Everyone was glued to their TVs Sunday night as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat down to tell their side of the Royal breakup with Oprah Winfrey. The couple shocked us about a year ago when they announced they were stepped away from their Royal duties after an onslaught of tabloid press.
Reactions to the interview were about as mixed as they come. Half of the audience cheered Harry and Meghan for "getting the hell out" of the Royal Family and telling their story on their own terms. As Prince Harry told Oprah, he feared that Meghan would face the same fate as his late mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash while being chased by paparazzi. He says he didn't realize he was "trapped" in the institution until Meghan opened his eyes. His father and his brother, both of whom will presumably one day be kings, don't have the option to leave, and he says he has "compassion" for them.
But if the interview was any indication, his relationship with the Royal Family is strained. Harry said that his father, Prince Charles, has stopped taking his phone calls, and added that no one in the family has reached out to apologize for how the situation unfolded.
The prince also revealed the family cut him off financially at the beginning of 2020, and stopped giving him security. But he says he was able to pay for security for his family thanks to the money left to him by his mom.
Markle went into detail about her own personal struggles, reflecting on how brutal the British tabloids were to her as they criticized her every move. She said that things got so dark for her that she was contemplating suicide and asked officials at Buckingham Palace if she could seek medical help.
"I went to one of the most senior people to get help," she told Winfrey. "I was told I couldn't because it wouldn't be good for the institution."
But the biggest bombshell she dropped was when she indicated that members of the Royal Family asked her how dark she thought her son would be when he was born.
"What?!" Winfrey responded.
Oprah reacts to Meghan Markle revealing somebody in the Royal Family was concerned about how dark Archie's skin color might be.#OprahMeghanHarry
— Alexander Umeakubuike ??? (@AUmeakubuike) March 8, 2021
pic.twitter.com/V4C2FUxAVY
Harry, too, made subtle hints that his family had racist undertones.
“For this union and the specifics around race there were opportunities for my family to show some public support," he said. "No one from my family ever said anything. That hurts.”
Megyn Kelly, Clay Aiken, and other public figures had no sympathy for the couple, highlighting their "privilege" and contrasting their plight with Americans suffering due to the COVID pandemic.
A heart wrenching story on @60Minutes about Americans without food or a place to live due to COVID, punctuated by a commercial of #MeghanMarkle on a mansion veranda whining about her troubles and her son not getting to be titled a Prince. ??#tonedeaf #crymeariver #stfu ??
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) March 8, 2021
The fastest growing career field in America is victimhood.
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) March 8, 2021
In which M & H pretend that no royal has had it worse in the press than they have. Give me a break. Have you ever seen such privileged people wallowing in their own (perceived) victimhood like this? https://t.co/TTIiLhw9uD
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) March 8, 2021
Piers Morgan perhaps had the most biting response, calling the couple's interview with Oprah "an absolutely disgraceful betrayal of The Queen and the royal family.”