Thread by @liamstack

We are 17 minutes into the 2 hour Oprah/Meghan/Harry interview and it will already make a lot of heads explode on the British morning talk shows tomorrow

All those tabloid headlines that said Meghan made Kate Middleton cry? Meghan says “the opposite happened.” Kate made Meghan cry a few days before her wedding, she says.

Meghan says she is held to a different standard than Kate Middleton. She says the British press and her critics “really want a narrative of a hero and a villain.”

Meghan says she thought about all the ways she is different than the royal family “because they made me think about it.”

Oprah: Were you silent or you were silenced?
Meghan: The latter.

Meghan: “I did anything they told me to because it was always through the lens of ‘we will protect you.’”

Meghan on the institution of the monarchy: “They were willing to lie to protect other members of the family but they were not willing to tell the truth to support me and my husband.”

Meghan is making a clear distinction between the queen — Meghan says she loves her — and the institution of the royal family.

Meghan says she was told not to see her friends or to even leave the house because she “was everywhere” in the press. At one point she says she’d only left the house twice in 4 months. She compares it to pandemic lockdown.

Meghan says there were concerned conversations inside Buckingham Palace, before her son Archie was born, about how dark his skin might be.

Meghan says the royal family did not "protect" her. She says the monarchy would go on the record to deny "ridiculous stories" about other family members, but not for her. She says it was "character assassination."

Meghan says during her pregnancy the royal family said they did not want Archie to be a prince, in violation of royal protocol, and they also said he would not receive a security detail.

Meghan points to the issue of "the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be."

Meghan says the royal family changed the protocol re: titles during her pregnancy specifically to keep Archie from being a prince. The narrative that Meghan and Harry didn't want him to be a prince is not true, she says. The royal family shut him out.

Meghan says there were "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born" during her pregnancy, at the same time that royal family told her Archie would not be a prince and would not get a security detail.

Meghan declines to tell Oprah who, during her pregnancy, expressed concern to her over how dark her baby's skin would be. "I think that would be very damaging to them."

Meghan says she doesn't understand how the royal family, which also reigns over the racially diverse Commonwealth of Nations, could not see the value of embracing diversity and inclusion in their own family.

We are halfway through Oprah's 2 hour interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. These anecdotes, particularly the allegations of racism toward Meghan and Baby Archie, have the potential to very deeply impact American views of the royal family.

Meghan says she told the royal family that she needed to get help for mental health concerns and she was told that she was not allowed because it would make the family look bad. "I went to human resources," she said. "In my old job there was a union."

"In my old job there was a union!!!!!"

Meghan says human resources at Buckingham Palace told her they could not help her because "you are not a paid employee of the institution."

Meghan says the stress and isolation drove her to contemplate suicide. That is why she asked to go to a hospital and was told no, she could not get help.

"I couldn't just call an Uber to the palace."

Meghan says she told Prince Harry she was having suicidal thoughts in the middle of the night. "This is real, this is not some abstract idea, this is methodical, this is not who I am."

She told Harry that she could not be left alone because she was afraid she might harm herself.

Meghan Markle talks about depression: "It takes so much courage to admit you need help. It takes so much courage to voice that. I was ashamed."

Meghan says "I am not going to live my life in fear" of what the royal family might think about her telling the truth.

She says the institution of the monarchy has played "an active role... in perpetuating falsehoods about us."

This interview is chock full of the kind of uniquely American baring-of-one's-soul (right down to Oprah as the host!!) that makes upper class English people extremely uncomfortable

Prince Harry says their upcoming second child will be a daughter

Prince Harry says their security was revoked after he and. Meghan went to Canada because of "a change of status."

Meghan says the narrative that they "quit and walked away" are untrue because conversations about changing their role had been ongoing for almost 2 years.

Harry and Meghan said they wanted to have a status similar to other family members who retain their titles, live on palace grounds, have jobs and independent lives. That was not allowed, they said.

Prince Harry says explicitly that he was afraid of "history repeating itself" in terms of his mother and her suffering inside the royal family.

Prince Harry says they left the UK because of "lack of support and lack of understanding" at the hands of both the British press and the institution of the royal family.

Harry says the narrative that he and Meghan blindsided the queen with their decision to leave their senior roles most likely came from within "the institution" of the royal family.

Prince Harry says his father, Prince Charles, has "stopped taking my calls."

Harry says that happened because he "took matters into my own hands" to protect the mental health and well bring of himself, Meghan and their baby.

NR all of my group chats are exploding right now

Harry says he "had no idea what to do" when Meghan told him she was contemplating suicide. He says he was "ashamed"to talk to his family about it

He says the monarchy is "a very trapping environment" for his family members. he wonders if any of them have also considered suicide.

Prince Harry, a member of the British royal family, just made an off handed comment to Oprah Winfrey about the possibility that other members of the British royal family have considered killing themselves.

That's a very intense, not much remarked upon moment.

Prince Harry says people should have "compassion" for the members of the royal family because they live in a system of "control by fear," a sort of symbiotic relationship between the British monarchy and the British tabloid press.

Harry says Meghan was received "far better than I expected" at the beginning of their relationship.

"But it really changed" after their South Pacific tour, which Harry says "brought back memories" for them of Prince Diana's charisma. Were they jealous of Meghan? He won't say.

Meghan also points out that things changed after she announced that she was pregnant. That also coincided with the South Pacific trip that Harry implies made some royals feel threatened by Meghan's popularity and charisma.

Harry says he never considered that his security detail might be revoked because "I was born into this, I was born into the risk." Meghan said she wrote to the royal family asking for his security to be reinstated and they declined.

Harry says he was "trapped" in the royal family and the system that surrounds it before he met Meghan. "My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don't get to live. And I have huge compassion for that."

Prince Harry says he thinks his mother, Diana, would be "very angry and sad" at how he and Meghan have been treated, but that she would want them both to be happy.

Prince Harry says the royal family "cut me off financially" in the first quarter of 2020. He did retain his inheritance from Prince Diana, though, he said.

Oprah: "Hold. Up. Your family cut you off financially?"

Harry says he has a strong relationship with his grandmother, the Queen. When Oprah asks if Harry has a good relationship with his father, Harry's face goes flush and he gets quiet. He says his father has started taking his calls again.

Harry says he feels "very disappointed" by his father because "he knows what pain feels like."

He says his family has deeply hurt him and Meghan but that he wants to repair their relationship. He demurs when asked about his relationship with his brother, Prince William.

Prince Harry says he "is never going to share" the contents of the conversation he had, with one of his family members, about what color Archie's skin would be. He won't share what relative said that to him, or what exactly was said.

The Oprah/Harry/Meghan interview has now cut to a commercial that includes a multiracial children's choir singing a Cranberries song. Dolores is weighing in from beyond the grave!!!

Meghan says when they heard that the Duke of Edinburgh had gone to the hospital, "I picked up the phone and called the queen."

Do they have any regrets?

Meghan: "My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected."

Prince Harry says Meghan has saved him "without question."

Meghan says Harry "certainly saved my life, and saved all of us," i.e. her and the kids, by making the decision to pursue an independent life

Oprah's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will go down in history, alongside Martin Bashir's famous 1995 interview with Princess Diana. A picture of the royal family, and the English elite, reckoning with race, mental health and celebrity culture.

There were a number of bombshell moments in the Oprah/Meghan/Harry interview, which people will be parsing for decades.

But the line that sticks in my mind, for camp reasons if nothing else, is Meghan going to Buckingham Palace HR and saying "In my old job there was a union."

Unionize your workplace, even if that workplace is a one thousand year old monarchy

In the meantime, someone might want to do a wellness check on Piers Morgan.

It will be interesting to see how the palace reacts to the Oprah interview. Harry and Meghan declined to name names — ex: what family member expressed concern over Archie’s skin color?

Will the possibility of the names might someday be named temper the palace’s response?

Harry and Meghan made a point of not just praising the queen, but telling warm anecdotes about their relationship. Their comments on Charles, William & Kate were deeply pained. One interpretation of this interview will be that C, W & K were driving the hostility to Meghan.

"In my old job there was a union."