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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Ben Quinn, Damien Gayle, Sarah Marsh and Helen Sullivan

Duke of Sussex says racism was 'large part' of reason why he and Meghan left UK – as it happened

Our live coverage of the fallout from the Harry and Meghan interview – including the broadcast in the UK of the interview from 9pm GMT – continues on our new live blog:

The behaviour towards Meghan shows Britain has “learned nothing” from Princess Diana’s treatment, writes the historian Kate Williams, author of ‘Becoming Queen,’ an account of Queen Victoria’s rise.

The professor of history at Reading university writes in a piece for the Guardian that Britain has “a toxic relationship with its royals.

On the one hand, polls suggest we want a constitutional monarchy. The Queen is popular; we turn out for jubilees; children paint cards to mark her birthday. But those who marry into the family are tormented by a barrage of media abuse.

Did we ever want Harry to be happily married? Or did some always hope he would remain the sad little boy at his mother’s funeral?

Clearly, his love for a biracial woman set parts of this country on fire. And so the duke and duchess left, after attempting to negotiate a half in/half out arrangement with the royal family. Although this plan was derided by the British tabloids, it could have worked. This is how some of the European royals work, such as Princess Madeleine of Sweden, who lives in America and works for a non-profit while retaining her royal title.

Williams suggests it is likely that republican sentiment will “only swell” after the allegations.

Zac Goldsmith’s intervention on Twitter – in which he said Prince Harry was “blowing up his family” – has drawn the ire of some who have been reminding the Conservative politician of his controversial campaign to be London mayor in 2016.

Labour had repeatedly claimed attacks on the winning candidate, Sadiq Khan, were dog-whistle racism aimed at suggesting London was not safe in the hands of a Muslim mayor.

Updated

It might be useful to read that statement from the Society of Editors, and the apparent anger on the part of at least some of its members at the comments by Prince Harry – in particular in the context of the way in which the media in the UK agreed to keep his military deployment to Afghanistan secret.

The Guardian’s Mark Sweney reported at the time on how Britain’s Ministry of Defence held a series of meetings with British media representatives in advance of the 23-year-old prince’s departure to Afghanistan in December 2007, reaching an agreement that his deployment would be kept secret.

Under the news blackout deal, media organisations that signed up were given access to a series of pooled interviews, pictures and footage of the prince in Afghanistan, on condition that nothing would run until his six-month tour ended.

All the major UK news broadcasters, newspaper publishers and news agencies signed up for the MoD deal.

Prince Harry sitting in his position on a Spartan armoured vehicle in Helmand province, Southern Afghanistan.
Prince Harry sitting in his position on a Spartan armoured vehicle in Helmand province, Southern Afghanistan. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

Updated

UK editors body criticises Harry and Meghan 'attack'

The UK media “is not bigoted and will not be swayed from its vital role holding the rich and powerful to account,” according to a statement by the Society of Editors, which represents editors at national and regional titles across the UK.

Reacting to what it described as “an attack” by Harry and Meghan, the industry body said it was not acceptable for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to make such claims without providing any supporting evidence.

Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, said: “If it is simply the case the Sussexes feel that the press by questioning their actions and commenting on their roles when working as Royals funded by the taxpayer were being racist then they are mistaken.”

“But that warmth could not and should not mean the press should be expected to refuse to report, investigate and comment on the couple’s lifestyle and actions.”

Murray added that it was “a pity” that the couple did not mention the support which the UK media has shown to charitable works carried out by them and its role in ensuring that the prince’s military service in Afghanistan went ahead.

“The UK media has a proud record of calling out racism and also being at the forefront of campaigns to support mental health awareness, another of the issues raised by the couple.”

Jess Brammer, Editor-in-chief of HuffPost UK, has tweeted that she doesn’t agree with the statement put out by her industry body, though she agrees with some elements of it:

Updated

Zac Goldsmith, minister for Pacific and the environment at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, appears to have become the first minister to comment directly on the interview.

“Harry is blowing up his family,” said Holdsmith, in a tweet referencing a quote which has been attributed to Prince Harry in some reports about an alleged row between him and a senior royal member of staff.

The prince, or those sources close to him, have never confirmed this version of events

Updated

Johnson congratulated the Sun’s political editor on his “very determined attempt to involve” him in the story

“I really think that when it comes to matters to do with the royal family the right thing for prime minister to say is nothing and nothing is the thing that I propose to say today about that particular matter.”

Harry Cole of the Sun has returned to the royal question, asking Boris Johnson if he believes the controversy has “damaged the nation” and if he believes “Queen aside” that the royal family is racist.

Boris Johnson asked about racism claims

Britain’s prime minister has been asked at a conference about the comments by Prince Harry and Meghan that concerns were raised with the prince about the skin colour of their baby.

“Perhaps the best thing I can say is that I have always had the highest admiration for the Queen and the unifying role she play in our country and across the Commonwealth,” Boris Johnson said, when asked at a briefing in Downing Street about Covid-19.

“As for other matters to do with the royal family I have spent a long time now not commenting on royal family matters and I don’t intend to depart from that today.”

Updated

The Duchess of Sussex’s allegation that concerns were raised with Prince Harry about the skin colour of their baby when she was pregnant will probably have been the most shocking for a US audience to hear, where discussion of colourism is widespread.

But experts in the UK have argued that the comments would also resonate deeply across the Atlantic. Though it is not recognised as such, colourism is a significant issue in the UK too, they said.

In the interview with Oprah Winfrey, which first aired in the US on Sunday, Meghan said conversations were had about how dark Archie’s skin might be when he was born. Meghan and Harry declined to say who expressed those concerns.

Aisha Phoenix, a researcher on colourism, Islam and belonging at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said: “Colourism in general is a taboo topic and until recently people haven’t wanted to talk about it in the UK. Beyond those who have experienced it, there wasn’t the recognition that it actually existed and there was no body of research to draw on. Because it hadn’t been researched, some people assumed that it wasn’t an issue.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Archie in 2019. The couple refused to say who expressed concerns about his potential skin colour
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Archie in 2019. The couple refused to say who expressed concerns about his potential skin colour Photograph: Toby Melville/PA

Updated

The continuing debate about whether the Duchess of Sussex was a victim of racism is “misogynoir, pure and simple,” says Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, the solicitor and activist who tore strips out of Piers Morgan and the royal family on Good Morning Britain today.

In an opinion piece for the Guardian, she writes:

It was the comments about the colour of Archie’s skin that really got to me – that an unnamed member of the royal family had expressed concern about how dark Archie’s skin would be – when Meghan was still pregnant. I can’t remember what time in the morning it was, but I jumped out of bed in rage. Who in their right mind thinks that is an acceptable conversation to have with someone? What kind of family thinks whether Archie is darker is a concern? Will he be loved less, compared with his cousins? That was shocking.

That alarm about Archie’s skin colour shows the continued way in which Black people are dehumanised. That is what is driving the concern about Archie being darker. The stigma that comes from proximity to Blackness has followed Archie into this world.

And in case you missed Mos-Shogbamimu’s appearance on television this morning, or you just wanted to see it again, here it is:

Updated

The Duchess of Sussex has dismissed a book written by her half-sister that purports to tell all about her, saying: “I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me.”

Samantha Markle has criticised Meghan a number of times since she was publicly linked with the Duke of Sussex, and has published a book called The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1.

Asked by Oprah Winfrey how she felt about the book, Meghan said:

This is a very different situation than my dad: when we talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone you have a relationship with.

I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know but I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings, I would have loved to have had siblings.

Updated

Piers Morgan, one of Meghan and Harry’s most outspoken media critics, has used his MailOnline column to publish his thoughts on their Oprah interview.

Riffing off his anger at the couple’s daring to tell the world about how they felt, Morgan writes:

Sickening.

Shameful.

Self-pitying.

Salacious.

Scandalous.

Sanctimonious.

Spectacularly self-serving.

Those were just my initial thoughts after ten minutes of the Oprah whine-athon with Meghan and Harry, and while restricting myself to only using words beginning with the letter ‘s’.

In florid prose, the tabloid journalist-cum-broadcaster tells readers “steam was erupting out of [his] ears like an exploding geyser” after just ten minutes of what he described as a “repulsively disingenuous interview”.

Condemning the couple for “flinging out the filthy family laundry”, he accuses them of revealing “some incredibly damaging bombshells deliberately detonated to do maximum damage to the British royal family and the monarchy.”

Kicking out at their revelation that a member of the royal family had raised questions over the skin colour of Harry and Meghan’s child, Morgan fulminates: “Would an older senior royal innocently asking Harry what skin colour his baby might have, given that Meghan’s mother is black and her father white, constitute racism?”

(Some people might have a different answer to that question than the one Morgan imagines.)

Updated

The Duchess of Sussex has said that her father was not honest with her about talking to the UK tabloids ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry.

In another extract from the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan said she had called Thomas Markle after receiving advance warning that newspapers were planning to publish stories he had contributed to, to ask him if he had worked with journalists.

“He said: ‘No, absolutely not,’” Meghan said.

Updated

Prime minister to respond to Harry and Meghan interview at 4pm press conference

This just in from our chief political correspondent, Jessica Elgot.

Updated

Prince Harry added, referring to the relationship in which his brother and other royals lived: “With that relationship, and that control and the fear by the UK tabloids, it’s a toxic environment.”

“But I will always be there for him. I will always be there for my family and I have tried to help them to see what has happened,” he added, gesturing to his wife at this point.

“Do other royals see it as a toxic environment?” Winfrey asked, wondering if Prince Charles would see it that way if she were to interview him.

“No, because he has had to make peace with it,” replied Harry.

Updated

More clips have been put out by CBS, in which Prince Harry is asked by Winfrey if other members of the royal family had reached out to apologise for the reasons he had to leave.

“The feeling is that this was our decision and therefore the consequences are on us,” he added.

It has been really hard, he said, adding: “I am part of the system, with them. I always have been, but I guess there is, I am very aware of this. My brother can’t leave this system but I have.”

Updated

CBS has spoken to Oprah Winfrey, and she talks about the difficulties of getting a three-hour, 20-minute interview into a one-hour, 25-minute TV show. She says the couple did the interview because they felt they had been “lied about for a series of years” and that this was “hurtful” to them.

The hosts of This Morning ask Winfrey about which royal raised the colour of Harry and Meghan’s baby with them. Winfrey says she does not know but that the couple confirmed it was not the Queen or Prince Philip. “I tried to get that answer from them, on camera and off,” she says.

A further clip is shown where Harry says: “I’m very aware my brother can’t leave that system, but I have.” When asked if William wants to leave, Harry says he cannot speak for him but adds: “It’s a toxic environment but I’ll always be there for him. I’ll be there for my family.”

Meghan then talks about the criticism from the media and says social media turned the situation into a “wild, wild west” and that the “noise level was very different” from previous attacks on members of the royal family. She says she was told by a palace official to expect rude treatment but she rejects this framing. “Rude and racist are not the same,” Meghan says.

Back on the CBS This Morning show, Winfrey says Americans “don’t understand the barrage of daily vitriol and negativity on a consistent basis” that Meghan was subjected to. “It’s a business and she’s a commodity to that business,” she says about the royal family.

Updated

Oprah Winfrey has been speaking to CBS about the interview and said that Harry wanted her to know that it had not been the Queen or Prince Philip who had made comments about Archie’s skin colour.

Jonathan Dimbleby, biographer of Prince Charles, has been on BBC Radio 4 and says he cannot believe that the person would have been the heir to the throne.

“I know him. I know him for a long time. I have never seen a hint of that,” said the broadcaster

“He is someone whose professional personal life has been dedicated to bringing people together, not pulling them apart.”

Dimbleby had some interesting things also to say about coverage, criticising colleagues at the BBC for not prefacing some of the content from the interview with the word “alleged”.

Updated

There’s also another new clip in which Prince Harry tells how the couple had received a message in which they were told that the Queen was “busy all week”, after the monarch had invited them to visit her at her Sandringham estate.

Updated

Here’s one of those new CBS clips in which Winfrey is seen asking if the couple had left the UK because of racism.

“It was a large part of it,” replies Prince Harry.

'It was a large part of it' Harry, on racism, in new clip

In new clips from the interview, which are just being aired in the US now by CBS, Oprah Winfrey asks the Duke and Duchess of Sussex if racism was the reason why they left the UK.

There is a long pause before Harry replied: “It was a large part of it.”

He recalled a conversation at a dinner where he was told that it will be hard for the couple because the UK is a bigoted country. He said said that the thought British press, rather than the whole country, is bigoted.

A further part of the interview has been shown where the couple are talking about a visit to the UK after their decision to step away from royal duties.

Harry said the Queen had previously invited him to Sandringham but when they landed in the country an aide for the monarch told him, via his private secretary, that “the Queen is busy, busy all week, do not come up here. I didn’t push because I knew what was going on.”

“When you are head of the firm people give you advice, and what makes me sad is that some of that advice has been really bad,” Harry says.

Updated

CBS’s This Morning Show is recapping the network’s explosive interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and is set to air unseen clips.

The show is also gathering reaction, with a correspondent shown outside Buckingham Palace brandishing copies of the Daily Mail and the Sun to show what a splash the interview has made on the other side of the Atlantic.

Tina Brown, the former Vanity Fair editor and Princess Diana biographer, appears on the show to say the interview is “kryptonite” to the royal family. Brown also echoes the resounding praise in the US for Oprah Winfrey.

“Let’s bow down to the real queen here – Oprah,” she said. “What a fantastic interview that was. I think we we will be talking about this interview for 20 years.”

Updated

Outside of the UK and US, how has the rest of the world viewed the interview and its fallout?

In France, Le Monde carries a piece in which its London correspondent reports that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched “a few unpinned grenades” at the royal family.

The French newspaper, along with others in the Francophone world, carried coverage from the AFP news agency that described the interview as a “settling of scores”.

It added:

The two-hour sit-down with Oprah Winfrey by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was the most startling since Harry’s late mother Princess Diana made her own bombshell revelations in 1995, and triggered similar questions about the ability of Queen Elizabeth II’s family to weather the storm.

In Germany, the mass-selling tabloid Bild has been leading with the interview, which it describes as being part of a “family war”, and focuses on the frosty comments by Prince Harry about his father, Prince Charles.

In Italy, Corriere della Sera covers the interview with a headline saying the royal household was “worried Archie was too dark”, in a reference to the comments by the Duchess of Sussex that there had been discussions in which an unnamed figure wondered about the skin colour of her yet-to-be-born son.

In the Australian media, the Sydney Morning Herald carries an analysis from Bevan Shields, based in London, who concludes:

The final take-home is how unlikely it seems that Harry and Meghan could ever reconcile with the royal family.

Much has been written over many years about how much hatred Harry feels towards the press but we can now see much of that rage is also being directed at his own family.

Updated

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s revelations in their interview with Oprah Winfrey are “damning” and “damaging” to the monarchy, but the institution will ultimately be strong enough to withstand the controversy, some royal commentators have predicted.

Harry and Meghan’s comments during the two-hour sit-down have “lobbed a hand grenade into the family home” and represent a “very serious attack” on the institution, the royal author Penny Junor said.

Junor told the PA news agency: “I do not know why they’ve done this. This is Harry’s family, his flesh and blood, and this seems to have lobbed a hand grenade into the family home.

“I worry that there will be no coming back from that.”

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said the interview “seems very personal against members of the royal family”.

She told PA: “It’s a real downer on everyone in the royal family apart from the Queen. It’s probably the most damning condemnation of the royal family and how they operate that I’ve ever heard.”

On comments from Harry about royal family members feeling “trapped within the system”, she said: “It struck me that he wasn’t completely comfortable with what he was saying.”

Updated

The Labour MP Nadia Whittome tweeted: “When Meghan Markle was accused of bullying, Buckingham Palace immediately announced an investigation.

“Now that Meghan has revealed comments about her child’s skin colour, will they investigate racism in the Palace? I won’t be holding my breath.”

Updated

Key revelations from the Oprah interview

Many in Britain have woken up to news of what was said during the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s televised interview with Oprah Winfrey. Here is a synopsis:

  • The Duchess of Sussex revealed she had suicidal thoughts as she struggled with life inside the royal family, saying: “I just didn’t want to be alive any more.” She said she had begged for help, and asked to go somewhere to get help, and approached one of the most senior people in the institution, but was told it would not look good.
  • Meghan told how Harry had cradled her when she was in the depths of despair and how she had sought help from one of the best friends of Diana, Princess of Wales – who may have been Julia Samuel, a psychotherapist.
  • Meghan said that, when she was pregnant with Archie, an unnamed member of the royal family had raised “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”. Asked whether there were concerns that her child would be “too brown” and that would be a problem, Meghan said: “If that is the assumption you are making, that is a pretty safe one.”
  • Meghan also suggested Archie was not made a prince because of his race. The duke said none of his relatives had spoken out in support of Meghan following the racism he said she had faced in the media. “No one from my family ever said anything over those three years. That hurts,” Harry said.
  • Harry said he felt let down by Charles and that “there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened”. Speaking about his father, the duke said: “I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like, [and] Archie’s his grandson. But at the same time – I will always love him – but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.”
  • Harry and Meghan revealed they were expecting a baby girl. The duke joined his wife in the second half of the interview, and told the chatshow host: “It’s a girl,” and said it was “amazing” to be having a daughter.
  • Meghan lavished praised on the monarch and said the Queen had given her “some beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace” for the pair’s first joint engagement. She added that she had not realised she would have to curtsey to the Queen.
  • Meghan said Kate had made her cry before her wedding at a bridesmaids’ dress-fitting – not the other way round. The duchess said Kate was “upset about some things and she owned it and apologised” and sent flowers. But Meghan added that the false reports about the incident were a turning point. She said “everyone in the institution knew that wasn’t true”, and she hoped Kate “would have wanted that to be corrected”, adding: “She is a good person.”

Updated

The Guardian’s Caroline Davies explores whether Meghan’s son Archie was denied the title of prince because he is mixed race. The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah she was shocked at the decision – but who made it, and was it fair? Read more below.

Palace should launch an investigation, says Labour

Buckingham Palace should investigate any allegations of racism after the Duchess of Sussex claimed an unnamed member of the royal family raised “concerns and conversations” about the likely skin colour of her son, Archie, the shadow education secretary has said.

Kate Green said the accusations by Meghan during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired in the US on Sunday were “really distressing, shocking”.

Green told Sky News: “And if there are allegations of racism then I would expect them to be treated by the palace with the utmost seriousness, and fully investigated.”

Read the full story here.

Updated

A friend of the Duke of Sussex who fundraised for the royal Heads Together mental health campaign said he found it “uncomfortable” to hear the Duchess of Sussex say she did not get help for her own struggles when she asked for it.

Dean Stott, who has known Harry for more than a decade after they met during military training, described the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey as “powerful” and “honest”.

Meghan told Winfrey she had got to the stage where she “just didn’t want to be alive any more”.

When she turned to the institution of the monarchy for help, her request was turned down, she said.

“I went to the institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help,” she said.

“I said that I’ve never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.”

Stott said it was “very difficult” to hear how Meghan’s struggles had been handled.

Updated

I am running the live blog, bringing you updates on the reaction to Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview. Please share any comments or news tips with me via the channels below.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

Dean Stott, who has known the Duke of Sussex for more than a decade after they met during military training, described the interview as “powerful”, “honest” and “uncomfortable at times”.

He told BBC Breakfast that people have to be clear about “the distinction between the royal family and the institution”.

He said: “The royal family, you know, Meghan only had praise for them. However the institution and the officials, I think they’re the ones that have come up quite badly in this interview.”

He said he does not think Harry would regret doing the interview, adding: “Obviously something needed to be said.”

“I came away from watching it actually having sympathy for the royal family,” he said. “They don’t have a voice.

“When Harry mentions that they [other members] are trapped, that’s very uncomfortable to hear.”

Updated

The anti-monarchy group Republic said an honest debate about the future of the institution was needed following the revelations in the Oprah Winfrey interview.

Graham Smith from the campaign group said: “The monarchy has just been hit by its worst crisis since the abdication in 1936. Whether for the sake of Britain or for the sake of the younger royals this rotten institution needs to go.

“Some people will say: ‘Well, you would say that,’ but this interview has only served to highlight what a lot of people have known for years: the monarchy is rotten to the core and does not reflect British values.

“Most people in the UK don’t give a second thought to the royals. They’re just not that interested. The monarchy is tolerated because of a carefully managed but dishonest image that’s been created over the past few decades.

“Now people are getting a much clearer picture of what the monarchy is really like. And it doesn’t look good. With the Queen likely to be replaced by King Charles during this decade the position of the monarchy has rarely looked weaker.

“We now need honesty in the monarchy debate that has been sorely lacking until now.”

He said there must be honest about “the democratic alternative”. He added: “Britain is better than this. We deserve better than this. The monarchy will always be part of our history. It mustn’t be part of our future.”

Updated

The UK is waking up today to news that an unnamed royal made racist remarks, suggestions the royal family were jealous of Meghan and revelations that Meghan Markle contemplated taking her own life while pregnant.

Meghan and Harry hit out at the institution and members of the royal family in a series of astonishing admissions during their candid Oprah Winfrey interview.

Appearing vulnerable at times, the duchess revealed that working for the Firm – as the royal family is sometimes known – ultimately left her feeling that ending her life was an option, and how she had not been protected by the monarchy.

Asked explicitly by Winfrey if she was thinking of self-harm and having suicidal thoughts at some stage, Meghan replied: “Yes. This was very, very clear.

“Very clear and very scary. I didn’t know who to turn to in that.”
A member of the royal family – who both Harry and Meghan refused to identify – was worried about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.

Meghan told Winfrey there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born”.

Harry suggested his family were jealous of Meghan’s popularity with the public – just as the appeal of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had reportedly been seen as a threat.

And he revealed he has become estranged from his father, the Prince of Wales, saying: “I feel really let down,” but added that he would make it one of his priorities “to try and heal that relationship”.

Describing how she had been misrepresented in the press, Meghan said the Duchess of Cambridge had made her cry ahead of her wedding – the opposite of reports circulating ahead of the Sussexes’ nuptials that Meghan left Kate in tears at Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress fitting.

In a lighter moment, the couple, who announced in February that they are expecting their second child, said they were due to have a baby girl in the summer.

They also disclosed that they were married by the archbishop of Canterbury three days before their formal ceremony.

Life behind palace doors has not been exposed to this degree since the days of the “War of the Waleses”, when the turmoil of Charles and Diana’s disintegrating marriage was laid bare in the 1990s.

Meghan told Winfrey she had got to the stage where she “just didn’t want to be alive any more”.

When she turned to the institution of the monarchy for help, her request was turned down.

“I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help.

“I said that I’ve never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.”

Updated

Children’s minister Vicky Ford says 'no place for racism in our society'

The children’s minister, Vicky Ford, has also spoken to BBC Breakfast, saying there is “no place for racism in our society” after the Duchess of Sussex said an unnamed royal had raised concerns about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.

She said that she had not seen the interview but added: “There’s no place for racism in our society and we all need to work together to stop it.”

Updated

Shadow education secretary Kate Green says claims of racism are 'really distressing, shocking'

The shadow education secretary, Kate Green, told Sky News that claims of racism in the royal family were “really distressing, shocking”. She added that they must be “treated by the palace with the utmost seriousness and investigated”.

Updated

The Duchess of Sussex said she phones the Queen “just to check-in”.

Meghan suggested that stepping down as working royals meant she and Harry did not have to follow royal protocols and could react to family events, like anyone else.

During her interview with Oprah Winfrey, she recalled the first time she had met the Queen, describing it as “lovely and easy”.

Meghan said when the Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to hospital: “I just pick up the phone and I call the Queen – just to check in.

“That’s what we do. It’s like being able to default to not having to every moment go: ‘Is that appropriate?’”

Meghan told Winfrey that “everyone welcomed” her to the royal set-up. She said the Queen had given her “some beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace” for the pair’s first joint engagement together, and that the monarch also shared her blanket while travelling together between visits.

Meghan said the first time she had met the Queen at a lunch at Royal Lodge, Windsor, Harry had asked her if she knew how to curtsey.

Updated

Hello, everyone. I am taking over the blog, so please share any comments or news tips with me via the channels below.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.

Phew. A lot happened. In a nutshell: extraordinary revelations interspersed with soothing scenes featuring rescue chickens.

Oprah interviewed the couple briefly at their Santa Barbara home. The interview took place in and around a chicken coop. Oprah held a carton of eggs. Meghan held a small wire basket of eggs. A sign on the chicken coop said “Archie’s chickens”.

Proof:

New parts from the interview will air on Monday morning starting at 7am US Eastern Time on Monday, CBS says, on the show “CBS This Morning” (the show co-hosted by Oprah’s close friend Gayle King).

Updated

In case you missed this important take:

Bryony Gordon, the British journalist and mental health campaigner who interviewed Prince Harry about his own mental health in 2017 – when Harry revealed that he sought counselling after 20 years of bottling up his grief over his mother’s death – has tweeted her support for Meghan.

Gordon called the revelations that Meghan at one stage felt she “didn’t want to be alive any more”, which the duchess shared during the Oprah interview, “incredibly brave, let alone to an audience of billions”:

Updated

Also, Oprah:

What we learned

Here is the short version of what we learned from Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry:

  • Meghan said that she reached a point where she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very real and clear and frightening and constant thought.”
  • Meghan said that Harry was asked by the family how dark Archie’s skin might be. Oprah asked Meghan why they didn’t want to make Archie a prince. In the months leading up to Archie’s birth, there were not only conversations about how he would not be given a title, and there would not be security, but also about how dark her baby’s skin might be and “what that would mean or look like”, says Meghan. The conversation was had between Harry and a member or members of his family. It was relayed to her by Harry. Neither Meghan nor Harry would say whom the conversation was with.
  • Harry said Diana would be “angry and sad” at how things worked out. Oprah asked what Harry thought Diana would say about the couple stepping back. “I think she would feel very angry and sad at how this all panned out. But I think all she would ever want would be for us to be happy.”
  • Harry has been cut off financially since the first half of 2020. The only money he has, besides extremely lucrative deals with companies including Netflix, is what was left to him by Princess Diana.
  • Prince Charles at one point stopped taking Harry’s calls, but the pair are now speaking again. Harry says he still feels “really let down” by Prince Charles.
  • It’s a girl. The couple are due to welcome a baby girl to the world some time later in the US summer. This will be their last child, they said.
  • Meghan and Harry were married three days before the royal wedding. Three days before the royal wedding, Meghan and Harry got married, just them and the priest. “Nobody knows this,” said Meghan.
  • Meghan said she never made the Duchess of Cambridge cry, but that Kate had made Meghan cry. It was reported in British tabloids months after the wedding that Meghan made Kate cry over flower girl dresses. Actually, says Meghan, the “reverse happened”. Kate in fact made Meghan cry over something to do with flower girl dresses. But Kate apologised at the time and brought flowers.
  • The couple still talk to the Queen and have enormous respect for her. The Queen made Meghan feel very welcome and they shared a blanket while riding in a coach.
  • There were chickens. Oprah interviewed the couple briefly at their Santa Barbara home. The interview took place in and around a chicken coop. Oprah held a carton of eggs. Meghan held a small basket of eggs. A sign on the chicken coop said “Archie’s chickens”.

Updated

By my colleague Aamna Mohdin:

The Duchess of Sussex accused the royal family on Sunday night of fostering an atmosphere of racial hostility so intense that she came close to suicide while pregnant with her first child.

In a series of stunning revelations during a two-hour, hotly anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan claimed that members of the royal family had openly expressed concerns about how dark her son Archie’s skin would be, that they had gone to extraordinary lengths to deny him the royal title that would ordinarily be his right as a grandson of the monarch, and that they had refused to provide him with security.

When the tabloid newspapers had started race-baiting Meghan openly, nobody from the royal household had lifted a finger to defend her or reconsider the decision about Archie’s security, she claimed. She said she had felt utterly unprotected from the tabloid onslaught and undermined by what she called the “firm” – the apparatus surrounding the royal household – that had repeatedly turned down her appeals for help and discouraged her from leaving the house for months:

Updated

Tennis great Billie Jean King:

In case you’re just waking up, you missed ... bombshell after bombshell:

Updated

In case you missed it, Meghan revealed her and Harry married in private, three days before their public wedding ceremony on 19 May 2018. Meghan said they exchanged vows “just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury”:

Updated

I will faithfully blog them all:

Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand unlikely to become a republic any time soon

New Zealand’s prime minister says the country is unlikely to become a republic anytime soon or otherwise break from observing Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

AP reports that Jacinda Ardern was asked by a reporter whether the unflattering picture of the British royal family painted by Harry and Meghan had given her pause about New Zealand’s constitutional ties to Britain.

Here they are together in 2018.
Here they are together in 2018. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

“I’ve said before that I’ve not sensed an appetite from New Zealanders for significant change in our constitutional arrangements, and I don’t expect that’s likely to change quickly,” she said.

Asked whether Harry and Meghan had ever inquired about living in New Zealand, Ardern said they hadn’t in any official capacity, as far as she was aware.

And asked about her personal friendship with Meghan since the couple toured the country in 2018, Ardern said she had kept in touch.

“It is fair to say in the past I’ve had contact here and there,” she said. “But ultimately, the matters that are being canvassed here I see as for Meghan and Harry to respond to directly. These are matters about their personal lives and their personal decisions, and I don’t think it deserves a commentary from anyone else.”

Updated

Daniel Martin, who did Meghan’s makeup on her wedding day, shared a picture of the pair on Instagram, alongside a poem from Maya Angelou that said: “You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt. But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

Updated

Serena Williams: Meghan's words 'illustrate the pain and cruelty she’s experienced'

In a statement on Twitter, tennis superstar Serena Williams described the duchess as her “selfless friend” who “teaches me every day what it means to be truly noble”.

She added on Twitter: “Her words illustrate the pain and cruelty she’s experienced.

“I know first hand [sic] the sexism and racism institutions and the media use to vilify women and people of colour to minimise us, to break us down and demonise us. We must recognise our obligation to decry malicious, unfounded gossip and tabloid journalism. The mental health consequences of systemic oppression and victimisation are devastating, isolating and all too often lethal.

“I want Meghan’s daughter, my daughter and your daughter to live in a society that is driven by respect.

“Keep in your memory the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Updated

Here are 12 things we learned from that extraordinary interview:

1. Mental health crisis

The Duchess of Sussex says she had suicidal thoughts during her time as a working royal. “I just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he [Harry] just cradled me.” She claimed she asked the palace for help and was denied it. “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’.”

2. Racism allegations

The duchess claimed that while she was pregnant with Archie concerns were raised with Prince Harry about the skin colour of their baby. “In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, ‘You won’t be given security, not gonna be given a title’ and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.” Meghan declined to name who expressed those concerns: “I think that would be very damaging to them.”

Harry refused to share the details of the conversation but, after prompting from Winfrey, said the questions was along the lines of: “What will the kids look like?”

3. Feud with Duchess of Cambridge

Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made the Duchess of Cambridge cry before Meghan and Harry’s wedding, and said it was a turning point in her relations with the media. Asked if she made Kate cry, Meghan replied: “The reverse happened.”

Meghan said Kate was a “good person” but added: “A few days before the wedding she [Kate] was upset about something, pertaining to – yes the issue was correct – about the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings.” She said Kate apologised at the time and brought her flowers.

4. Meghan was ‘silenced’

“Everyone in my world was given a very clear directive from the moment the world knew Harry and I were dating, to always say no comment.”

Meghan said she believed she was being protected by the royal institution.

“It was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected but … they weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.”

She agreed with Oprah that she had been “silenced” rather than “silent” from the moment she started dating Harry.

Asked if she was not supported by the powers that be, she said: “There’s the family, and then there’s the people that are running the institution, those are two separate things and it’s important to be able to compartmentalise that because the Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.”

5. Prince Charles stopped taking Harry’s calls

Prince Harry said his father Prince Charles stopped taking his calls about the plan to step aside from royal duties. He denied blindsiding the Queen, saying he had too much respect for her. “I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, ‘Can you put this all in writing?’”

Asked why Charles had stopped taking his calls, Harry said: “By that point I took matters into my own hands. It was like, I needed to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody. It’s really sad that it’s got to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, my wife’s and for Archie’s as well.”

Prince Charles is now taking his calls but “there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened” and the pair have “lots to work through”, he said. “I feel really let down,” Harry said. “He’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like.”

6. Prince Harry has been cut off financially

He said he stopped receiving palace money in the first quarter of 2020. He said that needing to pay for his own security costs was part of the motivation behind the couple’s lucrative deals with companies including Netflix.

The only other money he has left, he said, is what was left to him by Princess Diana.

Meghan said the pair were not being paid for the Oprah interview.

7. Secret wedding

Meghan revealed they married in private, three days before their public wedding ceremony on 19 May 2018. Meghan said they exchanged vows “just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury”.

8. It’s a girl

The couple revealed the gender of their second child. Harry said the baby, due in the northern hemisphere summer, is a girl. He said he felt “amazing, just grateful”. “To have a boy and then a girl what more can you ask for, we have our family.”

The couple said this would be their last child. “Two is it,” they said.

9. Meghan rarely able to leave home

Meghan said she was barely allowed to leave the house, because people at “the Firm” – a term for the royal household – were so worried about “how things might look”.

“I know you’re worried about how it looks,” she told them, “but has anyone thought about how it feels?” Because she couldn’t have felt lonelier, she said.

10. Harry felt ‘trapped’

Oprah asked Harry whether he would have stepped back from royal duties were it not for Meghan. “No,” Harry said, he would not have. He said he was trapped, but that he didn’t know he was trapped.

Oprah asked exactly how he was trapped. “Trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are. My father, my brother, they are trapped,” he said.

11. The Queen is ‘wonderful’

It was not all bad all the time. Meghan said the Queen was always “wonderful” and remembered a train journey they took together when the Queen gave her some pearl earrings and a necklace, and shared a blanket with her.

Prince Harry said he had a really good relationship with his grandmother. “She’s my commander-in-chief.”

12. They have rescue chickens

Oprah interviewed the couple briefly at their Santa Barbara home. The interview took place in and around a chicken coop, filled with chickens they rescued from a factory farm. Oprah held a carton of eggs. Meghan held a small basket of eggs. The chicken coop said “Archie’s Chick Inn”.

Updated

Here again is where Meghan said that Harry was asked by his family about “how dark [Archie’s] skin might be when he was born”:

The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the US labor union that represents film and tv actors, has tweeted its support for Meghan, after she said that she had asked the firm’s HR department for help but was told that as she was not an employee, they could do little for her:

What did you make of the interview? Let me know on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Updated

Looking forward to hearing what these royal commentators have to say about the interview:

Leading royal commentators have come under fire after they were filmed giving their views about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s performance in their eagerly awaited interview with Oprah Winfrey for an undisclosed fee, days before they had seen it.

Four commentators, including the Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter and CNN’s royal commentator Victoria Arbiter, gave interviews to a fake news company created by YouTuber pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners on Friday, two days before the interview was aired. They had been told it would be shown immediately after the CBS programme was broadcast.

In the prank, the commentator and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, Ingrid Seward, said of the Duchess of Sussex, “to my mind this was an actress giving one of her great performances – from start to finish, Meghan was acting”, despite not having seen the interview:

The BBC’s royal correspondent has a fairly bleak assessment about what the interview could mean for the palace:

A little clarity on titles and who gets what. The Press Association reports:

Archie, who is seventh in line to the throne, is not entitled to be an HRH or a prince due to rules set out more than 100 years ago by King George V. He will be entitled to be an HRH or a prince when the Prince of Wales accedes to the throne. As the first born son of a duke, Archie could have become Earl of Dumbarton – one of Harry’s subsidiary titles – or have been Lord Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, instead at the time of his birth, a royal source said Harry and Meghan had decided he should be a regular Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Updated

Amanda Gorman, the poet who won acclaim for her performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration, says that the royal family have missed out on their “greatest opportunity for change, regeneration and reconciliation”:

Here is our full story:

Prince Harry and Meghan have told Oprah Winfrey there were conversations in the royal family about the skin colour of their son Archie before his birth, a damning allegation that will send shockwaves through the institution and send relations with the palace to a new low.

In the extraordinary interview, the Duchess of Sussex said her time after becoming a royal was “almost unsurvivable” and she had suicidal thoughts. She claimed that the royal household did not allow her to seek help for her mental health. “I just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very real and clear and frightening and constant thought.”

She agreed with Oprah that she had been “silenced” from the moment she started dating Prince Harry, that her staff were told to respond to all questions with “no comment” despite the early intense media pressure. She said they were not allowed to defend her:

Updated

The Daily Mail’s revised front page:

The Daily Express:

Updated

Tomorrow’s Sun:

The Mirror’s front page:

Updated

Here is tomorrow’s Daily Mail front page, giving a sense of how this will play out in the British press:

Meghan and Harry interview: what we learned

  • Meghan said that she reached a point where she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very real and clear and frightening and constant thought.”
  • Meghan said that Harry was asked by family how dark Archie’s skin might be. Oprah asked Meghan why they didn’t want to make Archie a prince. In the months leading up to Archie’s birth, there were not only conversations about how he would not be given a title, and there would not be security, but also about how dark her baby’s skin might be and “what that would mean or look like”, says Meghan. The conversation was had between Harry and a member or members of his family. It was relayed to her by Harry. Neither Meghan nor Harry would say who the conversation was with.
  • Harry said Diana would be “angry and sad” at how things worked out. Oprah asked what Harry thought Diana would say about the couple stepping back. “I think she would feel very angry and sad at how this all panned out. But I think all she would ever want would be for us to be happy.”
  • Harry has been cut off financially since the first half of 2020. The only money he has, besides extremely lucrative deals with companies including Netflix, is what was left to him by Princess Diana.
  • Prince Charles at one point stopped taking Harry’s calls, but the pair are now speaking again. Harry says he still feels “really let down” by Prince Charles.
  • It’s a girl. The couple are due to welcome a baby girl to the world some time later in the US summer. This will be their last child, they said.
  • Meghan and Harry were married three days before royal wedding. Three days before the royal wedding, Meghan and Harry got married, just them and the priest. “Nobody knows this,” said Meghan.
  • Meghan said she never made the Duchess of Cambridge cry, but that Kate had made Meghan cry. It was reported in British tabloids months after the wedding that Meghan made Kate cry over flower girl dresses. Actually, says Meghan, the “reverse happened”. Kate in fact made Meghan cry over something to do with flower girl dresses. But Kate apologised at the time and brought flowers.
  • The couple still talk to the Queen and have enormous respect for her. The Queen made Meghan feel very welcome and they shared a blanket while riding in a coach.
  • There were chickens. Oprah interviewed the couple briefly at their Santa Barbara home. The interview took place in and around a chicken coop. Oprah held a carton of eggs. Meghan held a small basket of eggs. The chicken coop said “Archie’s chickens”.

Updated

More reactions to Oprah:

I’ll have a recap of what we learned in a few flips of a crumpet.

But Meghan is happy now, she says.

“So your story with the prince does have a happy ending?” says Oprah.

“It does,” says Meghan.

Oprah asks Harry: Do you think [Meghan] saved you?”.

“Without question,” says Harry.

Meghan says it was Harry who saved “all of us”.

“But you need to want to be saved,” says Meghan.

Oprah thanks the couple for sharing their “love story”.

That was harrowing.

Oprah says there will be a little more tomorrow (!) that couldn’t be included tonight as well as reactions from around the world.

Oprah asks whether the couple has any regrets. Harry says no, but that he is so proud of Meghan for “safely delivering Archie” during a really difficult time. He would come home to Meghan breastfeeding Archie while crying.

Meghan says she has one regret: “My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected.”

Updated

Harry is very much enjoying the freedom he has now with Archie. Archie’s favourite thing to say is “drive safe” when people leave the house.

Back to the wicker chairs for the interview.

The exit agreement is coming up at the end of March. Is Harry hurt by the decision, Oprah asks.

He is, he says, but be “absolutely respects” the Queen’s decision. In February this year, the palace said the couple would not return as working members of the royal family, adding that they would also be giving up their royal patronages.

We’re back... to the chickens.

Now Meghan is holding a small basket of eggs. The chicken coop says “Archie’s chickens”.

Back to the conversation about Archie’s skin tone.

Harry says, “That conversation I am never going to share.” He felt “awkward” he says, but he is not prepared to share what the question asked was.

“It was at the very beginning,” he says. There were “some real obvious signs even before we got married that this was going to be hard,” he says.

The couple still have Zoom calls with the Queen, says Harry.

His father is taking his calls again, but he still feels “really let down” by Prince Charles.

His father has “been through something similar” but “they only know what they know” – Meghan interrupts to say, “and what they’re told”.

Harry says he loves his brother “to bits” but that they are “on different paths”.

Updated

Harry: my family cut me off financially in the first half of 2020

We’re back.

Harry says that the deals with Spotify and Netflix deals were never part of the plan, but that his family cut him off financially in the first half of 2020 and he had to find a way to afford security.

He has what his mother, Princess Diana, left him, but other than that has been cut off financially.

Helen Sullivan here, bringing you the latest from this incredible interview. A reminder that you can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Harry: Diana would feel 'very angry and sad at how this all panned out'

Oprah asks what Harry thinks Diana would say about the couple stepping back.

“I think she would feel very angry and sad at how this all panned out. But I think all she would ever want would be for us to be happy.”

We cut to an ad break – but coming up, Oprah will ask Harry about his allegedly being asked by family about how dark Archie’s skin might be before he was born.

Updated

Oprah asks Meghan about her role in “Megxit” and whether it was “all intentional to build your brand”.

Nobody prepared her for her role or how to be a royal. They didn’t even think of preparing her to sing the British national anthem, she says.

Oprah asks Harry whether he would have stepped back were it not for Meghan.

“No,” says Harry, he would not. “I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped.”

Oprah asks how exactly he was trapped.

“Trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are. My father, my brother they are trapped,” he says.

Updated

Harry says he never thought that as a prince born into the family, he never imagined he would have his security removed.

Meghan says she appealed to the family to at least maintain Harry’s security, even if they would not provide security for her and Archie.

Updated

Harry calls Meghan “one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever asked for.”

Harry says there were many opportunities for his family to show their support for Meghan.

“I’m acutely aware of where my family stand and how acutely scared they are of the tabloids turning on them.”

There is an “invisible contract” between the royal family and the tabloids, says Harry. If you as the family are willing to wine and dine the press, you will get better coverage, he says.

There is a level of “control by fear”: the tabloids controlling the family, he says. “The institution survives based on” their relationship with the press, Harry says.

Meghan says the coverage in the press, because it had racial overtones, changed the level of threat to the couple. “It changed the death threats,” she adds.

Updated

Back in the interview setting.

Oprah asks whether Harry asked his family for help for Meghan when she needed help. Meghan said earlier in the interview that at one point she “didn’t want to be alive any more”.

Harry says he was ashamed of admitting to his family that Meghan needed help.

Updated

We’re back, and back at the couple’s new home. Oprah is holding a box of eggs, presumably from the new chickens.

Meghan is talking about the Little Mermaid, and how Ariel loses her voice, but at the end, gets her voice back.

One person who is not watching tonight’s broadcast – UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

The prime minister has said he will “probably miss” the upcoming Oprah Winfrey interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, broadcast at 1am UK time on Monday morning. Boris Johnson said he would be focusing on the coronavirus vaccine rollout instead:

Updated

Harry: Prince Charles stopped taking my calls

Harry says of the unconscious bias against Meghan in the UK press:

“I wasn’t aware of it to begin with, but my God it doesn’t take you very long to become aware of it.”

It was only once he was able to walk in Meghan’s shoes that he understood it.

“I asked for calm from the British tabloids: once as a boyfriend, once as a husband and once as a father.”

Oprah asks what the reason was that they left, in the simplest terms.

“Because we didn’t get enough support,” says Harry.

Did they blindside the Queen, Oprah asks.

“No, I have too much respect for her,” says Harry. He suspects the story came from within the institution.

When the couple were in Canada he had conversations with the Queen and with his father, Prince Charles, “before he stopped taking my calls”.

Updated

The conversation now turns to whether Meghan “blindsided” the family when they decided they would leave.

Harry says that first, he went to everyone he thought might be able to help them, but he was not given the help they needed.

And they didn’t actually leave, says Meghan.

They asked to “just take a step back. We can do it in a Commonwealth country, we had suggested New Zealand, South Africa, Canada”.

But the firm wasn’t open to it.

Following their announcement that they would be stepping back, the Queen said in a statement, “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working members of the royal family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”

Days later, Prince Harry would express his sadness over the couple’s decision to step down from royal duties, saying he had taken a “leap of faith”. He said he had not taken the decision lightly, but there was “no other option”.

Updated

Oprah is talking to the couple about being told their UK security would be removed.

The firm’s justification for removing security was “a change in status” – that they would no longer be “official working members of the royal family”.

Harry asked whether there had been a change in the level of threat, and were told no.

Updated

It's a girl

We’re back and Harry is here.

“Is it a boy or is it a girl,” Oprah asks.

The couple cutely say “you can say it, no you can say it,” before Harry reveals:

It’s a girl.

There is squealing.

“Two is it?” Oprah asks.

Two is it, they respond.

What else is happening with the royal family?

Rather a lot.

The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband and Harry’s grandfather) has left the NHS hospital where he had heart surgery and been moved back to the private King Edward VII’s hospital for continuing treatment, Buckingham Palace has said.

Philip, 99, had a successful procedure for an existing heart condition at St Bartholomew’s hospital in the City of London on Wednesday, three months before his 100th birthday.

Prince Andrew is still not taking part in any public duties after being named by Virginia Guiffre alleged that Andrew was among the men she was pressured to have sex with by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

The prince, 59, has consistently and categorically denied the allegations, which Buckingham Palace said were “false and without foundation”.

Here is more on that:

Cut to an ad break – but coming up, Oprah will ask Meghan, “Did you blindside the Queen?”

Updated

We’re back.

“I wasn’t planning on saying anything shocking,” says Meghan.

Oprah asks how the palace will feel about her “telling her truth today”.

Meghan says she’s “not going to live in fear”, but to answer Oprah’s question: ““I don’t know how they could expect that, after all of this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.”

This clip was teased earlier in the week:

Meghan says that what she wants people to take away from this is that “there is another side and that life is worth living”.

Updated

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or emailjo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found atwww.befrienders.org.

Updated

Here is the event Meghan is referring to:

Meghan says she confided in one of Princess Diana’s friends at the time.

“One of the things that still haunts me is this photograph that someone sent me – we had to go to an official event. We had to go to an event at the Royal Albert Hall,” and the friend said that they looked so great in the photo, taken at the event.

But she knew what was behind it. It was taken shortly after Meghan telling Harry that she didn’t want to live any more.

Harry had said, “I don’t think you should go to this event,” and Meghan says she responded that she didn’t think she could be left alone.

In the photo, the pair are holding hands, and Meghan says what stands out for her is how tightly Harry is holding her hand.

Meghan: I just didn't want to be alive any more

We’re back. Meghan called her time as a royal “almost unsurvivable”.

“Almost unsurvivable sounds like a breaking point,” Oprah says.

Meghan says she “just didn’t see a solution”.

Her mom and friends would call her crying, saying, “Meg, they’re not protecting you.”

It was happening “just because I was breathing”.

“I was ashamed to say it at the time... I just didn’t want to be alive any more. And that was a very real and clear and frightening and constant thought.”

“And I remember how [Harry] just cradled me.”

Meghan went to a senior person at the institution (the firm) and said she needed help, and that the institution said that she could not get that help.

So she went to human resources and asked for help.

“My heart goes out to you because we see how bad it is. But we can’t help you because you’re not a paid employee of the institution,” Meghan says she was told.

Updated

Martin Luther King Jr’s youngest child, Bernice King, on the interview:

“Growing up as a woman of colour, or a little girl of colour, I know how important representation is,” says Meghan.

As she toured the Commonwealth she learned how much it meant to young people of colour, “how much it meant to them” to see that representation.

Updated

Meghan: there were conversations about how dark Archie's skin might be

Oprah asks Meghan why they didn’t want to make Archie a prince.

In the months leading up to Archie’s birth, there were not only conversations about how he would not be given a title, and there would not be security, but also about how dark her baby’s skin might be and “what that would mean or look like,” says Meghan.

The conversation was had between Harry and a member or members of his family. It was relayed to her by Harry. Meghan says she will not name who it was who was saying this because “it would be very damaging to them.”

Updated

Meghan says it was more about protection than the title, but she still wonders why Archie wasn’t given the title of “Prince” (according to ITV’s royal editor, it is not a case of Archie automatically getting the title, or it being taken away, but of the Queen needing to intervene specifically to give Archie the title, which she did for William and Kate’s children, Charlotte and Louis).

Oprah says the rumours at the time were that Meghan and Harry didn’t want the title for Archie. Meghan says that is not true.

Updated

Meghan explains that she was told that Archie wouldn’t be a prince and therefore wouldn’t be offered security.

Oprah asks how that works and who told her that.

On Archie not being given the title “prince”, ITV News’ royal editor has explained on Twitter: “My understanding of them rules is this: the children and grandchildren of the Sovereign automatically get HRH (unless, like Princess Anne she asks her kids not to have them). Great-grandchildren only get them if the Queen intervenes – as she did for Charlotte and Louis.”

He says that when Prince Charles (Harry’s father) becomes King, Archie will be “a grandson of the Monarch – and therefore will automatically get HRH/Prince”.

Meghan’s response to Oprah’s question is not included in the clip – so we’ll learn that later.

Updated

We’re back, and shown the clip of Meghan thanking a journalist for asking if she was OK.

“Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK,” she told Tom Bradby, a friend of Harry’s for 20 years, in an ITV interview when he asked about the impact on her physical and mental health.

Meghan added at the time she had “really tried” to adopt the “British sensibility of stiff upper lip” but thought that “what that does internally is probably damaging”.

To Oprah she says that she had been asking the institution for help for quite a long time.

Asking for help how, says Oprah.

“They would go on the record and negate the most ridiculous story for anyone,” she says. But when it came to the Kate story, for example, they did not negate it.

“I thought if they’re not going to kill things like that,” what were they going to do.

She says the firm said that Archie wouldn’t receive security.

Updated

And we’re back to an ad break.

Meghan: I couldn't have felt lonelier

More on everything being carefully managed:

“It’s nothing like what it looks like,” says Meghan.

She was barely allowed to leave the house, she says, because people were so worried about how things might look.

“I know you’re worried about how it looks,” she told them, “but has anyone thought about how it feels?”

Because she couldn’t have felt lonelier, she says.

Updated

Oprah asks whether Kate was supportive.

“I think everyone welcomed me,” says Meghan.

Who was silencing her, Oprah asks. Was it the family or “the firm”.

Meghan begins by speaking about the Queen, who she says has always been wonderful to her. The Queen gifted her pearl earrings and made her feel welcome. They shared a blanket while seated in a carriage together.

Updated

What is "The Firm"?

We are likely to hear Meghan using the term, “The firm” in today’s interview. Here is a brief history of the term by my colleague Caroline Davies:

“The firm” has long been shorthand for the royal family, ever since Prince Philip is said to have coined it on his marriage to Princess Elizabeth. It was used by Diana, Princess of Wales, and often not in a complimentary way.

Over the years it has acquired more negative connotations, perhaps more than Philip could have foreseen, conjuring a juggernaut of monarchy, resisting interference and obstacle.

It has been used to describe core members of the royal family. Equally, it has been used to encapsulate the wider institution of senior households and the men, and women, “in grey suits” that Meghan appears to have come to intensely dislike.

Oprah asks how Meghan was silenced.

From the moment the pair started dating, her people were told to respond to all questions with “no comment”.

Updated

We’re back.

Oprah asks Meghan about having come from a very different background from the other royals.

“Thank God,” Meghan says, that she had life experience. She knew what it was to be independent. Then she was silent.

“Was she silent or silenced,” Oprah asks.

“The latter.”

Cut to an ad break.

Oprah talks about how the coverage of Kate’s pregnancies were covered differently to Meghan’s.

Meghan does not read the coverage of her, Oprah reminds us.

Kate was praised for holding her baby bump. For Meghan it was the reverse.

Kate was praised for eating avocado. Meghan’s avocado toast was linked to “environmental devastation”.

“That’s a loaded piece of toast,” says Meghan.

When the story came out – that Meghan had made Kate cry – months later, she would have hoped the palace would do something, because they knew it was untrue.

She says she doesn’t tell that story “to be disparaging of Kate”.

Meghan says she protected that story from ever coming out about Kate.

Oprah clarifies. “When you say the reverse happened,” what actually happened, Oprah asks.

A few days before the wedding Kate was upset about flower girl dresses and “it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings,” says Meghan.

“It just did not make sense with everything going on with the wedding to not be supportive,” says Meghan. There was a question at the time over whether or not her father would attend the wedding.

Meghan says Duchess of Cambridge made her cry and apologised

Back to the interview setting.

Oprah says there were rumours that Meghan made Kate Middleton cry.

“That was a turning point,” says Meghan.

The story was that Meghan had made Kate Middleton cry over Meghan’s strict flower girl demands.

Meghan says she did not make Kate cry.

“The reverse happened,” she says.

But Kate apologised and brought her flowers and took accountability for it.

Updated

Meghan and Harry were married three days before royal wedding

Oprah is now at Meghan and Harry’s new home in Santa Barbara.

There are many chickens. “Archie has always wanted chickens,” says Harry.

Meghan says she is really enjoying “getting back down to basics”.

Three days before the royal wedding, Meghan and Harry got married, just them and the priest. “Nobody knows this,” says Meghan.

Before we cut away to an ad break, there is a clip of Oprah asking: “Were you silent, or were you silenced?”

Oprah says, “the grandmother is the matriarch, and known in many families as ‘the queen’.” In Meghan’s case, that matriarch was the Queen.

The first time Meghan met Queen Elizabeth II, it was after the Queen was finishing a church service.

Harry told her she would meet the Queen, she was excited, and he asked whether she knew how to curtsey.

And she was very surprised that one would need to curtsey for one’s grandmother.

She practised very quickly, apparently did “a very deep curtsey” and then “we just sat there and we chatted, and it was lovely and easy”.

She says, “Thank God I didn’t know a lot about the family. Thank God I hadn’t researched, because I would have been so in my head about it.”

Updated

Meghan: I joined the royal family 'naively'

Meghan says that the couple were aware at that time that this “wasn’t our day”, but that it was for everyone else.

She says she went into it “naively”. She didn’t give much thought to what it would be like to marry a prince. She didn’t fully understand what the job was. “What does it mean to be a royal? What do you do?”

“There was no way to understand what the day to day was going to be like,” she says.

As an American, what you know about the royals is “what you read in fairy tales”.

Updated

Oprah: I remember sitting in the chapel ... and I so recall the sense of magic, I’d never experienced anything like it. When you came down the aisle it was like you were floating.”

“Were you even in your body at that time?,” Winfrey asks.

Updated

Meghan to reveal baby's gender when Harry appears later

Meghan has appeared – they can’t hug because of You Know What.

Oprah comments on Meghan’s bump – and Meghan says that she will share whether the baby is a boy or girl when Harry joins later.

They clear up that Meghan is not being paid for the interview.

Updated

Oprah will also visit the couple’s home during the interview. A chicken coop features.

“Nearly two billion people around the globe watched their wedding,” Oprah begins in voice over.

From the outside, it seemed like a fairy tale. They were one of the most talked about couples in the media. Then they “stunned the world” by stepping back from their royal duties.

It’s beginning.

One! minute! to go!

If anything makes you drop your Eccles cake (I’m talking good tweets): I’m on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Oprah's friendship with Meghan

Oprah met the couple for the first time in March 2018, when Winfrey was visiting London and was invited to Kensington Palace. Two months later, she was a guest at the Sussexes’ wedding at Windsor Castle. Winfrey wrote afterwards in her magazine, O: “All mature beings recognised it as the beginning it was.”

Oprah Winfrey has played a prominent role the couple’s life in the US, initially helping them to find a temporary home.

Winfrey attended the couple’s wedding in 2018 and hung out with Meghan’s mom, according to Town & Country magazine.

Oprah has also publicly defended Meghan, telling Gayle King on CBS in 2019 that the duchess had been “portrayed unfairly” and that she felt “if people really knew her, they would know that she is not only everything you perceive her as being – graceful and dynamic in holding that position – but that she just has a wonderful warm, giving, funny heart. I see all the crazy press around her, and I think it’s really unfair.”

Now, the Sussexes and Winfrey are neighbours in a seaside Santa Barbara county enclave, home to a slew of Hollywood heavyweights, and they even exchanged Christmas presents.

Updated

Timeline of a royal crisis

Here is everything you need to know about how we got here:

March 2019: Their own household

Buckingham Palace announced that a new household would be created for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the spring.

Reports also suggested the couple originally requested their office to be completely independent of Buckingham Palace, but this was denied.

June 2019: Split from Royal Foundation

The divergence of royal paths gathered pace amid news that the duke and duchess were to set up their own charitable foundation, splitting from the Royal Foundation and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

October, 2019: Meghan talks to ITV

Revealing that she had been warned before her marriage to Prince Harry that the British tabloids would “destroy” her life, Meghan spoke in frank terms about the pressures of her new life.

“Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK,” she told Tom Bradby, a friend of Harry’s for 20 years, in an ITV interview when he asked about the impact on her physical and mental health.

Meghan added she had “really tried” to adopt the “British sensibility of stiff upper lip” but thought that “what that does internally is probably damaging”.

January, 2020: “We are stepping back”

Harry and Meghan announced that they planned to step back from senior roles in the royal family in an effort to become financially independent, a move which surprised the public – and also, apparently, Buckingham Palace.

… but no deal at the royal summit

Almost as if refereeing a meeting of opposing factions, a statement issued on behalf of the Queen described how there had “constructive discussions” at the summit.

But reports, and briefings, cast the outcome of the summit in a different light. The couple were said to have been informed that they would no longer be able to officially represent the Queen. The couple was told “you can’t have it both ways” and chose not to be constrained “by some sort of review process” in contracts they signed.

February 2021

After months in which the impact of Covid-19 slowed the evolution of “Brand Sussex”, tensions between the palace and the now Los Angeles-based couple emerged again at the end of a year-old review of their position.

The couple would not return as working members of the royal family, the palace said, adding that they would also be giving up their royal patronages.

Oprah Interview

Also in February, couple announced they would give their first interview since quitting their roles as senior royals – with none other than Oprah Winfrey.

Prince Harry and Meghan, who revealed on Sunday they are expecting their second child, announced their plans to step back from the royal family on 8 January last year.

Bullying allegations

On 4 March, the Palace announced that it would investigate allegations of bullying made against the duchess by former Royal staff.

The claims centred on an email sent by the couple’s former communications chief Jason Knauf in October 2018 – five months after the couple’s wedding – reportedly in an attempt to force Buckingham Palace to protect staff, the Times said.

The couple’s spokesperson said in response that Meghan was “saddened by this latest attack on her character”.

A clip from the Oprah interview released shortly afterwards (but recorded before the allegations were made) showed Meghan saying that “the Firm” (shorthand for the institution of the royal family) was “perpetuating falsehoods” about her and Harry.

Updated

A new clip aired on CBS ahead of tonight’s interview (which is starting in 20 minutes’ time) in which Oprah asks why the couple’s son Archie wasn’t made a prince.

ITV News’ royal editor has explained on Twitter, “My understanding of them rules is this: the children and grandchildren of the Sovereign automatically get HRH (unless, like Princess Anne she asks her kids not to have them). Great-grandchildren only get them if the Queen intervenes - as she did for Charlotte and Louis.”

He says that when Prince Charles (Harry’s father) becomes King, Archie will be “a grandson of the Monarch - and therefore will automatically get HRH/Prince.”

Meghan’s response to Oprah’s question is not included in the clip – so we’ll learn that later.

What to expect

The interview has been billed as “intimate” and “wide ranging”. Meghan is expected to discuss her relationship with UK tabloids and the paparazzi, her treatment by the royal family – though the couple are said to have the greatest respect and love for the Queen and will not say anything to undermine that, the Guardian reported in February – and the couple’s decision to consciously uncouple from their roles as royals.

Last week, Meghan was granted an interim £450,000 downpayment towards her £1.5m legal costs in her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday.

The payment follows her victory last month against Associated Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, over extracts published from a private handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

You can read more about that below:

Summary

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Oprah’s interview with the Duchess of Sussex – and an appearance by Prince Harry at the end.

My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you context and recent commentary as the interview happens – as well as every key moment – starting in 30 minutes’ time.

Ahead of the interview, we’ll be catching you up on what to expect and what has happened in recent weeks – as well as Meghan’s friendship with Oprah, what else is happening with the royal family and some jolly good posts.

If anything makes you spit your Earl Grey (I’m talking good tweets): I’m on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

The interview is the first by the couple since since quitting their roles as senior royals.

The pair who announced in January 2020 that they would step back from senior roles in the royal family in an effort to become financially independent, and this year confirmed that they would not return as working royals.

Tonight’s two-hour CBS special is expected to attract more eyeballs than the Super Bowl.

Here is the latest in the saga:

  • On 4 March, the Palace announced that it would investigate allegations of bullying made against the duchess by former Royal staff.
  • The claims centred on an email sent by the couple’s former communications chief Jason Knauf in October 2018 – five months after the couple’s wedding – reportedly in an attempt to force Buckingham Palace to protect staff, the Times said.
  • The couple’s spokesperson said in response that Meghan was “saddened by this latest attack on her character”.
  • A clip from the Oprah interview released shortly afterwards (but recorded before the allegations were made) showed Meghan saying that “the Firm” (shorthand for the institution of the royal family) was “perpetuating falsehoods” about her and Harry.

Updated

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