As many people now know, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry definitely feel they have been wronged by both the royal family and the British press. Their feelings aren't invalid; the mistreatment of the two, and especially of Meghan, has also been well-documented online.
Meghan and Harry opened up about a lot of the mistreatment they've suffered while speaking to Oprah Winfrey earlier this year, and it's clear that both the British press and the royal family have had a hand in tearing down and failing to protect the couple.
Here's every time the royal family and the British press attacked, let down, or mistreated Meghan Markle … at least, the times we know of.
The press began mistreating Meghan from the beginning.
When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their relationship to the world, a lot of people were excited for the pair. It was truly something special: An American actress and a British prince is basically the stuff of fairy tales!
Unfortunately for the two, and especially Meghan, the press began its negative coverage of the couple then and there.
In 2016, the Daily Mail ran an infamously racist piece titled: "EXCLUSIVE: Harry's girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed — so will he be dropping by for tea?" The paper made a point of digging up the address of Meghan Markle's childhood home and even explored the crimes that had taken place in the neighborhood that week.
The press also expected her to leave Harry before the wedding.
When Meghan and Harry got married in 2018, most of the world was excited about the wedding and eagerly anticipating watching it televised. However, many members of the British press couldn't contain themselves.
Australian and English writer Germaine Greer even spoke to 60 Minutes Australia and declared her belief that Meghan would "bolt" before the wedding despite all evidence to the contrary.
The press lambasted Meghan when they found out her father wouldn't be at the wedding.
Weddings can be both a joyful and a stressful experience, and it definitely seems like Harry and Meghan experienced both. When the news dropped that Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, would not be attending her wedding, members of the British press had a field day.
Kate Middleton reportedly made Meghan Markle cry.
One huge story that has plagued Meghan and Harry is that Meghan verbally attacked Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge and wife of Prince William, and made her cry. The details of the story never quite seemed to add up, but it was hard to know what was true, since no one was speaking out.
During their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan decided to reveal the truth. It was just the opposite: Kate had actually made Meghan cry.
Meghan chose to speak up to tell the truth, but she went out of her way to make sure she didn't say anything awful about Kate herself. "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."
She then added that Kate knew what she did. "But she owned it, and she apologized, and she brought me flowers and a note apologizing."
Meghan also believes she was 'silenced' by the family.
In the same interview with Oprah, Meghan was asked if she remained silent by choice or if she was silenced by the family in terms of being allowed to speak out against false headlines. She confirmed, "The latter."
Meghan continued, "I've always been outspoken, especially about women's rights, and that's the sad irony of the last four years — I've advocated for so long for women to use their voice."
Meghan went on to explain that Buckingham Palace gave very clear directions "from the moment the world knew Harry and I were dating to always say, 'No comment.'" It turns out that expectation was also applied to her friends and family members.
To make matters worse, Meghan believed that the palace would protect her and Harry, but she found out that wasn't true. "That was hard to reconcile because it was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family. They weren't willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband."
Meanwhile, the British press wouldn't stop.
Meghan and Harry were truly battling a firestorm of negative press that bordered and tipped over into the extreme on a regular basis. BuzzFeed News compiled an excellent article that points out numerous times the press favored Prince William and Kate Middleton over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, often in nearly exactly the same situations.
In 2017, Prince William was praised for speaking out against the "stiff upper lip" that members of the monarchy are expected to carry at all times, noting that he supported his brother as Harry spoke about the pain he's experienced since losing his mother, Princess Diana. Prince William said, "There may be a time and a place for the 'stiff upper lip' but not at the expense of your health."
However, when Meghan and Harry gave an interview in 2019 and explained they felt they were "existing, not living," The Sun went after the couple hard. The paper wrote, "What you make of 'fragile' Prince Harry and Meghan's comments may depend on your generation."
The papers also attacked Harry and Meghan for christening Archie without the Queen present, completely ignoring the fact that the Queen didn't attend the christening of Prince William and Kate's youngest son, Louis.
In July 2018, the Daily Mail explained that the Queen didn't attend Louis' christening because she had other obligations. It said, in part, "The Queen, 92, has a busy week ahead, with high-profile celebrations in central London marking the centenary of the RAF on Tuesday," among other obligations.
When nearly the same situation happened following Archie's birth, the paper wasn't nearly as kind. The publication even wrote that some people who work at the palace reportedly thought Harry and Meghan should have planned the day better:
"Her Majesty was already scheduled to be in Scotland for her annual Holyrood Week and had a prior engagement at the weekend. There is a feeling amongst some that they should have been more accommodating about the date."
The royal family reportedly worried about Archie's skin tone.
One of the more notable revelations from Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah is that the royal family apparently had discussions about how dark Archie's skin might be when he was born.
Meghan explained, "In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, we have in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."
Both Harry and Meghan declined to reveal who brought up the color of Archie's skin, with Meghan first explaining, "I think that would be very damaging to them," and Harry adding, "That conversation I'm never going to share. At the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked."
However, the couple did double back with Oprah to clarify that neither the Queen nor Prince Philip were the ones who expressed this "concern." Oprah later explained, "I knew and if I had an opportunity to share that it was not his grandma [the Queen] nor his grandfather [Prince Philip] that were a part of those conversations."
ITV royal editor Chris Ship went on the air to explain if it wasn't the Queen or Prince Philip, that really only left a few options: "Let me be clear here. I've been told it's not the Queen and not the Duke of Edinburgh. And that only leaves two family members [and their spouses]. The two people you're left with are Prince Charles, or his brother Prince William, or their wives. It's pretty serious, that's kind of where it's left."
The royal family also told Meghan she couldn't seek mental health support.
One of the more jarring things Meghan and Harry revealed is that Meghan really suffered while wrestling with mental health demons while working as a senior member of the royal family. She told Oprah, "I was ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry."
Meghan also explained how she felt.
"I just didn't want to be alive anymore. That was a clear and real and frightening and constant thought."
So Meghan turned to her family members in the palace for help.
Sadly, it seems that no one was willing to give Meghan any kind of guidance. Despite the fact that Harry, William, and Kate Middleton put together a mental health advocacy group called Heads Together, Meghan said she was told not to seek any kind of support or help because it would reflect badly on the family.
The royal family didn't want to 'pay' for Meghan.
Part of being a working royal is that you receive your income from the royal family itself, which is funded by a mixture of public and private funds. Prince Harry said that his family suggested Meghan keep acting even though the two were getting married, because they didn't think there was enough money to fund her.
He said, "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, and all this sort of stuff. There were some real obvious signs before we even got married that this was going to be really hard."
The royal family also never acknowledged how racist the papers were.
Even though the British press relentlessly published articles about Meghan Markle that were racist, the royal family never did anything to support the couple. Prince Harry explained that this lack of action and response hurt him deeply. He said, "Yet no one from my family ever said anything over those three years. And that hurts."
Meghan and Harry said that they even asked the palace to directly intervene but received no response. For Harry, his family offering help and support would have meant a lot:
"The way that I saw it was there was a way of doing things, but for us, for this union and the specifics around her race, there was an opportunity, many opportunities, for my family to show some public support."
The royal family also took Meghan's belongings.
In another startling revelation, Meghan explained that she couldn't leave the palace on her own to get help for her mental health because her keys, passport, and driver's license were taken from her after she married Harry.
"I mean, you have to understand as well, when I joined that family, that was the last time, until we came here, that I saw my passport, my driver's license, my keys. All that gets turned over."
No one from the royal family has apologized.
As far as the public knows, no one in the royal family has apologized for the reasons why Meghan and Harry felt they had to leave the UK and life as senior royals. Harry told Oprah, "The feeling is that this was our decision. Therefore the consequences are on us. And despite three years of asking for help and visualizing how this might end — it's been really hard."
Meghan also later addressed the racist press coverage she's received, noting that while her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, has been a victim of coverage that's "rude," there's a stark difference between how they've both been received:
"It was like the Wild, Wild West. It spread like wildfire. Plus, my being American — it translated in a different way across the pond. So you had a noise level that was very different."
Meghan went on to add that many members of the family felt like the coverage was no different for her:
"I think the volume of what was coming in and the interest was greater because of social media, because of the fact that I was not just British, and that, unfortunately, if members of his family say, 'Well, this is what has happened to all of us.' If they can compare the experience of what I went through with similar of what has been shared with us."
Harry and Meghan were left to defend themselves.
In 2016, Prince Harry issued a statement regarding the treatment of Meghan by the press. The statement read: "His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public — the smear on the front page of a national newspaper, the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments."
"It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm. He knows commentators will say this is 'the price she has to pay' and that 'this is all part of the game.' He strongly disagrees. This is not a game — it is her life and his."
Sadly, for Meghan and Harry, that remains the strongest statement anyone from the family has issued, then or since.
