India — The British media on Monday reacted sharply to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s highly-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired in the United States on Sunday night. During the two-hour conversation, Meghan opened up about her life as a member of the British royal family concerns raised by its members with respect to the colour of their baby’s skin and the intense media scrutiny they faced.
The Daily Mail ran wall-to-wall coverage of the interview on their website with the interview summarised into a single headline. “Meghan claims she was suicidal when she was 5 months pregnant, Kate made HER cry and Royals refused to make Archie a prince because they were worried how ‘dark’ he would be, as Harry reveals their new baby will be a GIRL,” it said.
Meghan Markle & Prince Harry’s biggest revelations in tell-all interview
The website was dominated with its coverage and had more than 20 articles about the interview. The tabloid’s website also included a prominent banner that read: “I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF,” and featured a clip playing on loop from the interview, which showed Meghan saying, with subtitles: “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.”
The print edition of the Daily Mail on Monday highlighted the allegations about concerns of Archie’s skin colour: “MEGHAN ACCUSES PALACE OF RACISM,” the front page of the Daily Mail read. The tabloid also quoted royal expert Robert Jobson as saying that the couple were “self-obsessed”.
The Sun newspaper also followed suit. “Meghan Markle may never return to Britain after angering Royal Family with bombshell Oprah interview,” its headline read. The front page of the Daily Express newspaper read, “Queen: Duty and family unite us.” “That’s public service for you, Harry and Meghan … NOT a self-serving TV chat with Oprah,” the paper wrote before the interview. The Daily Telegraph wrote that Queen Elizabeth II was the only member of the royal family to “emerge unscathed” from the interview.
In the interview, Meghan said that it had become clear that there were double standards in how the media covered her and Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge and wife to Prince William. “I can see now what layers were at play there. And again, they really seemed to want a narrative of a hero and a villain,” said Meghan.
Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, had also faced similar media scrutiny which made him compare Meghan’s plight with that of his late mother’s. Harry said that his biggest concern was history repeating itself. “You know, for me, I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must’ve been like for [my mother] going through this process by herself all those years ago,” he said.