If you think that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey was wild, consider that it was cut down to about half its full length. That means there are a lot of moments we didn't see.
On Monday, Oprah released a few of those moments during her appearance on CBS This Morning. One of the clips features Meghan delving into how she and her father ended up estranged. Meghan admits that her father's continued cooperation with the press is a big part of how the divide between them grew. She expresses heartbreak at being betrayed by her dad and notes that although her mom is just as doggedly pursued by the press, she's never spoken to them once.
Thomas Markle decided to fire back less than 24 hours later by appearing on Good Morning Britain, where he threatened to continue to appear on TV with a story every 30 days until Harry and Meghan reach out to him directly.
Meghan Markle touched on many issues of family in her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. While many of those issues involved the royal family, Meghan's own family has been complex as well. Meghan talked about how all of the media frenzy has impacted her life and how many feel she stands to lose something from speaking out so candidly.
"I think I'm not going to live my life in fear. I think so much of it is said with an understanding of just truth. But I think to answer your question, I don't know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us," she said of the Firm.
"That at a certain point, you're going to go, 'But you guys, someone just tell the truth,'" she continued.
"And if that comes with the risk of losing things, I mean, I've lost … there's a lot that's been lost already. I've lost my father, I lost a baby, I nearly lost my name. But I'm still standing. And my hope for people in the takeaway from this is to know that there's another side to know that life is worth living."
The day after the interview aired, Oprah appeared on CBS This Morning to share a few unaired clips from the interview. One of them featured Meghan speaking more thoroughly about the situation between herself and her father.
"There was such an obsession about anything in my world, including tracking down my parents, and I did everything I could to protect both of them from that media frenzy," Meghan shared.
She explained that for a year, UK tabloids offered money to people in pursuit of Meghan's father's address.
Meghan noted once they did find him, they moved into vacant apartments surrounding his own and continued to apply pressure with gifts and offers of money. Oprah asked if Meghan felt betrayed when she discovered her father had worked with the tabloids. After some hesitation, Meghan replied.
"If we're going to use the word betrayal, it's because when I asked him, when the comms team told us this — the story was coming out — we called my dad and I asked him and he said, 'No, absolutely not,'" she said.
She also noted the tabloids held the story for over a month before issuing it just ahead of the wedding for maximum drama.
Meghan explained the conversation she had with her father at that point. "I said, 'You know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story,'" she noted.
"'But if they do this once, we're not going to be able to use this leverage to protect our own kids one day. I just need you to tell me, if you tell me the truth we can help.' And he wasn't able to do that."
Meghan shared that Thomas refuted ever working with the press, even when it became clear he did. "That, for me has really resonated as a mother," she noted.
"And also me saying full stop, 'if we use this to protect you we won't be able to protect our own children one day.' Well, I'm talking about your grandchildren. I can't … I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I go, I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. It's hard for me to reconcile that."
Oprah and Meghan went on to discuss that while the tabloids applied this tremendous pressure, they've done the same to Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, who has never given in. "You've never heard her say a word," Meghan said.
"She's remained in silent dignity for four years watching me go through this."
Thomas appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday morning's eventful episode, which saw Piers Morgan storm off the set after cohost Alex Beresford trashed Piers' personally biased treatment of Meghan in his reporting. His appearance kept the tone of the show, with Thomas making some pretty mind-boggling comments about the interview.
"Like I said, this is the first time I've heard her speak in four years. The last time we spoke, we didn't speak, we texted each other," he began.
"I was laying in a hospital bed after having a heart attack. I had to tell them I couldn't come to the wedding. At that point … Harry said to me at that point 'if you listened to me, this wouldn't have happened to you.' Me laying in a hospital bed … felt it was kind of snotty, so I hung up on them. That was the last conversation we ever had," he concluded, changing course from it being a text back to a phone call.
As far as Meghan feeling betrayed, Thomas noted that he "apologized for this thing at least a hundred times."
"I've never heard back from Meghan or Harry in any way, shape, or form," he noted.
"When they say that I'm taking advantage of the press … well, basically what I do, because I haven't heard from them is I'll do a story for the press. If I don't hear from them in 30 days, then I'll do another story for the press."
When asked what he would say in response to their inability to understand why he's still talking to the press, he replied, "Because they're still not talking to me. When they decide to start talking to me, I'll stop talking to the press."
When asked why he wasn't honest with Meghan, he explained that a photographer contacted daughter Samantha Markle while he was being harassed by paparazzi and assumptions were being made about him. He agreed to work with the photographer because he thought he would cover him in a light that would improve his reputation. He admitted to lying to Meghan about participating in the orchestrated shoot.
"I denied it. I denied it … I wish I hadn't done the whole thing," he said.
"But here's the other side of this coin. No one took any time to protect any member of our family. We were attacked by the press every day, my oldest daughter, my son, my grandchildren. Nobody cared for us. Nobody looked out for us … I was left out to dry."
"We all make mistakes, but I've never played naked pool and I've never dressed up like Hitler," he said, taking a dig at indiscretions in Harry's past. Thomas said he knew it would upset Meghan, but that's how he felt.
Later, Thomas said that despite all these difficult feelings, when it came to hearing about Meghan's struggles with her mental health, he still felt for his daughter.
"I love my daughter very much," he said.
"Had I known she was having psychological problems, I would have been there for her. Biggest problem here is she has pretty much ghosted all of her family on her mother’s side and my side, so she really had no one to reach out to," he continued, turning the blame on Meghan.
Thomas wrapped up his comments by saying the idea that Meghan said she's lost him is untrue:
"She didn't lose me. I would have always been there for her. I'm there for her now if she wants me. But it's been a long time … this thing about the press, I've done about six articles for the press … I haven't done that many."
Piers asked about how he felt about Meghan's allegations against the royals.
"I have great respect for the royals and I don't think the British royal family are racist at all. I don't think the British are racist," he said.
"I think Los Angeles is racist. California is racist, but I don't think the Brits are.
"The thing about what color will the baby be or how dark will the baby be, I'm guessing and hoping it's just a dumb question from somebody. It could just be that simple, that somebody asked a stupid question, rather than being a total racist."
