On Monday evening in the UK, shortly after being released in America, the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle interview with Oprah was finally aired for our viewing pleasure. The long-awaited conversation that people not only Nationwide were excited to hear, but across the World.
Meghan firstly spoke about how the allegations of her first stemmed from when both her and Harry first made the decision to step down as senior members of the Royal Family, going on to discuss what actually lead to that final outcome, and what it was like when she first met her Royal in-laws.
The discussion started off pretty light hearted, Meghan opening about how her first interaction with the Queen was, how she had to practice curtseys just before going into meet Her Majesty, and how it all seemed pretty surreal; however, she didn’t have many expectations of what was in store for her. It seemed to be that it was definitely a case of – in Meghan’s words – ‘’perception verses reality’’ and that what you may imagine the royal lifestyle to be like, it wasn’t quite that way when Meghan became a part of the family.
Tabloid headlines that have come out in the past, painting a certain picture of Meghan were also addressed on Monday night, such as the alleged story of Meghan making Kate Middleton cry over dresses for the wedding. Meghan insists that although they got it partly right with the dresses, it was actually the ‘’reverse that happened’’ and Meghan was unsurprisingly, innocent in all of this. This is where it really started to show how she was treated differently, and after this story, it became clear that no matter what she did, it would simply never be good enough, especially with the constant comparisons between the two ladies in the British public eye.
Being a divorcee, an actress, an independent woman, and the first mixed raced member of the Royal family – as pointed out by Oprah – it was clear that she was different from the rest. But why was it the public eye, in particular the British media have a problem with Meghan Markle? Was it a racial issue? And why did that impact people’s opinion so much in a negative light?
Half way through the show, Prince Harry joined us and much like Meghan, spoke his truth and talked us through their experiences over the past few years. Harry said that he had told the British media to ‘’calm’’ but if anything, that seemed to give them more fuel for their fire, and made matters worse. They both spoke about how trapped they had felt and Meghan vocalised how saddened she got, how there came a point where she was having suicidal thoughts and couldn’t stomach being alone. She also went on to discuss how she was refused help at her lowest point. This all comes from someone who hadn’t read much of what was written about her, so can you imagine the impact if she had read some of the outrageous storylines from the British press?
Speaking of outrageous, what exactly was the British media’s reaction to this interview on Monday? The most explosive, and probably most acknowledged ‘response’ was the outburst from Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain the following morning, which ended with Piers storming off of the set. The clash between both Piers and co – star Alex Beresford initiated over the mental health and racism accusations; however, we are led to believe that Piers had ongoing problems with Meghan after ‘cutting him off’.
As for the rest of the British media, it seems to be the same sort of story, and literally just that! It looks like they have maybe gone too far, at the expense of a normal girl, turned Duchess, Meghan Markle. However, quite the opposite to the press, the English community itself has seemed to be way more supportive across many social media platforms, such as Twitter. Many of the British public seem to stand together with the couple, and it does seem like more of a generational split more than anything else. Many young people over their socials have come together to go as far as start a petition to get Piers Morgan fired off of the breakfast show, as a way of supporting Meghan and completely disagreeing with his statement that she has lied her way through the interview.
With all the drama and the feuds between each other across the country, surrounding the Prince and Duchess, the good news of it all somehow got lost amongst the bad. The couple announced that they were having a baby girl! So, a massive congratulations to them both!
If you did miss the interview (and you’re in the UK) be sure to check it out over on ITV Hub and let us know what you think! You can find us on our socials @aman_mag on Instagram, @amanmagazine1 on Twitter.
Written by Skye Miller
