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Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Make Stunning Claims in New Interview. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 08, 2021 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're controlling the narrative for once. They can put their story forwards. They can also say which stories weren't true.

[06:00:09]

PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: I'm comfortable in knowing that we did everything that we could to make it work.

MEGHAN MARKLE, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX, UNITED KINGDOM: Oh, my God, we just did everything we could to protect them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Joe Biden says the American Rescue Plan will help the U.S. rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everything in this package is designed to meet the most urgent needs of the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was never about getting people back to work or kids back to school or the disease behind us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is an incredibly transformational, frankly progressive piece of legislation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, March 8, 6 a.m. here in New York.

And these stunning new claims this morning about the royal family by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In a bombshell two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex paint a picture of racism and emotional abuse. Meghan describes being ostracized by the palace and the concern within the royal family about her baby's skin color.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKLE: In those months when I was pregnant, all around the same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title. And also, concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST/MEDIA MOGUL: There is a conversation -- hold up!

MARKLE: There are several conversations.

WINFREY: There's a conversation with you --

MARKLE: With Harry.

WINFREY: About how dark your baby is going to be?

MARKLE: Potentially, and what that would mean or look like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: The duchess describes feeling so isolated at one point that she had suicidal thoughts.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, there was one wow after another in this interview. Two hours full of wows there.

It's the first time that the duke and duchess have been interviewed since stepping back from their senior roles in the British royal family. Harry talks about feeling trapped in the family, like his brother and father, and at one point, his father stopped taking Harry's calls.

Harry is also acknowledging respect for his grandmother, the queen. There was an epic royal gender reveal for their second child, and this morning, we are awaiting response from the palace.

So let's begin there. CNN anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster, live at Windsor Castle. No reaction yet, Max, but honestly, a long list of things that beg a reaction.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: I think we can assume they're scrambling to find a response. They didn't get a preview of this, John.

This was hyped around the world, wasn't it, as this bombshell interview, and I think, ultimately, they underplayed it. Revelation after revelation, and some of them were more difficult to watch than others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARKLE: I just didn't want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.

FOSTER (voice-over): Driven to despair by the family she married into and the institution behind it.

MARKLE: We had to go to this event, and I remember him saying, I don't think you can go. And I said, I can't be left alone.

WINFREY: Because you were afraid of what you might do to yourself?

FOSTER: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, opening up to Oprah Winfrey about being singled out, she believes forced out of the royal family for her race.

MARKLE: Magic. It's pretty amazing.

FOSTER: Concerns even raised by unnamed royals about the color of her child's skin.

MARKLE: And also, concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born.

WINFREY: What?

MARKLE: And --

WINFREY: Who -- who is having that conversation? With you? What?

MARKLE: So --

WINFREY: There is a conversation -- hold up! Hold up --

MARKLE: There are several -- there are several conversations --

WINFREY: There's a conversation with you --

MARKLE: With Harry.

FOSTER: An even more shocking allegation: that she was told her child couldn't be a prince for unstated reasons, not even afforded a security detail.

PRINCE HARRY: It's the opposite.

MARKLE: The idea of our son not being safe and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be.

FOSTER: A barrage of negative press damaging Meghan's mental health. She says the palace did nothing to help her. Instead, refusing to combat media rumors, including allegations she made her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, cry, when Meghan says it was the other way around. Harry comparing their experience to his mother's.

PRINCE HARRY: What I was seeing was history repeating himself. But more perhaps -- or definitely far more dangerous, because then you add race in.

FOSTER: The couple deny claims they blindsided the queen when they announced their departure, another rumor they believe was peddled by the palace.

PRINCE HARRY: When we were in Canada, I had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father, before he stopped taking my calls. And then said, can you put this all in writing, what your plan is?

FOSTER: Harry says he has a deep respect for his grandmother, the queen, and has spoken to her more in the last year than he has for many years. As for his father --

PRINCE HARRY: I feel really let down. Because he's been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And this is -- and Archie's his grandson.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: It's incredibly powerful stuff. Everyone in the U.K., of course, affected by this. The newspapers put out extra editions at 3 in the morning, because there were so many revelations. Have a look at the front of "The Daily Mail." I think this pretty much says it all in terms of what the palace has got to deal with today.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. Max, stay with us, if you would.

Also joining us now, CNN royal commentator, Kate Williams.

So, Max, I mean, to me there would be so many headlines. There were so many bombshells, as you point out. And such vulnerability by Meghan to reveal this mental health crisis that she and Harry, it sounds like, were going through. I mean, they sound desperate.

So here's just another moment of her actually having suicidal thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKLE: But I knew that if I didn't say it, that I would do it. And I just didn't -- I just didn't want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.

And I remember -- I remember how he just cradled me, and I was -- 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Max, what about that? What about that? If she had gone to the royal family or the institution, as she says, and said, I need some mental health help.

FOSTER: Well, it's a huge problem, because they failed in their duty of care of a vulnerable woman. And they basically, according to Meghan, just turned her away, said, There's nothing we can do to help. You're not a member of staff.

The other big question here is, you know, the race issue. So people are comparing this interview now to Diana's bombshell interview back in the 1990s. That caused a crisis in the monarchy, which lasted five to ten years.

This could potentially be more of a crisis for the monarchy, because I think the questions they have to answer here are so much harder to answer. You could answer Diana's questions. How do they answer this question about race, duty of care? I think they're in a really difficult position.

Normally, I get briefings, I get texts after a thing like this from the palace. There's nothing at all. I think they're literally scrambling just to have some sort of response, which is going to make them vulnerable, probably.

BERMAN: As Max says, Kate, look, it's one thing if this were a story of broken people. I mean, we're all flawed human beings in our own way.

But this is a story about more than just broken people. It's a story about a -- potentially, a broken institution that wasn't there --

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, John.

BERMAN: -- for a young couple in need. Wasn't there for a woman who was feeling the pressures of racism. I mean, it's a real issue.

WILLIAMS: Yes, John, that's it. Harry said -- Oprah said to Harry, would you still be in the royal family if you had support? And Harry said, Without question.

And that's the picture we got in this interview. It was revelation after revelation. Harry and Meghan told their story. We haven't heard it before. It's like nothing we've heard before.

And I absolutely agree. It's on a par with Diana's interview to what kind of effect it could have on the monarchy. Because this is an institution in which there's a young woman, a young pregnant woman who is desperate and is desperate for help, wants to go to a hospital, and is told she can't, because the optics wouldn't look good.

And of course, we remember how Diana herself, as a young -- when she was a young pregnant woman, she, too, had suicidal thoughts, and no one was there to help her.

And it's so striking, because William and Kate and Harry, too, that there have been campaigns of mental health about talking. And Meghan was talking about her mental health, but there was no help for her.

So we have -- really, Harry and Meghan said they weren't supported. There was no individual support for Meghan with her mental health, but also with the stories, the racist coverage, the onslaught of racist coverage there already was in this country, that they were over and over again told, there's nothing you can do about it. You'll just have to deal with it.

And actually, Meghan said that, actually, the palace was willing to lie about her to protect other royals. And on top of this, we have these questions of race. The fact is these questions about Archie's skin tone. Very upsetting, very distressing racist questions.

And all of it, I think, does create this image of the institution, which was one we -- we thought was very different to this, of distant and supportive, and one in which younger royals are completely and utterly, like Harry and Meghan, absolutely desperate, and they really saw no hope but to flee.

So it has to reform and change if we are -- if it has to have a future, particularly for those who aren't in line to the throne. They can't be backup singers like Harry forever. It has to change. But we, at the moment, we await to hear how.

CAMEROTA: Max, can you explain that part of the interview for us? So at the same time that questions were being asked by someone in the royal family -- they never said who it was -- about what color baby Archie's skin would likely be, they found out -- Meghan and Harry found out -- that he wouldn't receive a title, their son, and that he, therefore, wouldn't receive security. Why not?

I mean, doesn't -- why would the royal family want a security problem on their hands? Why wouldn't that baby receive security?

FOSTER: I think there is a gray area here, but I'll defer to Prince Harry. I mean, he knows more about, you know, the British royal protocols than I do.

But back when Prince George was born. He wasn't automatically going to be a prince. It's only grandchildren of the monarch who are a prince or princess. So that was made a special -- he was made an exception to be made prince, to go on to be king. Then I think William insisted that his siblings should be prince and princess, as well, because that wouldn't appear to be fair.

I think probably when we hear from the palace later on, they will say that it wasn't -- it wasn't an automatic thing that Archie would be made a prince or princess. So there's going to be some debate about the language there.

I'm not entirely sure, as well, that security is linked with title. So we're trying to clarify that, as well.

But I think probably what Meghan is looking to is, you know, the Duke of York's children, who do have titles. They're not senior royals. And they also get protection. So there is a discrepancy there. There are other cousins that don't get these things.

But I think that Meghan feels that she went into this. She gave everything to the system and made her child vulnerable. The least they could do is offer protection.

So maybe we shouldn't be looking at all the protocols and rules and traditions here and just look at fairness. You know, Archie wasn't getting what his cousins were getting. And I don't think Meghan thought that was acceptable.

BERMAN: I want to play one more bit of sound here, because it wasn't just Meghan Markle talking about the racism and the questions about the baby's skin color. Harry talked to Oprah about it, also. And this -- this is S-22, where she tries to get more information about what that conversation was like. Listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINFREY: What was that conversation?

PRINCE HARRY: That conversation, I am never going to share. But at the time -- at the time it was awkward. I was a bit shocked.

WINFREY: Can you -- can you tell us what the question was?

PRINCE HARRY: No. I'm not comfortable with sharing that.

WINFREY: OK.

PRINCE HARRY: But that was -- that was right at the beginning, right?

WINFREY: Like, what will the baby look like?

PRINCE HARRY: Yes, what will the kids like? Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Kate, there you have it. Really. I just think that's remarkable to hear him open up like that, even -- even while he's not telling us exactly who the conversation was or the exact wording of the question. He's telling us a lot there.

WILLIAMS: He's telling us a lot. He's telling us how distressed he was. He's telling us how shocked he was. And he was telling us how inappropriate that conversation was and how, really, he felt it all reflected into people who they weren't protecting his wife. They didn't understand the racist abuse that she was getting was different and intensified than the sexist -- the sexist abuse that all women get when they marry into the royal family. Meghan had it worse. And they didn't understand race, and they weren't going to protect his son there.

And it's really, I think, incredibly, incredibly striking how he's talking about that he hadn't really understood race before, and now with Meghan, he was walking in her shoes. And now with a child of color, as well, he was -- he was really feeling so protective towards his child.

[06:15:10]

And I think the security issue, of course, Harry feels very strongly that his mother lost her security after the divorce, and that did contribute to her very early death. And so it's very important to him his child is protected.

We know that, even if he wasn't a prince, racist (ph) means about Archie he would have been a target, he was at risk. And I think Harry opening up, Harry talking about that. And Harry did everything he could to protect his wife, and still not getting any backup.

It's clearly the reason why he -- and it was made very clear that it was he. It wasn't Meghan's idea to leave the royal family. It was made very clear that it was Harry's motivation, and he felt that there really was no other choice, no other way of protecting his wife and his son, than to step back and to leave.

CAMEROTA: And there are still more headlines from this interview. So Max, Kate, please stick around. We have more questions for you.

And we want to give all of you watching this note. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, there is help. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

For our viewers around the world, the International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also provides resources.

We have much more from this explosive interview, including rare insight from Prince Harry and other members of his family, including William and Kate. And a shocking claim about his relationship with his father.

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[06:20:41]

PRINCE HARRY: When we were in Canada, I had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father, before he stopped taking my calls.

WINFREY: Why'd he stop taking your calls?

PRINCE HARRY: Because I took matters in -- by that point, I took matters into my own hands. It was like, I need to do this for my family.

WINFREY: Is he taking your calls now?

PRINCE HARRY: Yes, yes, yes, he is. There was a lot of work through there. You know, I -- I feel really let down. Because he's been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And this is -- and Archie's his grandson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Prince Harry revealing how bad things got, maybe how bad things are, frankly, with his father, Prince Charles. And that laugh that you heard before, when he said, Yes, we're talking now. It didn't sound like we're talking well.

CAMEROTA: No, and there's just -- it's just -- you also get the impression of how much has been pent-up. They haven't said anything for these years, and now it's just sort of spilling out in maybe an un-PR-like way. BERMAN: Back now with Kate Williams and Max Foster.

Max, to hear Harry talk about his father, Charles. Look, and at that point in the interview, you also knew that there had been questions about the baby's race. And there were all these questions I know. The viewers said, Well, who asked that to Harry? Was it Charles? Who could it have been?

We don't know that, but what we do know and he made crystal-clear is that there is a huge gap of understanding between himself and his father.

FOSTER: Yes, and you know, it goes way back, doesn't it, to you know, Diana's death, the way she was treated and lots of, you know, rumor, obviously, in the palace about how Harry really feels about his father.

I think this part of the questioning was about this narrative that Harry and Meghan have basically just walked out on the British monarchy and moved to America, something that they were very keen to rebut. They were saying they were trying to form a new role. They desperately wanted to stay in the U.K.

And it was interesting that that conversation was being had with Prince Charles. Because that's what Harry's referring to there. They were trying to work out a plan. Harry was listing all the requirements that he wanted met in order for him to continue in a new role. And that was the discussion there.

And that's when things broke down. So effectively, what he's saying is that Charles stopped the conversation. He's not going to be talking about it anymore, so they had no choice but to leave.

So they're effectively blaming Prince Charles, I think, for the split and their move to California.

And Charles would have had a say in all of this. He does run, you know, all the funding for the Sussexes and the Cambridges. It's his money that they -- they were living off. So it's a quite complicated picture, but I think what they're saying is it wasn't necessarily the queen's decision on her own, this whole process. Prince Charles was intimately involved in all of it.

CAMEROTA: Kate, what I thought of watching it, whereas for any little girl who has ever dreamed of being a princess, for any grown woman who swooned at the romance of the royal wedding -- we'll call her hypothetically Alisyn -- this was a stone-cold reality check of what you give up, what you have to give up in order to have that sort of presentation.

She explained how they take your car keys, your ATM, your passport. And then you're basically trapped. And if you're trapped with any mental health issues or you're trapped feeling -- with any of your feelings, you can't get out.

And so basically, Oprah then asked, you know, the -- one of the sort of conceptions is that Meghan got Harry out of the royal family. You know, this was all Meghan's doing. This was her diabolical plan from the very beginning. And so Oprah asked Harry, would you have left the royal family if not for Meghan. Here's his answer?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINFREY: Here's the question. Do you think you would have left or ever stepped back were it not for Meghan?

MARKLE: Hmm.

PRINCE HARRY: No. The answer to your question is "no".

WINFREY: You would not have?

PRINCE HARRY: I wouldn't have -- I wouldn't have been able to, because I, myself, was trapped, as well. I mean --

WINFREY: She felt trapped. You were trapped?

PRINCE HARRY: Yes, I didn't see a way out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That word just kept coming out, Kate.

[06:25:03]

WILLIAMS: Yes, trapped kept coming up. And yes, as you say, the royal wedding, and you and I were there commenting on it on Windsor together. Max and me at the location. And it was so marvelous, such a great day.

And of course, Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle. There was so much optimism. And yet it crumbled so quickly, because really, as Harry and Meghan made clear, there was no support for them; that this endless racist coverage in which whatever Meghan did, you know, whether it was closing a car door to eating an avocado, she was criticized when other royal women were congratulated.

And this is the reality of being a princess. She said, Can I go and meet some friends for lunch? And apparently the answer was "no," because you've been out in the newspapers too much. She had only been out two times in the last four months.

And, you know, she felt like a prisoner. She was trapped. She couldn't get out. She was suffering. And you know, I really did hear echoes of Princess Diana here, how Diana couldn't escape, how she was trapped, how she was panicked.

And this -- the differences, of course, is that, as Harry said, Diana went through it alone. These two have each other, and they made this joint decision to leave.

And now, as they said, it's their new beginnings. They've made their own happy ending, and they did it themselves. And I think it -- it really is, for all of us, you know, the princesses, this is the reality of being a princess. And for Meghan, it was suffering.

BERMAN: I will tell you, I have a different view of what is truly romantic. It's not, you know, the coaches and the crowns and the tiaras. It's two people who are saying on TV that they save each other. I mean, it seems to me that they do have, in their own way, a fairy tale ending here, which is a deep love that goes beyond a palace there.

CAMEROTA: Look, I agree, but I'm just telling you. All of that imagery, all of that pomp and circumstance has played in the U.S. for, you know, obviously decades. And that we -- we succumb to that.

BERMAN: Maybe we should pay attention to something else, is what I'm saying. And -- you know, and that's the nature of their relationship. Max, how is this being received in the U.K. today? I know it hasn't played yet in full, but by this point, everyone has had to see all of the explosive revelations.

FOSTER: You make a really good point, I think. Because when you watch the whole show, you have -- I think it's a different impact from all of the drip, drip of the newspaper reports and the clips you're seeing here in the U.K.

So I think people will sit down and watch it. There is broadly a different view, I think, of the duchess here. There's a lot more cynicism about her. And I think -- I think they're going to watch tonight. And they're going to see a really genuine appearance. And something very raw and emotional.

They're seeing a different side of her. I was speaking to people close to her yesterday. And they, you know, we were talking about how the palace doesn't have its say. It doesn't comment on these things.

And they were saying, well, this is actually Meghan and Harry's first chance to really say what they feel. They've never been able to do that before, because they've always been within this institution, where they didn't represent themselves. They represented the monarchy. Anything they said was seen as speaking for the monarchy. They were utterly restricted in everything they did.

And then you see the relief and the sort of the happiness there. There's something real there.

I think people will pull them up on some of the points there, because there's some gray areas. But ultimately, you can't argue, particularly on Meghan's experience of race. You can't argue with that. That is genuine. It's real. And I think they're going that tonight. I think it may change a few opinions.

BERMAN: We'll be watching. Once again, this is fascinating stuff. Max, Kate, thank you both for being with us this morning.

So calls growing for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign as a new former aide accuses him of harassment. What will he do next?

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