All Meghan and Harry's Interviews Criticizing the Royals Since Quitting

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's swipes at the royal family and the palace have spanned more than two years, with the latest examples featuring in her Archetypes podcast and an interview promoting it.

The duke and duchess of Sussex are two years into their post-royal journey with no signs of the rift healing between them and other family members.

The couple hinted at how unhappy they were in an October 2019 interview during their royal tour of South Africa, but their comments then were aimed predominantly at the media.

Their broadside against the palace didn't begin in earnest until July 2020 and Meghan's lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday over a letter she sent her father.

Meghan Left Unprotected While Pregnant

The duchess's lawyers said in a court filing that Kensington Palace had silenced her and her friends during a period of negative media coverage.

The filing, seen by Newsweek, read: "[Meghan] had become the subject of a large number of false and damaging articles by the UK tabloid media, specifically by the defendant [the publisher of The Mail on Sunday], which caused tremendous emotional distress and damage to her mental health.

"As her friends had never seen her in this state before, they were rightly concerned for her welfare, specifically as she was pregnant, unprotected by the Institution, and prohibited from defending herself."

The filing adds: "It was mandated by the KP [Kensington Palace] Communications Team that all friends and family of [Meghan] should say 'no comment' when approached by any media outlet, despite misinformation being provided to UK tabloids about [Meghan]."

Meghan and Harry With Oprah

The filings hinted at some of what Meghan and Harry had to say to Oprah Winfrey eight months later. Their CBS tell-all added significantly more detail and new allegations.

The duchess said she had been falsely accused of making Kate Middleton cry by the media and then prevented from defending herself by Kensington Palace.

In the aftermath, she said she experienced suicidal thoughts, but was prevented from seeking professional help.

Meghan said: "I just didn't want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember—I remember how he just cradled me.

"And I was—I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help. I said that, 'I've never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere'. And I was told that I couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution."

The duchess described how an unnamed royal family member had expressed concern about how dark her unborn child's skin might be.

She said: "So we have in tandem the conversation of 'He won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title' and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."

Meanwhile, Prince Harry accused Prince Charles of cutting him off financially after their royal exit.

'Genetic Pain' and the Armchair Expert Podcast

Oprah came at a sensitive time for the royals, as it was broadcast while Prince Philip was in hospital, though it was filmed before he was admitted.

Harry's grandfather and Queen Elizabeth II's husband passed away in April 2021 and the duke of Sussex made his first return to Britain for the funeral.

Footage of him talking with Prince William and Kate sparked hopes of a reconciliation, but these were soon dashed when new bombshells dropped the following month in May 2021.

Prince Harry told the Armchair Expert podcast he was experiencing "genetic pain" as a result of his royal upbringing with Prince Charles.

He said: "There is no blame. I don't think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I've experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I'm going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don't pass it on, basically.

"It's a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say 'you know what, that happened to me, I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to you.'"

Prince Harry Accuses Family of 'Total Silence' or 'Total Neglect'

Prince Harry made further criticisms during wide ranging interviews for his mental health docu-series The Me You Can't See, which also dropped in May 2021 and covered the couple's relations with the media.

During the show, he said: "It went to a whole new depth with not just traditional media, but also social media platforms as well. I felt completely helpless.

"I thought my family would help but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, got met with total silence or total neglect."

He added: "Family members have said, 'Just play the game and your life will be easier,' but I've got a hell of a lot of my mum in me."

Meghan's Account of Royals 'Berating' Harry

Meghan's lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday had reached the Court of Appeal by November 2021 after she won the initial foray the February before.

This time, her former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf handed to the court a trove of her emails and text messages outlining her thoughts about why she had sent a letter to her father asking him to stop talking to the media.

One message released to the court read: "The catalyst for my doing this [sending the letter] is seeing how much pain this is causing H [Harry]. Even after a week with his dad and endlessly explaining the situation, his family seem to forget the context—and revert to 'can't she just go and see him and make this stop?'

"They fundamentally don't understand so at least by writing H will be able to say to his family...'she wrote him a letter and he's still doing it.'

"By taking this form of action I protect my husband from this constant berating, and while unlikely perhaps it will give my father a moment to pause."

This example differs from the others in that Meghan wrote it in August 2018 and it may never have appeared in the public domain had Knauf not approached the court with her private messages.

Needless to say, it adds to the growing body of criticisms made by the couple of the royal family.

Prince Harry Swerves Question on Charles and William

The Duke of Sussex gave an interview to Today during the Invictus Games in which he spoke at length about his pleasure at a recent meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.

However, there was less warmth for his royal relatives when asked by Hoda Kotb whether he missed Prince William and Prince Charles.

He said: "At the moment, I'm here focused on these guys [at the Invictus Games] and these families and giving everything I can, 120% to them to make sure that they have the experience of a lifetime. That's my focus here."

'Significant Tensions' With Queen's Closest Aide

Prince Harry is suing the Home Office in two separate cases, including one also filed against the Metropolitan Police, for removing his royal security detail during trips to Britain.

The duke's lawyer said during a recent hearing in the first case that there were tensions between Harry and the queen's private secretary, Sir Edward Young.

Shaheed Fatima told London's High Court in July: "There were significant tensions between the claimant [Prince Harry] and certain people." She added it was "primarily Sir Edward Young."

Archie's Near Miss in South Africa

Meghan Markle told the debut episode of her Spotify podcast Archetypes how she had to continue working after Archie narrowly avoided being caught up in a fire in his room during a royal tour of South Africa in September 2019.

The duchess said: "Everyone's in tears, everyone's shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, 'This doesn't make any sense.'

"I was like, 'Can you just tell people what happened?' And so much, I think, optically, the focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels."

Meghan Says She and Harry Upset Royal Hierarchy 'Just by Existing'

In an August interview, Meghan touched on the couple's frustrations at not being allowed to operate half in and half out of royal life, continuing to work for the queen, but pursuing commercial endeavours too.

She told The Cut: "Just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy. So we go, 'Okay, fine, let's get out of here. Happy to.'"

Meghan told interviewer Allison P. Davis they were not "reinventing the wheel" and cited other royals who have similar arrangements.

She added: "That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing."