in love with Meghan, growing up with the deep pain not only of his mother, Princess Diana, Duchess of Cornwall’s tragic death, but the fact that his father, Prince Charles, was in love with another women, Camilla Parker Bowles, eventually marrying her April 9, 2005, eight years after Diana’s death in a high-speed auto accident, Paris Aug. 31, 1997. Harry shared his fears with Oprah that he didn’t want Meghan to wind up like his mother. Diana. Clearly, both Harry and Meghan cling to each other as lifelines, believing that they’re better off raising their two-year-old boy Archie in Montecito, Calif., expecting a baby girl later this year. Oprah let Meghan lead her to the ultimate excuse for why they had to leave the Royal family, because, Meghan, who’s half-black, claims she heard chatter in the Royal Family during her pregnancy about Archie’s expected skin color.
Meghan and Harry gave their story, their narrative, their spin on why they had to bail out of the Royal Family. Harry said he was disappointed with his father but loves his brother, William, “to bits.” Meghan confessed to Oprah about her dark thoughts while living trapped as a Royal, starting to think of suicide. Harry said his family had no sympathy for Meghan expressing her mental health issues with the Royal Family. Harry admitted that, “it was not a conversation to be had,” opting to do what Meghan wanted to get out of the Royal Family. Oprah played up concerns some Royals had about Archie’s expected skin color giving Harry and Meghan to perfect excise to bail out. No matter how Meghan and Harry are vilified in the British press, it’s clear that a free-spirited California girl just couldn’t give up her freedoms in the confines of the House of Windsor, leaving Harry no choice but to follow his love.
