Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan didn’t hold back when opening up about their familiesduring their interview with Oprah Winfrey.
In the two-hour special that aired Sunday night on CBS, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex opened up about mental health struggles, the gender of their second child and an emotional exchange Meghan had with Prince William’s wife, Duchess Kate, among other bombshells.
However, the royal couple also provided insight into their personal lives, including the rifts and strains in their personal relationships with family members. How are things between Harry and his brother, Prince William? Where does Meghan stand with her father amid the British tabloid scandal?
We’ve rounded up what the ex-royals revealed about their family:
“Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special” will air this Sunday, March 7 at 8 p.m. EST/PST. (Photo: HARPO PRODUCTIONS – JOE PUGLIESE)
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Prince Charles ‘stopped taking my calls’
Though Harry said he maintains a close relationship with the queen, he admitted the Prince of Wales stopped taking his calls, “because by that point I took matters into my own hands,” referring to the couple stepping down from their senior royal duties in January 2020.
He said he had “two conversations with my father” before the two eventually stopped talking.
Harry admitted feeling “let down” by the Prince of Wales. “Because he’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like and Archie is his grandson,” he said. “At the same time, I will always love him. I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.”
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Prince William: ‘We’re on different paths’
As for his brother, Prince William, Harry repeated what he has said before: “I love him to bits, we’ve been through hell together, we had a shared experience, but we’re on different paths.”
Later, he conceded that “the relationship is spaced at the moment. And, you know, time heals all things, hopefully.”
Prince William and Prince Harry in April 2018 at the opening of Greenhouse Sports Centre in London. (Photo: TOBY MELVILLE, POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Princess Diana ‘would feel very angry’ about mistreatment before royal exit
Harry said he and Meghan left the royal family because they were refused support after asking for help amid a constant “barrage” of media criticism — which he saidwas reminiscent of his late mother Princess Diana’s experiences under intense public pressure.
When asked how Diana would view what’s happened with her younger son and his wife, Harry replied: “I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out and also very sad. All she’d ever want is for us to be happy.”
He added he thinks “she saw (the exit) coming” and he “certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”
“You know, for me, I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must’ve been like for (my mother) going through this process by herself all those years ago,” he said.
Princess Diana holds Harry in this photo just before his third birthday in 1987. (Photo: JOHN REDMAN, AP)
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Thomas Markle: Meghan expresses disappointment in father’s ‘betrayal’ to British tabloids
Leading up to Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding in 2018, Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, arose as a major figure in British tabloids.
Around that time, Meghan called her dad, who denied working with the tabloids, Meghan told Winfrey in additional interview clips that aired Monday morning. She told him if he told the truth they could ask royal officials to try to kill the narrative surrounding them, but that doing so would prevent them from using “that same leverage to protect our own kids one day.”
Meghan said she did not know if she was comfortable “even talking about” whether she felt betrayed by her father eventually speaking to those tabloids.
“If we were going to use the word betrayal, it’s because when I asked him, when we were told by the comms team, this is 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,” she said.
According to Meghan, her father said he had “absolutely not” been speaking to the press, to which Winfrey responded: “So, he basically lied to you.”
She said she told her father that they could help him if he told them the truth, but he “wasn’t able to do that.”
“And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother,” she said. I’m talking about your grandchildren. … I look at Archie. I think about this child and … I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child.”
Duchess Meghan of Sussex at Westminster Abbey in London in November 2019. (Photo: Matt Dunham, AP)
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Samantha Markle, Meghan’s half-sister, writing a supposed tell-all-book: ‘You don’t know me’
She also touched on a supposed “tell-all book” in the works by her half-sister, Samantha, who Meghan said says only started using the last name “Markle” again when she started dating Harry. She said the two did not grow up together and last saw her “18 or 19 years ago.”
“It would be very hard to ‘tell all’ when you don’t know me,” she added. The duchess said this situation is “very different” from her dad, because “betrayal comes from someone you have a relationship with.”
“I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know, but I grew up as an only child … and I wished I had siblings,” she said.
Watch the interview here.
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Contributing: Maria Puente, Hannah Yasharoff
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