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The pioneering mental health campaign undertaken by Prince Harry in the period that Meghan Markle was joining the royal family could have misled the duchess about the realities of royal work, a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast has explored, following the couple marking World Mental Health Day earlier this month.
Meghan and Harry have both become advocates for mental health awareness, but the prince's early discussions about his own mental health around the time of the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death in 2017 could have given Meghan the "wrong end of the stick" about the work royals are expected to in Britain, according to chief royal correspondent Jack Royston.
Meghan and Harry met in the summer of 2016, when the prince, along with his brother and sister-in-law (the now-Prince and Princess of Wales), were working on their Heads Together mental health awareness project.
Moving away from the traditional royal standpoint of not addressing mental health issues, Heads Together not only saw the trio raise awareness for the issues in others, but for the first time explicitly share their own experiences.
Harry was a particular trailblazer in this area, discussing his struggles with overcoming and accepting the grief he felt following the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was just 12, and how his army service affected him, in interviews and documentaries.
"He acknowledged getting therapy publicly for the first time, he talked about his struggle working as a royal," Royston noted. "Doing these events where he has to meet people, his unresolved anger, sometimes feeling like he wanted to punch someone. He said he took up boxing because that seemed to help and this was all in the days when royals just didn't really do this kind of thing.
"So nowadays we're obviously quite used to Harry absolutely pouring his heart out, but this was unheard of at the time, and so he was on all the front pages and it was massive."
Building his relationship with Meghan at this time where the prince (alongside William and Kate) was waging a largescale campaign to change public attitudes to mental health, could, Royston explained, have overshadowed the more day-to-day royal duties such as opening school buildings and visiting care homes that members of the monarchy do.
"It was quite interesting because Meghan—being kind of outside the fold but on her way in—would have witnessed this whole thing happening from afar," he said.
"And I always actually thought that this was probably part of how Meghan wound up getting the wrong end of the stick about what being a royal working royal is actually like.
"Because one of the first things she saw in the earliest days of her relationship with Harry was this incredibly high-profile, very impactful campaign that was in reality that quite a long way away from the mundane reality of unveiling plaques and cutting ribbons, which is another aspect of what the royals sometimes do."
When Meghan and Harry became engaged in 2017, one of the first glimpses the public saw of her working ambition was made during a joint discussion with Harry, William and Kate at the Royal Foundation forum.
The Royal Foundation at the time was the joint philanthropic organization that all four royals would work within together. Speaking on stage about her hopes for her working future with Harry, Meghan praised the Heads Together campaign and discussed areas she'd like to make a similar impact.
"I was in Canada at the time and I just remember how much news coverage [the campaign] was getting. And just in that alone, it was getting such a conversation point happening amongst people," she said, going on to add: "It was very impressive to watch from afar."
After Harry and Meghan split from the royal family in 2020, both have spoken about the issues they faced in their royal work, one being jealousy from other family members and also pushback from royal aides.
Tabloid reports and commentators over the years have stated that while inside the monarchy, Meghan met with a culture shock at being given smaller royal tasks, instead of wide-reaching campaigns as the wife to the sixth in line to the throne.
This has persisted, despite Meghan stating in subsequent interviews that she let it be known she was willing to take on any tasks required to fit in with the way the monarchy operated.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more