“I would far rather get destroyed in the press than play along with this game or this business of trading.”
Trigger Warning: This piece contains mention of suicide.
Spoilers ahead for Episodes 4-6
On Dec. 15, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released Part 2 of their Netflix doc. Here are the biggest takeaways about their split from the royal family and the subsequent media scrutiny.
Harry alleged certain royals felt his and Meghan’s growing popularity was a “threat” to the royal institution: “The issue is, when someone who’s marrying in [and] who should be a supporting act, is doing the job better than someone who’s born to do this, that upsets people.”
As scrutiny from the media increased, Meghan began to have suicidal thoughts: “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.”
Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, recalled Meghan telling her about her suicidal thoughts: “That really broke my heart. To constantly be picked at by these vultures that she would actually think of not wanting to be here? That’s not an easy one for a mom to hear.”
Shortly after their son Archie was born, Harry saw a tweet in which someone made a racial slur to Archie: “Someone [posted] a photograph of a couple with a chimp, and the top [of the photo], it said, ‘Royal baby leaving the hospital.’ That was one of the first things I saw.”
Meghan alleged the late Queen Elizabeth II advised her to send a letter to her father as he publicly smeared the royal family. The letter was leaked and published by The Daily Mail. Meghan sued the outlet and won: “It was horrendous.”
Shortly after announcing his and Meghan's depature from royal life,Prince Harry had an argument with Prince William: “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren’t true and my grandmother quietly sit there."
In the doc, Meghan addressed her miscarriage in July 2020. Harry believes The Daily Mail letter scandal placed undue stress on her: “I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what The Mail did. Do we absolutely know the miscarriage was caused by that? Course we don’t.”
Harry continued: “But bearing in mind the stress that caused, lack of sleep, timing of the pregnancy, and how many weeks in she was? I can say, from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.”