Meghan Markle reveals ‘struggle’ with media scrutiny in TV interview

Meghan Markle was moved close to tears as she told of her ‘struggle’ at being in the media spotlight in an emotional interview for an ITV documentary. 

The Duchess of Sussex’s voice cracks as she reveals she has found it difficult to cope after getting married and giving birth, adding: ‘Not many people have asked if I’m ok.’

Meghan spoke to ITN News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby for an ITV programme filmed during her and Prince Harry’s Africa tour they began in September.

Asked about the impact the intense public scrutiny has had on her ‘physical and mental health’ and how Harry is being ‘protective’ of her after what happened to his mother, she replies: ‘Look, any woman especially when they are pregnant you’re really vulnerable and so that was made really challenging, and then when you have a new born – you know…

‘And especially as a woman, it’s a lot. 

‘So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed it’s, well…’

She continues: ‘Also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK. But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.’

Tom asks her: ‘And the answer is, would it be fair to say, not really OK, as in it’s really been a struggle?’ Meghan, visibly upset, then replies: ‘Yes.’

The interview comes following months of controversy involving Meghan and Harry.

They came under fire for their privacy demands over Archie’s christening, their use of private jets, and Meghan’s Wimbledon appearance when she banned fans from taking photos.

Just two weeks ago the couple waged war on the media, announcing they were suing the Mail on Sunday over its publication of Meghan’s father’s letters. 

The letter was revealed by Thomas Markle in an interview in which he said how hurt he was by comments made by the Duchess’s friends in an article for People magazine.

The 75-year-old said he did not intend to share a private letter sent by Meghan, but felt pressured to do so after he was ‘mischaracterised’ in the People article.

A spokesman for the Mail on Sunday said: ‘The Mail on Sunday stands by the story it published and will be defending this case vigorously. Specifically, we categorically deny that the Duchess’s letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning.’ 

The couple are also taking legal action against the Sun and now defunct News of the World over phone hacking allegations. 

For the documentary presenter Tom Bradby followed the couple, and five-month-old Archie throughout their African tour which saw Prince Harry undertake solo engagements.

The hour-long documentary features interviews with the royal couple as well and how they’re balancing public and private life.   

Also in the documentary Prince Harry has given a searingly open interview about the ‘festering wound’ his mother’s death left in his life. 

The Duke of Sussex, 35, told Bradby that every click and flash of a camera in the public eye gives him ‘the worst reminder of her life as opposed to the best’.

He says he felt significant pressure being a member of the royal family in the spotlight, and was particularly stressed by the memories of his mother’s relationship with the press. 

He was asked: ‘Do you feel at peace in a way yet or is it still a sort of wound that festers?’

To which he replied: ‘I think probably a wound that festers. 

‘I think being part of this family, in this role, in this job, every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash it takes me straight back, so in that respect it’s the worst reminder of her life as opposed to the best.’ 

Meghan and Harry made the comments during his and his wife’s recent 10-day tour of Africa during which the prince emotionally retraced his mother’s footsteps 22 years after her death. 

During the interviews, due to be broadcast on Sunday at 9pm on ITV, Prince Harry says that media focus around being a member of the Royal family means he ‘gets reminded of the bad stuff’.

He added: ‘Being here now, 22 years later, trying to finish what she started will be incredibly emotional. But everything I do reminds of her. 

‘But as I said, with the role, with the job and the sort of the pressure that come with that I get reminded of the bad stuff, unfortunately.’  

During the tour Prince Harry paid an ’emotional’ visit to a street in Angola that was once a minefield visited by his mother Diana shortly before her death.

Princess Diana walked across a cleared minefield near the central city of Huambo in 1997 to highlight the plight of a country that remains plagued by land mines 17 years after the end of its civil war.

The images of her in body armour and a mask gave the anti-landmine campaign global recognition. 

Just months later Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris, when Harry was 12.

‘It has been emotional retracing my mother’s steps along this street 22 years on,’ said Harry, standing on Huambo’s now-paved Princess Diana Street during the tour.

‘Being here on this transformed and bustling street… shows the tremendous impact that clearing landmines has on communities and their futures.’

Diana drew attention to the more than one million landmines planted during Angola’s 27-year war, which started after independence from Portugal in 1975.

‘There are still more than 1,000 minefields in this beautiful country that remain to be cleared,’ said Harry, questioning whether ‘that could still be the case’ if Diana were alive.

‘I’m pretty sure she would have seen it through,’ he added. 

His latest interview comes after The Duke of Sussex, while on the Africa tour, released attacked the British media as he accused the press of ‘bullying’ and ‘relentless propaganda’. 

In a lengthy personal statement on his and Meghan’s  official website, Harry referenced Princess Diana and said his ‘deepest fear’ was his ‘wife falling victim to the same powerful forces’ that his mother faced. 

And then days later he launched legal action against the owners of the Sun and the Daily Mirror over allegations his voicemail messages were illegally intercepted.

Yesterday the charity boss who arranged for Prince Harry to visit the spot where Princess Diana famously walked through a minefield has said how ’emotional’ the moment was for her son.

Halo Trust chief executive James Cowan last month accompanied Harry in Huambo, Angola, to the area where his mother took the same 54-yard stroll 22 years earlier. 

Former Black Watch commanding officer Mr Cowan, 55, said Harry was ‘hugely struck’ by the transformation in Huambo when he visited on his and Meghan’s tour of southern Africa. 

He added: ‘It was clearly an emotional visit for Prince Harry to follow in his mother’s footsteps and see her legacy in Huambo first-hand.

‘This visit mattered a great deal to him. He was hugely struck by the transformation in Huambo and is incredibly passionate about honouring the work started by his mother.

‘He is committed to helping Halo emulate in Angola what we’ve achieved in Mozambique by making it mine free.’ 

Mr Cowan, who joined the Scottish-based landmine clearance charity in 2015, said Harry has a ‘great sense of what really matters in the world’.

He added: ‘I know Prince Harry a little bit from our time in the military and I’ve been delighted to work with him at Halo.

‘He’s funny, he’s got charisma, and he’s also got a great sense of what really matters in this world. I think that is a very wonderful combination.’

Diana never saw her work to help outlaw landmines come to fruition as she died later in the same year as her visit to Angola, a few months before the international treaty to ban the weapons was signed.

The site has since been transformed into a wide residential road called Avenida 28 de Maio – but is affectionately known among locals as Princess Diana Street. 

Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, will air on ITV on Sunday at 9pm.