Meghan Markle Says Her Engagement Interview Was 'Orchestrated Reality Show'

Meghan Markle said she and Prince Harry were not allowed to tell their story in their "rehearsed" engagement interview which she compared to an "orchestrated reality show."

The Duchess of Sussex described the moment she and Harry gave an on-camera interview about their romance saying: "We weren't allowed to tell our story because they didn't want..."

The comment, during the third episode of the couple's new Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, which premiered on Thursday, was among a series of remarks that hinted at tensions with the palace.

Meghan was asked about the sit-down chat with the BBC in November 2017, which came immediately after the couple posed for pictures at the Sunken Garden, of Kensington Palace.

She said: "Orchestrated reality show, yep. It was, you know, rehearsed."

"So we did the thing out with the press and then we went right inside, took the coat off, sat down and did the interview. So it's all in that same moment," she said.

As an example, Meghan suggested she was told: "There'll be a moment when they want to see the ring so show the ring."

The show then plays clips of the media discussing Meghan's "mixed-race background" before a section of the interview in which the duchess was asked: "Do you have that sense that the combination of the two of you, you're different backgrounds, that you'll represent something new for the royal family?"

The shot then cuts to a montage of archive footage including a gold stagecoach, a Black man in traditional dress and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip when they were young standing up in a car being driven through the streets during a royal tour while parade music plays.

The show then cuts back to the 2017 engagement interview where Harry answers: "Erm, no, you know, we're a fantastic team, we know we are and we hope to, over time, try and have as much impact for the things that we care about as much as possible."

Meghan says in the interview: "I am very excited about that, yeah."

In her Netflix interview, Meghan says: "So my point is we weren't allowed to tell our story because they didn't want..."

Harry replies: "We've never been allowed to tell our story. That's the consistency."

Afua Hirsch, journalist and author, told the show: "The first ever commercial slave voyage conducted by Britain was personally financed by Elizabeth I and continued to be financed by kings and queens right up until its abolition."