The Meghan Markle Comment a Royal Expert ‘Finds so Difficult to Understand’ From Oprah Interview
It’s been two months since Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex sat down for their bombshell interview with Oprah. On March 7, 2021, Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special aired. One comment made by Meghan still perplexes a royal expert: the 39-year-old’s claim Buckingham Palace rejected her plea for mental health assistance.
Meghan Markle revealed to Oprah she had suicidal thoughts
Meghan, who is currently pregnant with baby no. 2, admitted to Oprah life as a senior royal took a toll on her mental health. Everything going on inside palace walls plus the media’s treatment of her led to many sleepless nights. Eventually, Meghan hit a breaking point where she “didn’t see a solution.”
“I was really ashamed to have to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry, especially because I know how much loss he’s suffered,” Meghan recalled of telling her husband she’d been having suicidal thoughts. “But I knew that if I didn’t say that I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.”
Meghan Markle claimed the Firm denied her request for help
Meghan then recounted how she went to the Firm, or “the institution,” for help.
“So I went to human resources, and I said, ‘I just really need help. Because in my old job there was a union, and they would protect me,’” she recalled. “And I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, because they said, ‘My heart goes out to you because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do to protect you, because you’re not a paid employee of the institution.'”
Meghan reached out to a close friend of Princess Diana’s when the Firm denied her mental assistance because, as she told Oprah, “who else would understand what it’s like on the inside.” By January 2019 she’d become “afraid of what I might do” when left alone. So Meghan attended an event at Royal Albert Hall with Harry where she cried every time the house lights went down.
The UK’s approach to mental health makes Meghan Markle’s comment ‘so difficult to understand’, according to a royal expert
Royal author and expert Ingrid Seward explained to Page Six in May 2021 why Meghan’s comment about seeking help from “the institution” doesn’t make sense to her.
“I find that so difficult to understand … what she was trying to tell us there,” Seward said. “You don’t go to the HR department in the UK. You go and see a doctor, or you say to your husband, ‘Darling, I feel dreadful, I need you to find someone.’ Harry was in therapy himself, so he must have known people.”
Seward added that in her opinion, Meghan struggled with her role as a senior royal because she’d been so used to having her own voice. After stepping down as senior royals in 2020 Harry and Meghan now reside in California with their son.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Or text HOME to 741-741 to speak with a trained crisis counselor at the free Crisis Text Line.
