Prince Harry has said “you get used to lies” living in the Royal Family while Meghan discusses having suicidal thoughts, in the final episodes of their documentary series which have begun streaming across the world.
Palace aides will be preparing themselves for bombshells in the second part of Harry & Meghan, after a trailer included accusations that the royal household leaked negative stories as part of a “war against Meghan”.
In episode four, as shots of a walkabout by the couple in Liverpool are shown, Meghan tells how a group of women spoke to her about her father, following reports of the breakdown of their relationship in the press.
‘She never asked me to leave’, Harry says – live updates as final episodes drop
“It was the first time that I went, ‘Oh my God, people actually believe that stuff’, and then my entire centre was rocked to its core,” she says.
Harry then comes into shot, saying: “The lies that’s one thing, you kind of get used to that when you live within this family, but what they were doing to her and the effect it was having on her – like, enough, enough of the pain, enough of the suffering.”
As shots of Diana and Charles are then shown, he continues: “No one sees what is happening behind closed doors. Back in the day my mum was in the back of the car going to engagements in floods of tears, and then my dad saying, ‘we’re almost there’ and 30 seconds to wipe the tears away, slap on some make-up, and the door opens and smile, everything is fine.”
Meghan’s mother and Harry speak of devastation hearing she contemplated suicide
In the same episode, Meghan talks about having suicidal thoughts – something she spoke about previously during the couple’s interview with Oprah in 2021.
“All of this will stop if I’m not here and that was the scariest thing about it, it was such clear thinking,” she says in the documentary.
Her mother, Doria Ragland, recalls finding out how her daughter was feeling: “I remember her telling me that she had wanted to take her own life and that really broke my heart because I knew that it was bad, but to constantly be picked at by these vultures, just picking away at her spirit that she would actually think of not wanting to be here, that’s not an easy one for a mum to hear. And I can’t protect her.”
Harry says he was “devastated” when he realised just how much his wife was struggling.
“I knew that she was struggling, we were both struggling, but I never thought it would get to that stage and the fact that it got to that stage, I felt angry and ashamed,” he says. “I didn’t deal with it particularly well. I dealt with it as institutional Harry as opposed to husband Harry, and what took over my feelings was my royal role.
“I had been trained to think, ‘what are people going to think if we don’t go to this event, we are gonna be late’, and looking back now I hate myself for it.”
‘Then one day this little organism comes in’
Meghan also says the couple’s former private secretary told her about the monarchy: “It is like a fish that is swimming perfectly. It is powerful, it is on the right current. Then one day this little organism comes in. This foreign organism. And the entire thing goes… What is that? What is it doing here? It doesn’t look like us. It doesn’t move like us. We don’t like it. Get it off of us.
“And she just explained that, you know, they’ll soon see, that it’s stronger, faster, even better with this organism as part of it. It will be hard at the beginning for them to adjust to this new thing but then it’ll be amazing.”
Meghan added: “And I was really hopeful that that was true.”
The final episodes of Harry & Meghan come a week after the first three aired, featuring the couple talking about the pressure they felt from press interest in their lives.
Netflix said the first episodes recorded 81.55 million viewing hours, translating to viewing in 28 million households.
The streaming platform has launched the series almost three years after the Sussexes revealed they intended to “step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent”.
They officially left the monarchy in March 2020 and went on to sign lucrative deals, thought to be worth more than £100m, with Netflix and Spotify, after quitting as senior working royals.
After their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, this Netflix docuseries, directed by Oscar-nominated Liz Garbus, aims to show Harry and Meghan sharing “the other side of their high-profile love story”.
Read more:
Row over whether Royal Family were approached for series
‘I’ve always been a hugger’: Meghan on meeting the royals for first time
Before the first episodes were released, it emerged a photo and footage shown in two preview trailers, apparently to illustrate hounding by the paparazzi, were from events the couple were not associated with.
Neither Kensington Palace, which represents the Prince and Princess of Wales, nor Buckingham Palace have commented on the series.
Sky News understands palace officials are currently focused on the Princess of Wales’s carol service, which is due to be filmed at Westminster Abbey on Thursday.
The event will aim to shine a light on a congregation of almost 2,000 people who have been helping their communities across the UK, as well as remembering the Queen’s legacy.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email [email protected] in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
