Meghan Markle says friends warned her not to marry Prince Harry, telling her ‘the British tabloids will destroy your life’
21 October 2019, 12:52 | Updated: 29 October 2019, 13:07
The Duchess of Sussex revealed how her friends warned her of the British press in explosive new documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry gave raw and emotion interviews in ITV’s documentary, Harry and Meghan: An African Journey, which aired on Sunday night.
While the Duke of Sussex opened up about his late mother and following in her footsteps, the Duchess of Sussex got a chance to explain to journalist Tom Bradby how difficult royal life has been for her.
READ MORE: Prince Harry says he’s ‘on a different path' to William following royal feud claims
Meghan, 38, even revealed in the documentary that her British friends warned her not to marry Prince Harry as they knew the press would ‘destroy her life’.
Talking to Tom at the end of the programme, the pair discussed how the amount of negative press the Duchess has received has affected her mental health, a chat that came after Harry released his scathing statement against the press.
Meghan admits she was naive to her future struggles, telling Tom: “It’s hard, I don’t think anyone can understand that. But in fairness I had no idea – which probably sounds difficult to understand here.”
She went on to say: “But when I first met my now husband, my friends were happy because I was so happy, but my British friends said to me ‘I’m sure he’s great, but you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life’.
“And I very naively – I’m American, we don’t have that – said ‘what are you talking about?’ It doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t get it. So, yeah, it’s been complicated.”
It was the evening before their last day on the royal tour that Harry released the statement, defending his wife against the constant negative press against her.
The statement came as a shock to many following such a successful tour, and was followed with mixed reactions from the world.
During this interview on the tour, Meghan was given a chance to get candid about how difficult her first year as part of the royal family has been.
She said: “I’ve said for a long time to Harry, it’s not enough to just survive something, that’s not the point of life. You’ve got to thrive, you’ve got to feel happy.
“I think I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip – I’ve tried, I’ve really tried – but I think, what that does internally, is probably really damaging.
“The biggest thing that I know is that, I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile. But I just take each day as it comes.”
The Duchess continued to explain: “If I do something wrong I’ll be the first one to go ‘oh my gosh, I’m so sorry I would never do that’, but when people are saying things that are just untrue, and they’re being told they're untrue but they’re still allowed to say it, I don’t know anybody in the world who would feel like that’s ok, and that’s different than just scrutiny, that’s – what would you call that? It’s a different beast.
“And I think the grass is always greener, you have no idea. It’s really hard to understand what it’s like – I know what it seems like it should be, but it’s a very different thing.”
However, the Duchess ended the conversation on a positive note, telling Tom: “The good thing is I’ve got my baby and I’ve got my husband, and they’re the best.”
