[Reporter] It was billed as a tell-all
from a couple now outside the confines of the British monarchy.
I mean that's the sad irony of the last four years
as I've advocated for so long for women to use their voice
and then
I was silent.
Were you silent
or were you silenced?
The latter.
[Reporter] The two-hour interview comes amid mounting friction between Buckingham Palace
and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The couple made the decision to leave the U.K. and their official royal roles nearly two years ago.
In the interview Meghan described what life was like for her in the Royal Family.
She said when she was pregnant Palace officials spoke to the couple about the upcoming birth of their son Archie.
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.
[Reporter] She says tabloid scrutiny in life within the Royal Family made her miserable and lonely.
She says at her lowest point she thought about committing suicide.
I just didn't want to be alive anymore
and that was a very clear and real and frightening
constant thought.
Before this interview, Meghan accused the Palace of orchestrating a smear campaign.
Last week the British newspaper The Times ran a report
where sources claim she treated some of her staff so badly that they quit.
The palace which normally is silent on anything published in the papers
said it was concerned about the allegations and would investigate
which it notably did not do over Prince Andrew's sexual abuse allegations.
Not only was I not being protected
but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family
but they weren't willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.
[Reporter] CBS reportedly paid at least seven million dollars to air the interview
which hit prime time in North America just hours after the Queen's own message.
Looking forward relationships with others across the Commonwealth will remain important.
[Reporter] In that broadcast there was no hint of the rift
or some of the dark revelations made in the interview.
Now Meghan admitted that she was very naive when it came to marrying into the Royal Family.
She didn't know just what to expect but she said initially everybody was very welcoming to her.
She said that that really changed after the tour that she and Harry took to the South Pacific.
After that the couple said that they really felt trapped
and felt they had no other option but to leave.
Harry revealed, Ian, that last year he was basically cut off financially from the family.
He talked about how disappointed he was in his father and the strained relationship there.
And while most of the interview did focus on the couple's past, they did talk about the future.
They're expecting their second child and in that interview, Ian
they revealed that they're expecting a baby girl.
[Ian[ All right Briar, thanks for this.
Welcome.
So royal watchers such as sarika bose are keeping a close eye on the interview tonight she's a lecturer at ubc and joins us from here in vancouver so lots of details in there sarika what are your thoughts about what you've just watched
well i think the first thing that really i noticed was that i was hearing a narrative of
overcoming injustice and so i saw a lot of words and a lot of concepts underlying the interview
words like entrapment marginalization racism financial insecurity protection
all of these kinds of ideas ran through the entire interview and two of the most
important points that were mentioned many times were mental health and self-harm as well as racism
and the idea was that there was a great deal of racist behavior once two things happened one was
the australian tour and one was the announcement of the new baby and there was discussion about
not giving the baby a title discussion about the color of the baby's skin and discussion really
about racist attitudes in the royal family and i think that particular discussion is
probably the most damaging to the royal family and there's going to be a lot of discussion to come
we literally have 15 seconds but let me just ask you are you surprised at the the level of candor
in that interview i'm not very surprised no all right sarika thanks for joining me okay thank you