Meghan, Harry Were Afraid of Consequences of 'Stepping Away, Challenging' Royal Family, Author Says
In March 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shocked the world when they revealed details about their relationship with the royal family and accusing them of racism and neglect in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's friend Omid Scobie has made a new revelation that the couple was actually afraid of "challenging the system" and feared "the consequences" of speaking out about the royal family in the tell-all interview with legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
In an interview with People Magazine, Scobie, who is the co-author of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, shared that the Sussexes also felt "nervous" about sitting down with Oprah but thought they had no other choice but to air their grievances.
"They were quite afraid of the consequences of stepping away and challenging the system," Scobie said, adding that the birth of their son Archie in May 2019 gave them "that energy to stand up for what was right for them, regardless of what the consequences were".
As Meghan and Harry enter a new chapter of the biography, they apparently don't have any regrets regarding the path they've chosen.
"What started as a fairy tale romance became a story that reinvented the genre - a self-made, independent woman playing an equal role alongside her knight," Scobie told People Magazine.
Scobie also revealed that the "thriving" couple are "really excited" about the busy schedule ahead, following the end of their parental leave.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who welcomed their second child, daughter Lilibet Diana in June, are all set to take their next steps back into an intentionally public life and are preparing to to bounce back to work.
Finding Freedom, originally published last year, chronicles Harry and Meghan’s romance and brief period as members of the monarchy before they stepped down from their duties as senior royals to forge a new life in the US. Scobie co-authored Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, which will be republished in paperback on August 31 with a new epilogue that's excerpted in this week's issue of People Magazine.
In the Oprah interview, Meghan opened up about having suicidal thoughts during her pregnancy after bullying from the media and amid the pressure of dealing with life as a royal.
During the two-hour chat, Harry also said that his father, Prince Charles, had at one point stopped taking his calls, and alleged that he had been "trapped" in the system "like the rest of my family".
The couple further claimed that there was a discussion about the colour of their firstborn's skin within the family and a total neglect of Meghan's mental health amid attacks from the British press. At the time, Buckingham Palace issued a statement, saying the royal family would be privately addressing the shocking racial issues that were recently revealed to the public by both Prince Harry and Meghan.