Amid the huge fallout from last night’s explosive revelations, the couple’s friend Misan Harriman – who took the photograph used to announce Meghan’s most recent pregnancy – shared a previously unreleased image of the couple.
It shows the Duke of Sussex, 36, cuddling his pregnant wife, 39, as she holds Archie, one, in a lush Los Angeles garden. The toddler’s face is hidden from view behind that of his mother’s.
Like the previous photograph, both the Duke and Duchess are seen barefoot with the same large tree in the background. However, Meghan is seen wearing a different dress to the previous image.
Mr Harriman shared the image to mark International Women’s Day, in a post made hours after the couple revealed their second child would be a girl during their Oprah interview.
The photographer, who took Meghan’s pregnancy announcement picture remotely using an iPad, said: ‘What wonderful news to celebrate on International Women’s Day! Congratulations my friends, and welcome to the girldad club H!’
It comes as stony-faced royals today broke cover amid the continuing fallout from an onslaught of damaging allegations from Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview – as the the palace prepares for UK viewers to watch the bombshell footage when it airs on ITV tonight.
Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, bore grim expressions as they were seen driving through London this afternoon.
The pair have been caught up in the wave of claims aired by the Sussexes, with Meghan earlier this month blaming them for leaking stories about her to the press while she was a senior royal. Meghan has also accused Kate of making her ‘cry’ during a row over bridesmaids dresses.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have made no formal response to the interview, instead the only two posts on their official Instagram page today have recognised International Women’s Day, and Commonwealth Day.
Prince Harry today claimed racism drove him and Meghan out of Britain and the Queen was too busy to meet him as he piled on new insults to his family in a series of unseen clips from his bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview.
The Duke of Sussex accused the Queen of snubbing him after she was allegedly overruled by royal aides when she tried to invite him and Meghan on a trip to Sandringham after the couple announced they were stepping down.
Meanwhile, Prince Philip was cleared of making a racist remark about how ‘dark’ Archie’s skin would be, with Oprah saying Harry had confirmed the comment was not made by the Duke of Edinburgh or the Queen.
Asked about the alleged comment at his Covid press conference today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: ‘The best thing I can say is that I’ve always had the highest admiration for the Queen and the unifying role she plays.
‘And as for all other matters to do with the royal family I’ve spent a long time now not commenting on royal family matters and I don’t intend to today.’
Harry refused to reveal the person’s identity on Sunday night as did Meghan and claimed they wanted to protect whoever it was – leaving the rest of the family open to suspicion.
In one of the previously unseen clips released today, Harry said the Queen told him she wanted to see him and Meghan in Sandringham ‘the moment’ they returned from a trip to Canada in January 2020, but he then received a message from a royal aide saying the trip was off.
Harry claimed he then rang the Queen from Frogmore Cottage and she said: ‘Yes, there’s something in my diary that I didn’t know that I had.’
The prince said the exchange showed that even the Queen could be overruled by aides, who he accused of giving her ‘very bad’ advice.
Meanwhile, the prince reignited his war with the press, claiming that racism ‘was a large part’ of his and Meghan’s decision to leave Britain.
He said he was told by an unidentified person at a charity event: ‘You need to understand that the UK is very bigoted,’ to which he replied: ‘The UK is not bigoted, the UK press is bigoted, specifically the tabloids.’
He added: ‘But unfortunately if the source of info is inherently corrupt or racist or biased then that filters out to the rest of society.’
Meghan also discussed her own family with Oprah for the first time, claiming that she ‘didn’t have a relationship’ with her sister, Samantha, and that she only changed her surname back to Markle when she started dating Harry.
She said she ‘found it hard to reconcile’ with her father, Thomas Markle, who will be appearing on Good Morning Britain tomorrow morning, Piers Morgan announced earlier today.
It came as Tory MPs today led the backlash against Prince Harry and Meghan’s ‘appalling’ accusations of racism against the Royal Family as they accused the couple of ‘detonating a nuclear weapon’ with the allegations.
Among the bombshell claims –
- Harry says racism was ‘large part’ of why he and Meghan decided to leave UK and claims Queen snubbed him;
- Prince says Charles has made peace with being ‘trapped’ as part of the royal family but William ‘can’t escape’;
- Meghan claims the coverage she received in the media was worse than Kate because of the colour of her skin;
- Oprah says Harry told her neither Queen nor Philip made racist comment about Archie being ‘too brown’;
- This afternoon Boris Johnson defended the Queen but refused to comment further on the alleged comment;
- In the main interview aired early this morning, couple reveal the gender of their baby – a girl due this summer;
- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, made Meghan cry ahead of the royal wedding – but ‘owned it’ and apologised;
- Meghan describes meeting the Queen for the first time and having to learn to curtsy from Sarah Ferguson
- Sussexes say they speak to Her Majesty regularly on Zoom and called last week when Philip became ill;
- Duchess claims she was ‘naive’ when she joined the Royal Family – and never researched what it would be like;
- Says she was initially welcomed, but later ‘silenced’ and felt trapped by officials who ‘took away her passport’;
- Duchess says at some points she felt that she no longer wanted to live and says she asked palace for help;
- Harry says his family failed to ‘support’ and ‘understand’ them and reveals Charles stopped speaking to him;
- Couple show off hens they rescued from farm as Meghan says they want to ‘live authentically’ in mansion;
- Share unseen picture of Archie at beach as Harry says he ‘is hurt but respects’ withdrawal of his patronages.
US breakfast show CBS This Morning aired unseen footage from Oprah Winfrey’s bombshell interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex this morning.
Among the claims aired in the new clips –
#EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry reveals to @Oprah a “large part of” the reason he and Meghan left the UK was because of racism. #OprahMeghanHarry pic.twitter.com/ksAZWargg1
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 8, 2021
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‘It was a large part of it’: Harry claims he and Meghan left Britain ‘because of racism’
Asked by Oprah if the couple left the UK because of racism, Harry replied: ‘It was a large part of it.’
Recalling a conversation he had at a Sentebale fundraiser, he said he was urged by someone who is ‘friends with a lot of the editors’: ‘Please don’t do this with the media, they will destroy your life.’
However, he did not identify who the person was.
Harry said: ‘One of the people at that dinner said to me, ”please don’t please don’t do this with the media, they will destroy your life”. This person is friends with a lot of the editors. I said, so I just elaborate, what do you mean?
‘He said ”you need to understand that the UK is very bigoted. I stopped and said, ”the UK is not bigoted, the press is bigoted, the tabloids. Is that what you mean?”
Harry claimed the person replied, ‘No, the UK is bigoted’.
He continued: ‘I said I disagree. If the source of information is corrupt or racist or biased, then that filters out to the rest of society.’
Reacting to the claims, the Society of Editors said it is ‘not acceptable’ for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to claim sections of the UK press is bigoted.
‘I have tried to help them see’: Harry says Prince Charles has made peace with being ‘trapped’ as part of the royal family – and says ‘My brother can’t leave the system – but I have’
Oprah asked if anyone in the family had said they were sorry the couple felt they had to make the move out of royal life because they felt unsupported.
Harry said: ‘No. Sadly not. The feeling is that this was our decision, therefore the consequences are on us. And despite three years of asking for help and seeing or visualising how this might end, it was, I don’t know… it’s been really hard because I’m trying, I am part of the system with them. I always have been.
‘I’m very aware that my brother can’t leave that system, but I have.’
Oprah asked: ‘Does your brother want to leave the system?’
Harry said: ‘I don’t know. I can’t speak for him. But with that relationship and that control and the fear by the UK tabloids, it’s a really toxic environment. But I will always be there for him. I will always be there for my family. And as I said, I’ve tried to help them to see what has happened.’
Oprah asked: ‘Do they think it’s a toxic environment or do you all think it’s a toxic environment because you’re out of it?’
Harry said: ‘I think he’s had to make peace with it.’
Oprah said: ‘Why couldn’t you make peace with it? I’ll ask that of both of you?’
‘Because that is different. You know,’ said Meghan.
‘Different because of the race?’ said Oprah.
‘And social media,’ said Meghan.
‘And social media. Oh, yes, different time. Different time,’ said Oprah.
‘That didn’t exist,’ Meghan said. ‘And so it was like the wild, wild west. It was spread like wildfire. Plus, my being American, it translate in a different way across the pond. So you had a noise level that was very different, but if they can’t see that it’s different.’
‘You felt bullied on an international level,’ Oprah said.
Meghan said: ‘Look, I think the volume of what was coming in and the interest was greater because of social media, because of the fact that I was not just British.
‘Rude and racist are not the same’: Meghan claims abuse of her was worse than Kate because of the colour of her skin
Meghan Markle claimed she experienced more negativity towards her than the Duchess of Cambridge because of the colour of her skin.
The Duchess of Sussex told the chat show queen she believed she had been singled out because she was ‘not just British’.
Meghan said she thought social media had amplified the interest in her but said Royals had shrugged it off, claiming they said ‘This is what’s happened to all of us’.
And she went on to say the Duchess of Cambridge’s cruel one-time nickname of Kate Middleton – Waity Katie – was not the same as racism she said she experienced.
Meghan went on to say a Royal Family member had said they had all had to deal with rudeness, but the American said she did not think it was the same as racist abuse.
She said: ‘I think the volume of what was coming in and the interest was greater because of social media, because of the fact that I was not just British.
‘That unfortunately if members of his family say, well, this is what’s happened to all of us.
‘If they can compare what the experience that I went through was similar to what has been shared with us, Kate was called Waity Katie, waiting to marry William.
‘While I imagine that was hard, and I do, I can’t picture what that felt like, this is not the same.
‘And if a member of this family will comfortably say we’ve all had to deal with things that are rude, rude and racist are not the same. And equally, you’ve also had a press team that goes on the record to defend you, especially when they know something’s not true. And that didn’t happen for us.’
The new comments were revealed in a clip released to CBS This Morning at lunchtime.
They came after the Oprah Winfrey interview earlier today saw Meghan say Kate had made her cry before she married Prince Harry.
But the Duchess of Sussex also insisted that she has now forgiven her and said she bought her flowers to apologise about the incident.
The infamous row with Prince William’s wife made headlines around the world after a supposed falling out over dresses for the flower girls.
Reports of the clash between the duchesses first emerged in November 2018, when sources claimed Meghan had been left displeased with the ‘stressful’ fitting.
Accounts differ as to whether the cause of the row was a disagreement on whether the bridesmaids should wear tights – Meghan reportedly believed they should not – or whether it stemmed from Princess Charlotte’s dress not fitting.
A source said at the time: ‘Kate had only just given birth to her third child, Prince Louis, and was feeling quite emotional.’
Meghan was also asked about a memorable joint-outing to Wimbledon in July 2019, where the pair put on a united front and were pictured laughing together.
During the interview she appeared to cast doubt on the authenticity of that seemingly affable appearance, saying: ‘Nothing is what it looks like’.
Oprah asked Meghan: ‘Was there a situation where she (Kate) might have cried? Or she could have cried?’
But the Duchess of Sussex replied: ‘No, no. The reverse happened.
‘And I don’t say that to be disparaging to anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding.
‘And she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised.
‘And she brought me flowers and a note, apologising. And she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right, to just take accountability for it.’
Meghan added that it was ‘shocking’ that the ‘reverse of that would be out in the world’.
She continued: ‘A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.
‘And I thought, in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, that it didn’t make sense to not be just doing whatever everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive, knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot.’
Meghan also said: ‘It wasn’t a confrontation, and I actually think it’s… I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that, because she apologised.
‘What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do but that happened to me.
‘And the people who were part of our wedding were going to our comms team and saying: ‘I know this didn’t happen. I don’t have to tell them what actually happened’.’
Meghan also said reports she had reduced the Duchess of Cambridge to tears were a ‘turning point.
The Duchess said ‘everyone in the institution knew that wasn’t true’ and she hoped Kate ‘would have wanted that to be corrected’, adding ‘she is a good person’.
Meghan was also asked whether a trip to watch tennis at Wimbledon with the Duchess of Cambridge was ‘what it looked like … helping you adjust’.
But the Duchess replied: ‘My understanding of the past four years is it’s nothing like what it looks like.’
Oprah then attempted to further probe into their relationship.
Referring to a day the pair spent together at Wimbledon at 2019, she asked: ‘Did you feel welcomed by everyone? It seemed like you and Kate at the Wimbledon game where you were going to watch a friend play tennis?’
‘Was it what it looked like? You are two sisters-in-law out there in the world, getting to know each other. Was she helping you, embracing you into the family, helping you?’
However Meghan appeared to dodge the question, saying: ‘My understanding and my experience of the past four years is it’s nothing like what it looks like.
‘It’s nothing like what it looks like. And I remember so often people within the firm would say, ‘Well, you can’t do this because it’ll look like that. You can’t’ so, even, ‘Can I go and have lunch with my friends?’. No, no, no. You’re oversaturated. You’re everywhere. It would be best for you to not go out to lunch with your friends.’
‘I can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child’: Meghan hits out at father and claims her sister only changed adopted Markle surname when she started dating Harry
The Duchess of Sussex has said she cannot fathom hurting Archie the way her own father ‘betrayed’ her before the royal wedding.
In newly released footage from the Oprah interview, Meghan said she has ‘found it hard to reconcile’ with Thomas Markle for insisting he had not been speaking to the media.
She said: ‘I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child.’
Meghan drew a contrast with her mother Doria Ragland, who she praised for remaining ‘in silent dignity for four years’.
The clip also saw Meghan distance herself from her half-sister Samantha, who has released a ‘tell-all’ book about their relationship.
The Duchess retorted: ‘I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me.’
She said she grew up ‘an only child’ and even claimed Samantha only changed her surname back to Markle after Meghan struck up a romance with Harry.
The tension between the Markles was addressed in unaired sections of the Sussexes CBS sit-down with Oprah, who probed about her relationship with Thomas.
Thomas was supposed to walk Meghan down the aisle in May 2018 but pulled out of the ceremony following health problems.
The two were also engaged in a row about him speaking to the press.
Oprah asked: ‘Did it feel like betrayal when you found that your father was working with the tabloids?’
After weighing up if she was ‘comfortable’ delving into the issue, Meghan said her father had assured he had ‘absolutely not’ spoken to the press.
She said: ‘If we’re going to use the word betrayal it’s because when I asked him, when we were told by the comms team this was a story that was going to be coming out which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a key point in all this, they don’t report the news, they create the news.
‘We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said no, absolutely not.
I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our kids one day.
She added: ‘I said we won’t be able to protect our own kids one day, and I said, I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can
‘And he wasn’t able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.’
Meghan went on: ‘And also me saying just full stop, if we use this to protect you, we won’t be able to protect our own children one day, I’m talking about your grandchildren.
‘I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I go I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. I can’t imagine it. So it’s hard for me to reconcile that.’
Meghan also said that despite her sister Samantha releasing a book about her, she ‘doesn’t know her’ and they’ve never been close.
Samantha’s autobiography, titled ‘The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister: A Memoir, Part One, goes into detail about their childhood.
But the duchess said: ‘I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know. But I grew up as an only child, which everybody who grew up around me knows.’
She added she wished she had had siblings and was pleased Archie was going to have a younger sister.
Meghan said she last saw Samantha almost 20 years ago and added: ‘She changed her last name back to Markle… only when I started dating Harry. So I think that says enough.’
Prince Philip was not the royal who allegedly concerns over Archie’s ‘dark’ skin tone
Oprah revealed this morning that behind the scenes, Prince Harry told her it was neither The Queen nor Prince Philip who had concerns over Archie’s skin colour before he was born, but he would not reveal the identity of who it did.
Harry and Meghan revealed on Sunday night in their bombshell interview with Oprah that there was a ‘conversation’, before Archie’s birth, about his skin and how ‘dark’ it would be.
It was a stunning claim that prompted Oprah and the 17million Americans watching to ask who it was who had said it.
Harry refused to reveal that person’s identity on Sunday night as did Meghan. They said they wanted to protect whoever it was.
On Monday morning, Oprah said on CBS This Morning that when the cameras were down, Harry made it clear to her it was neither of ‘his grandparents.’
‘He did not share the identity with me but he wanted to make sure that I knew and if I had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather that were a part of those conversations.
‘Neither his grandmother nor grandfather were a part of those conversations.
‘He did not tell me who were a part of those conversations, as you can see I tried to get that answer. On camera and off. ‘
Speaking later today, Oprah said she was ‘surprised’ the Sussexes revealed details of an alleged conversation with a member of the royal family who expressed ‘concern’ before he was born about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be.
The talk show host also said she was taken aback by Meghan’s disclosures about her mental health, and about Harry’s revelation at feeling ‘trapped’, during their explosive interview.
Asked if she was surprised that the conversation about skin tone happened or that they were revealing it, Oprah replied: ‘I was surprised they were telling me about it.
‘Even on the tape you can hear me go ‘Whoa, I cannot believe you are saying this right now’.’
Asked how the couple is feeling today, Winfrey said: ‘I haven’t really spoken to them since the interview because we are in different time zones.
Oprah reveals Meghan told her in 2018 that she was ‘advised’ to be ‘half herself’ after joining the Royal Family
Oprah Winfrey today revealed that in 2018 Meghan was ‘advised’ to be ‘half herself’ shortly after she joined the Royal Family – as the talk show host admitted to being ‘surprised’ by the couple’s racism claims during their CBS interview.
Oprah said Meghan approached her and confided that she had been told to be ‘50% less’ – in an apparent reference to the need for the duchess to adopt a lower profile to fit into the royal pecking order.
The talk show host said she was left ‘disheartened’ by the exchange, although she did not reveal who gave Meghan the advice or its precise meaning.
Today, Oprah gave her reaction to the bombshell interview, including the claim that a royal had raised concerns that Archie could be ‘too brown’. Oprah replied: ‘I was surprised they were telling me about it. Even on the tape you can hear me go ”Whoa, I cannot believe you are saying this right now”.’
Oprah appeared on US breakfast show CBS This Morning to discuss her bombshell interview with Meghan and the Duke of Sussex and recalled a conversation she had with Meghan.
She told the programme: ‘She had just joined the royal family and she shared a conversation with me then that made me feel somewhat disheartened.
‘She said she had been told, been given advice, that it would be best if she could be 50% less than she was. That was the quote, if she could be 50% less.
‘I remember hearing that in 2018 and I said to her, ‘I don’t know how you’re going to survive, being half of yourself’.’
Meghan has previously complained about feeling constrained by royal protocol and having to run comments by palace officials before speaking in public.
Winfrey was a guest at the couple’s 2018 wedding and given a prime seat at the ceremony.
She had reportedly been courting Meghan for an interview for a number of years before the couple stepped back from royal life.
She has also been photographed with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland.
The couple’s home in California is close to Winfrey’s in the affluent neighbourhood of Montecito and Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King, an anchor on CBS This Morning, was a guest at Meghan’s baby shower.
Today, Tory MPs led the backlash against Prince Harry and Meghan’s ‘appalling’ accusations of racism against the Royal Family as they accused the couple of ‘detonating a nuclear weapon’ with the allegations.
The Duchess of Sussex said ‘concerns’ were raised about ‘how dark’ Archie’s skin would be before he was born because she is mixed-race and Harry is white, but refused to say who made the alleged comments.
Asked if they were ‘done’ with two children, Harry said ‘done’ and Meghan said: ‘Two is it.’ She also confirmed the baby is due in the ‘summertime’.
SOURCE: Daily Mail, by James Robinson, Rory Tingle, Dan Sales, Jack Elsom, and Martin Robinson
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