At the beginning of the highly anticipated two-part documentary series, ‘Harry & Meghan:
Becoming Royal’ the Prince begins by saying, “No one sees what goes on behind closed
doors.”
Well, now that’s all changed.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took the world through a rollercoaster of emotions, shocking
revelations, and heartwarming moments.
Meghan and Harry finally revealed the truth behind what they’ve had to face in their
experience with the Royal family over the recent years, and why it was so important
for them to tell their side of the story.
At the beginning of the docu-series, Markle admitted to having found the “formality”
of being in the royal family “surprising” at first.
Harry added that Meghan’s first meeting with the Queen was quite a “shock to the
system”.
She recalled the moment she learned that she was going to meet the late Queen Elizabeth
II.
The couple was in the car and they were on the way to the Royal Lodge for lunch, and
Harry told her that his grandmother was going to be there.
Meghan shared, “And I remember we were in the car driving up and he's like "You know
how to curtsy, right?"
And I just thought it was a joke.”
The only comparison that Meghan could make to that experience was her knowledge of the
American dinner-theater chain, ‘Medieval Times,’ where people go and dress up and
have an immersive experience featuring staged medieval-style games, sword-fighting, and
jousting.
Harry recalled that when his family first met Meghan, they were all “incredibly impressed”
with her.
He said, “... Some of them didn't quite know what to do with themselves.
Because I think they were surprised.”
However, he explained the fact that he was dating an American actress was probably what
“clouded their judgment,” more than anything else.
He said that his family thought, “oh she's an American actress; this won't last”.
Meghan understood that her career as an actress was probably “the biggest problem.”
She was aware of the idea of what Hollywood looks like from the UK perspective, and she
felt like it was very easy for the royal family to “type cast” her into that same bracket.
Before the couple had started dating around 2016, Harry explained that he was looking
to find someone who would be “willing and capable” of being in a relationship with
a royal family member.
The couple also revealed the intimate details of how they first met back in 2016.
At the time, Meghan was working as an actress on the show ‘Suits’, and the second season
had just been confirmed.
Her plan was to stay single “for a couple of months” and have some “fun girl time.”
She shared, “'I had a career.
I had my life.
I had my path... and then came H. I mean, he literally talks about a plot twist.”
The pair were introduced to one another through a mutual friend, and after exchanging numbers,
they organized to meet in person.
They remained “constantly in touch” and yet Harry still had his reservations about
getting someone involved with the complications of his Royal life.
He thought, “How can I ever find someone who was willing and capable of being able
to withstand all of the baggage that comes with being with me.”
The couple reveals that Prince Harry was late to their first date, with Meghan describing
him as “refreshing fun” and recalling that they were “just childlike” together.
Their first date was undoubtedly a success, and they even agreed to meet again the next
day.
The couple then came up with a “two-week rule.”
Bearing in mind that they both had incredibly busy schedules, they wanted to make sure they
saw each other at least once every two weeks.
After Meghan told her mother, Doria Ragland, who she had started dating, she made sure
to explain that it had to be kept a secret.
At the beginning of their relationship, the pair did their budding romance under the radar.
Harry had learned from his previous relationships with Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas, that
they had suffered from the media’s constant intrusion into their lives and everything
was quickly turned upside down by the publicity.
At one point, he describes the relationship between the press and his previous partners
as “the hunter versus the prey.”
During the documentary, Harry opened up about how he has been affected by the intense media
focus and recalls how he felt he had to perform in front of the cameras.
Recalling how he coped with the death of his mother, the Prince said, “When my mum died
we had two hats to wear.
One was two grieving sons.
The other royal hat was: Show no emotion, get out there and meet the people and shake
their hands.”
Prince Harry also made the sad admission that “I don’t have many early memories of my
mum.”
During the documentary, Harry said that Meghan reminds him of his late mother in the way
that she composes herself despite the backlash she was continuously facing, gushing that
his wife is “caring and compassionate.”
Both Meghan and Harry were children of divorced parents, and there’s no doubt that coming
from a broken family has impacted how they have chosen to raise their two children.
The Prince explained that the most important thing to them as parents is that they don’t
want to repeat the same mistake that their own parents made.
Markle also opened up about her experience with racism following the publicity around
her relationship with Harry.
She explained, “Obviously now everyone is aware of my race because they made it such
an issue when I went to the UK.
Before then, I wasn’t really treated like a black woman.”
While speaking about their children, Harry shared, “My son, my daughter, my children
are mixed race, and I'm really proud of that.”
Meghan and Harry started filming the docu-series in 2020, around the same time they had decided
to leave their roles as “senior members” of the royal family.
However, members of the royal family declined to comment on the content that was depicted
in the series.
At first, the couple didn’t know where to begin when it came to sharing their story.
Harry admitted that it was “really hard to look back” on everything that had happened
over the last few years, saying, “How did we end up here?”
Markle explains why they decided to make the documentary, admitting that she feels that
she has been misrepresented by the media.
It seems as though everyone had an opinion of what was happening behind closed doors,
but the truth is, no one knew the truth.
Following the media frenzy around their engagement in 2017, Markle admitted that she was still
“very much believing” what she was being told, which was, “it will pass, it will
get better.”
She thought that once the news got old and they got married, the press would get bored,
and eventually things could cool off.
She shared, “But truth be told, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was,
no matter what I did, they were still going to find a way to destroy me.”
Harry described his relationship with Meghan, “This is a great love story.
And the craziest thing is that I think this love story is only just getting started.”
He also explained that he knew his wife had “sacrificed everything that she ever knew,”
including “the freedom that she had,” to join him in his world.
Pretty soon after that, he ended up “sacrificing everything” that he knew to “join her
in her world.”
Meghan shared, “'We just did everything we could to be there for each other.
We had to stay connected.
We wouldn't have survived it if we weren't.”
Harry added, “I don’t know how we did it, but we just did.”
The couple explained that their relationship had become a combination of car chases, anti-surveillance
driving, and disguises.
They were both aware that this wasn’t a “healthy way to start a relationship,”
but they did their best to approach it with “as much humor as possible.”
Adding, “Whenever we saw each other we would just give each other a massive hug and try
and have as much of a normal life as possible.”
Leading up to their wedding day in May 2018, Meghan felt like fighting off the media’s
stories was like “playing whack-a-mole.”
She explained that the press was “pulling out people to create and plant the most salacious
stories that they could.”
Adding, “Then it started to get scary.”
The media storm seemed to only grow more malicious, and Harry admitted that members of the royal
family didn’t believe that Meghan should be “protected” by it.
They didn’t believe that she should receive any “special treatment.”
He said that the only direction he was given from the Palace was “don’t say anything.”
Following Part Two of the couple's documentary airing, it's been alleged that Markle “became
this scapegoat for the Palace”.
Meghan saw how it would play out.
She explained that “a story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute”
and the immediate solution to make it go away would be to use Markle as a distraction.
The final straw was when the press began to cover the breakdown of Meghan’s relationship
with her father.
According to her lawyer, Afia, everything seemed to be nothing but “a pool of negative,
nasty coverage about her.”
Part two also covers Harry’s regret over the way he handled Meghan’s struggle with
her mental health during the media frenzy.
The couple opened up about her mental battle and suicidal thoughts, which she first publicly
spoke about in her March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.
Meghan admitted that she thought, “It was like all of this will stop if I’m not here.
And that was the scariest thing about it.
It was such clear thinking.”
Markle opened up about her thoughts to take her own life for her mother.
Everything felt like it was out of their control, and both Harry and Meghan’s mother felt
like there was nothing they could do to protect her from the media’s constant harassment.
Harry confessed, “I was devastated.
I knew that she was struggling.
We were both struggling, but I never thought that it would get to that stage.
And the fact that it got to that stage, I felt angry and ashamed.”
He shared, “And looking back at it now I hate myself for it.
What she needed from me was so much more than I was able to give.”
As Part Two of their documentary unfolds, the world will hear more about how Harry and
Meghan have had their lives turned upside down, but more importantly, how they remained
strong and supportive of one another through it all.
We hope that Harry and Meghan are able to find peace and happiness away from the chaos
of the press and can finally heal from all the damage that’s been done by the media.