The Duke of Sussex has described himself, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge as being ‘trapped’ within the system.
In his bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry said his family ‘literally cut me off financially’ and revealed he was only able to step away from royal life thanks to money left to him by his late mother Princess Diana.
He claimed he was ‘trapped’ before he met Meghan as he revealed his father Charles ‘stopped taking my calls’ during the build-up to the announcement that he and Meghan were leaving the royal family.
Asked if he would have left or ever stepped back were it not for Meghan, Harry replied, ‘No.’
He added: ‘I wouldn’t have been able to, because I myself was trapped, as well. I didn’t see a way out. You know, I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped.
‘But the moment that I met meg, and then our worlds sort of collided in the most amazing of ways. [I was] Trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are.
‘My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that.’
Discussing his fractured relationship with Prince Charles, Harry said his father stopped taking his calls, adding, ‘there’s a lot to work to do there. I felt really let down.’
The Duke of Sussex has described himself, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge as being ‘trapped’ within the system
In the most anticipated royal interview in decades, Meghan and Harry also revealed:
- Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, made Meghan cry ahead of the royal wedding – but ‘owned it’ and apologised;
- She described meeting the Queen for the first time and having to learn to curtsy
- Meghan claims she was ‘naive’ when she joined the Royal Family – and never researched what it would be like, or Harry. She said that she was initially welcomed by the royals, but was later ‘silenced’ and felt trapped;
- She described being cradled by Harry after feeling that she no longer wanted to live; Meghan claimed she begged for help from Palace but denied it because she wasn’t a ‘paid employee’;
- The Sussexes choose to reveal the gender of their baby to Oprah;
Asked by Winfrey why they left, he blamed a ‘lack of support and lack of understanding’.
Winfrey asked ‘did you blindside the Queen?’ with the announcement they were leaving the family. Harry replied: ‘No, I would never blindside my grandmother, I have too much respect for her.’
Asked where that story came from, Harry said he could ‘hazard a guess’ that it may have come ‘from within the institution’.
Asked by Winfrey how they knew the Queen was not blindsided, Harry said while in Canada he had ‘three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father, before he stopped taking my calls’.
He said Charles asked for him to put his plan ‘in writing’.
Harry said he had to act for the wellbeing of himself, Meghan and Archie, adding: ‘He asked me to put it in writing, and I put all the specifics in there, even the fact that we were planning on putting the announcement out on the 7th of January.’
Oprah asked: ‘So, you just said that your dad stopped taking your calls. Why did he stop taking your calls?’
Harry replied: ‘Because… I took matters in– by that point, I took matters into my own hands.
‘It was like I need to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody.
‘It’s really sad that it’s gotten to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, my wife’s, and for Archie’s, as well, because I could see where this was headed.’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have insisted their interview with Oprah Winfrey would be the ‘last word’ on them quitting as senior royals
Harry said what was different from him was ‘the race element…because now it wasn’t just about her, it was about what she represents, and therefore it wasn’t just affecting my wife it was affecting so many other people as well’.
He added: ‘That was the trigger for me to really engage in those conversations with senior palace staff, and with my family to say ‘Guys, this is not going to end well’.’
Asked what he meant by ‘end well’, Harry said: ‘For anyone, it’s not going to end well. Because the way that I saw it was, there is a way of doing things, but for us, for this union, and the specifics around her race, there was an opportunity, many opportunities, for my family to show some public support.
‘And I guess one of the most telling parts, and the saddest parts I guess, was over 70 members of Parliament, female members of Parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Megan.
‘Yet no-one from my family ever said anything over those three years. That hurts.’