On Sunday, ITV will air interviews with the duchess and Prince Harry, in which they discuss their recent trip to Africa and their rift with the British press.
In a moving new documentary that will air on Sunday, Megan Markle is speaking out about the pressure of being in the spotlight. And in a preview released today, the new royal came close to tears when she admitted that the press scrutiny has been a struggle, especially in the months since Archie Mountbatten-Windsor was born in May.
While Prince Harry has spoken powerfully about the treatment he and Meghan say they have suffered at the hands of the tabloids, this is the first time Meghan has opened up.
In her conversation with ITV’s Tom Bradby, Meghan said she told friends that she had been suffering behind the scenes. Clearly emotional, she thanked the interviewer for asking if she is alright. “Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m O.K.,” she said. “But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”
In response, Bradby asked, “Would it be fair to say, not really O.K., as in it’s really been a struggle?”
“Yes,” Meghan said.
Bradby was granted interview time with both Harry and Meghan when he traveled with the couple during their tour of southern Africa last month. In the early footage from the documentary, he said, “Most of the work was really uplifting, for sure, but there was another story in this film too… of the true pressures of life in the spotlight and the toll it has taken on them both.”
In an interview after one of her final engagements in Johannesburg, Meghan said, “Look, any woman especially when they are pregnant, [is] really vulnerable, and so that was made really challenging. Then when you have a newborn… 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…” Her voice broke off as she became tearful.
The comments come after Prince Harry condemned the British press for its treatment of Meghan. On the penultimate day of the couple’s Africa tour, Harry announced that Meghan is suing the Mail on Sunday after they published a private letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. He also used the statement to accuse the British tabloid press of waging a “ruthless” campaign against Meghan that had “escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son.” He wrote the statement himself.
Sources close to Harry say that he has been very emotional’ behind the scenes, and earlier this week he broke down at the Well Child Awards. Meghan has told one source that she felt that from the beginning the British press were “out to get her.” While she says she does not read the tabloids, she is an avid reader online, where she has been the subject of particularly vicious trolling.
Sources close to the Sussexes say they hope that by speaking out to the media, the narrative will begin to change.
“There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda,” Harry said in the statement, “specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face—as so many of you can relate to—I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been.’