While speaking on the docuseries “The Me You Can’t See,” which released on May 21, 2021, Prince Harry revealed that his wife, Meghan Markle, was distressed enough to want to take her own life while she was a senior working member of the royal family. At one point, she even told Harry how she would do it. In the docuseries, Harry and Meghan also open up about mental health and their journey toward therapy and healing. Previously, the couple had been frank about their struggles during their controversial Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021.
In cooperation with Winfrey, the former working royals embarked on a docuseries project for mental health awareness. The show, “The Me You Can’t See,” was executive produced by Oprah and Harry and featured the two discussing emotional well-being and mental health with a number of celebrity guests, including Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, and NBA players DeMar DeRozan and Langston Galloway.
The show also featured Oprah and Harry opening up about their own experiences with mental health. Focusing on making sure viewers know they are not alone in the struggle that sometimes happens with mental health, the show’s goal is to challenge stigmas and provide insights into how viewers can start the path to treatment.
The series debuted not long after Meghan and Harry’s tell-all interview with Winfrey, but the topic of mental health is one near and dear to Harry’s heart. Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, was known for her outspokenness regarding mental health and beloved by the public for her candid and honest conversations about mental well-being.
Prince Harry met US-born actress Meghan Markle in the summer of 2016 through mutual friends. In a cover story for Vanity Fair back in September 2017, she said: “We’re in love.”
When Meghan’s name first appeared in newspapers when the couple first started dating, not many British people knew who she was. The former actress was born in Los Angeles in 1981 and is best known for her portrayal of Rachel Zane on the television show “Suits.”
Not all media coverage of Prince Harry’s then-girlfriend was positive, however. In fact, in October 2016, the royal palace released a statement on behalf of the Duke, describing the media coverage as “harassment” and “abuse,” even having “racial undertones.”
Much of the initial criticism towards Meghan was rooted in her first marriage to film producer Trevor Engelson, to whom she was married for three years and divorced in 2013. She also had a blog, the Tig, which was closed down in 2017.
She had once written on her blog: “I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches — I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works.”
Still, Harry and Meghan proved that their love was strong enough to last. The Duke and Duchess’ wedding was in the media spotlight for months ahead of the event, which took place on May 19, 2018. The royal ceremony differed from others in the past, featuring elements of Meghan’s African American roots, such as a gospel choir. The ceremony was attended by many high-profile Hollywood personalities such as George and Amal Clooney.
The couple was first photographed together holding hands at the Invictus Games in 2017. The Invictus Games is an annual multi-sport event created by Prince Harry in 2014 for wounded and disabled veterans.
Just like her husband, Meghan is active in humanitarian work. As well as campaigning for women’s rights with the UN, she is also an ambassador for World Vision Canada, a Canadian charity that supports children in developing countries.
It’s not hard to see why the pair is so dedicated to helping children considering they have two of their own. Harry and Meghan welcomed their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, in May 2019. They welcomed their second, Lilibet, about two years later, in June 2021.
Although the couple has shown that they are dedicated to each other and their love, their relationship certainly has not been easy.
“Within the first eight days of our relationship being made public was when they said, ‘Harry’s girl almost straight outta Compton.’ And that her exotic DNA will be thickening the royal blood,” Harry said of the media’s treatment of Meghan in the documentary series, according to The Independent. “We would get followed, photographed, chased, harassed.”
Harry then made a comparison between the hate Meghan has faced and the racism that his mother and Egyptian boyfriend experienced in the late 1990s, saying that “history was repeating itself.”
“My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn’t white,” Harry added. “And now look what’s happened. You wanna talk about history repeating itself, they’re not gonna stop until she dies.”
After both sides had admitted to infidelity, Princess Diana and her husband, Prince Charles, filed for divorce in 1996 after receiving pressure from Queen Elizabeth II to separate, according to the BBC. Around a year later, the paparazzi spotted the princess on vacation with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.
And, as Harry alluded to in his interview, the media wouldn’t let up. In fact, Diana and Fayed died following a car crash where they were trying to escape the paparazzi, who were following the couple in Paris.
Given that Harry says this history of harassment has repeated itself, the former working royal explained that he regretted not speaking out earlier about the racism his wife faced. According to The Independent, the prince said his biggest regret was “not making more of a stance earlier on in my relationship with my wife and calling out the racism when I did.”
There has been more tension within the royal family as they have dealt with hardships in recent years. Following the death of Prince Philip in April 2021, it was believed his son, King Charles III, might possibly leave out one of his sons and daughter-in-law in his future monarchy plans. When Queen Elizabeth II became a widow, Charles took on more responsibility to help relieve her of some of her roles, and it was reported that his plans seemed to leave out both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
However, since the reunion of so many members of the royal family following Elizabeth’s passing, it is now believed the king’s heart may have softened — and Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, may again find a place for themselves in the palace.
According to royal biographer Angela Levin, Charles planned to “ditch” Harry and Meghan from the royal family as she addressed the “long-held plan to cut the size of the firm down” with talkRADIO in 2021. She also explained how Charles and the late queen seemed to have different ideas on what to do regarding the future of the royal family.
“Prince Charles has wanted for a very long time to cut the monarchy down to save costs and to make people be worth the money that they got from the taxpayer,” Levin said. She followed up with her own thoughts on what that meant for Charles’ future plans. “I imagine that might be when Harry and Meghan are ditched from being members of the royal family,” she said.
Charles and his son have had a rough relationship over the years. After Queen Elizabeth’s passing, hopes for reconciliation still appeared dim for the Sussexes. After their dramatic exit as working royals, Prince Harry and Meghan released their controversial, tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. The relationship between Harry and his father, King Charles III, hadn’t appeared particularly close in the past, but the interview all but confirmed it.
According to Express UK, Charles was reported to be “very hurt” following the interview in March 2021, and to assuage the hurt and work with the family during the difficult time of the funeral. Harry wrote his father a “deeply personal” letter.
Following the controversial interview with Winfrey, Metro UK reported that Harry’s relationship with his father hit “rock bottom” after a “complete communication breakdown.”
Charles was upset after the two-hour special aired, especially because Harry accused Charles of no longer taking his calls. As per the news outlet, sources claim that Harry was “forced to write letters” to his father because of the lack of communication.
The Sussexes also appeared to have been demoted on the royal family website, taking spots in second- and third-to-last places above only Prince Andrew and under the lesser known Princess Alexandra and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. Previously, they featured in the middle of the page, after senior royals.
However, Harry’s return to London for the queen’s funeral rites afforded him and his father some quality time that appears to have not been in vain.
As the queen’s remains laid in state at Westminster Hall, King Charles gave Harry special permission to don his military attire for a vigil, something only a working royal should be allowed to do. Many interpreted this as an olive branch of sorts and a precursor to the possibility of Harry and Charles putting the past behind them.
This was backed up by a royal family source who told The Telegraph the time Harry and Charles spent together following the queen’s passing boosted their relationship.
“Over the last 16 days or so, there were tremendous flickers of hope. In terms of the future, there is hope of a cause for unity,” the insider told the outlet.
But even though Harry and Meghan have worked hard to move forward together, there were times when the outside criticism was almost too much to bear.
During the high-profile Winfrey interview, The Sun reported that Meghan revealed that her mental health suffered while she was living in the UK and that she was not given the help she needed when she felt suicidal. Harry gave further details about this in the docuseries “The Me You Can’t See,” elaborating,
“Meghan decided to share with me the suicidal thoughts and the practicalities of how she was going to end her life. The scariest thing for her was her clarity of thought. She hadn’t ‘lost it.’ She wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t self-medicating, be it through pills or through alcohol.”
Harry continued, “She was absolutely sober. She was completely sane. Yet in the quiet of night, these thoughts woke her up. I’m somewhat ashamed of the way that I dealt with them.”
Meghan did not go through with it because of how “unfair” it would be to Harry after the loss of his mother, Diana, in 1997. “The thing that stopped her from seeing it through was how unfair it would be on me after everything that had happened to my mum and to now be put in a position of losing another woman in my life, with a baby inside of her, our baby,” he added.
According to Hello Magazine, Meghan revealed during the March 2021 Winfrey interview that suicide was “a very real and frightening constant thought.” When she went to the royal family for help, she “was told that I couldn’t, because it wouldn’t be good for the institution.” About this and his own reaction, Harry said he felt ashamed for how everyone was reacting.
After Meghan revealed that she felt very suicidal before a show at the Royal Albert Hall, she reportedly said that she forced herself to go to the event with Harry because she felt she couldn’t be left alone for fear of what she might do.
“When my wife and I were in those chairs gripping each other’s hand the moment the lights go down, Meghan starts crying, I’m feeling sorry for her but I’m also really angry with myself that we’re stuck in this situation,” Harry said in the series.
He elaborated further, “I was ashamed that it got this bad. I was ashamed to go to my family because to be honest with you like a lot of other people my age could probably relate to, I know that I’m not going to get from my family what I need.”
In the series, Harry also criticized his family and his father, King Charles III, for not doing anything to help Harry through his own struggles while growing up. “My father used to say to me when I was younger, he used to say to both William and I, ‘Well, it was like that for me so it’s going to be like that for you,’” he said. He then added, “That doesn’t make sense. Just because you suffered, that doesn’t mean your kids have to suffer. Actually quite the opposite. If you suffered, do everything you can to make sure that whatever negative experiences you had, you can make it right for your kids.”
Harry further stated that he turned away from being a senior member of the royal family to “break the cycle of grief” that has been passed down through the generations and that he has been in therapy for “four or five” years.
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