Original subtitles

On the 15th February 2021, Harry and Meghan dropped a bombshell.

Prince Harry and Meghan will give their first interview

to Meghan's friend Oprah Winfrey.

The six million dollar question, though, is just how far

Meghan is going to go.

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I expect this interview not only to reverberate

through the United States and England, but to rock

the establishment at its very core.

With the Queen also set to address the nation,

are both sides now engaged in a war of words?

If they keep popping up and making public pronouncements,

of course, they're going to be in the media glare.

The relationship between the Markles and the Windsors

seemed like a fairy tale.

With the interview, and now allegations of bullying

by Meghan inside the Palace, which she strongly denies,

it appears to be over.

Outsiders have struggled to do well when they enter the Royal Family.

Do you ever have disagreements about things?

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Tonight, the inside story of when Hollywood glamour and ambition

took on the establishment.

Meghan wanted to have a celebrity boyfriend, and she definitely got

that with Prince Harry.

Forget the red carpets in Hollywood.

This was something else.

For me, it's an added member of the family.

How did a marriage made in heaven descend into

a public slanging match?

I think Meghan's Hollywood background would have hit

the Royal Family like a hurricane.

Harry felt he was freeing himself, but it probably felt like an act

of vandalism against the monarchy.

Stripped of their titles and patronages...

The Sussexes are isolated from what everything

the Royal Family means.

And that puts the Royal Family at peril.

...exiled from royal life.

The Queen's statement, it's a clean cut,

"You're out."

In other words, "You're fired."

Will you miss Harry and Meghan?

With just over a day until Harry and Meghan's ground-breaking

interview with Oprah, is this the final chapter

in their battle with the monarchy?

I'm just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you,

with my wife by my side.

Because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us,

but at least we had each other.

Meghan and Harry.

They could have resolved so many issues.

But they're stubborn.

And is this the moment that Meghan and Harry finally reject Royal

service in favour of celebrity?

There is no relationship between the Markles

and the Royal Family.

It had the potential to be so much better than, in fact,

it turned out to be.

I did not have any understanding of just what it would be like.

Harry and Meghan are one of the most talked about couples on the planet.

They've settled into their new lives away from the Royal Family,

having swapped the regal backdrop of Windsor for the luxurious

Hollywood Hills, in a move that echoes Edward VIII's infamous

abdication.

Quite a lot of us thought back to the abdication

crisis in the 19305, when Wallis Simpson, a twice

divorced woman, fell in love with a King and that King,

Edward VIII, had to give up his throne in order

to marry the woman he loved.

Harry and Meghan had to divorce themselves from the Royal Family,

just as Wallis and Edward had to divorce themselves

from the monarchy in order to continue their relationship.

Now, with the tell-all Oprah Winfrey interview,

are Harry and Meghan distancing themselves from - and even setting

themselves against - the Windsors?

Strikes me that they feel that they can continue to control

media coverage of them, control the way their

image is portrayed.

Yeah.

We'd all like to do that.

With the very public and unexpected announcement of their second child,

what will the future hold for Harry and Meghan and the monarchy?

The sad and harsh reality of this scenario is that by abdicating

from the Royal Family completely, that the Queen and Prince Philip may

actually never see the second child.

And one can only think how devastated and broken the Queen

must feel about that.

In December 2017, Meghan Markle made history as she became the first

royal fiancee to spend Christmas with the Queen.

Talk about a baptism of fire.

Here was a rare exception being made.

Kate Middleton was not invited as William's girlfriend to spend

Christmas at Sandringham with the Royals.

But here was Meghan doing just that.

And so to be invited

The Queen is very strict when it comes to family,

and so to be invited

was quite a significant thing.

I'm sure Meghan Markle was absolutely terrified.

Although she had only met Harry the year before,

Meghan was being fast tracked into royal life.

This extraordinary special treatment could have possibly annoyed other

members of the family.

Perhaps Andrew and Sarah, because Sarah Ferguson had famously

been not invited to spend Christmas there when her daughters

and ex-husband were there.

Maybe a few people might have felt that their noses were put out

of joint because they've had to work so hard with the protocol

and the rules and the regulations, and here enters Meghan

and is straight into Sandringham.

I think it would have been a very diplomatic line

that she would have had to walk.

Despite the huge pressures of a first Christmas

with the in-laws, being face to face with senior royals was a perfect

opportunity to charm The Firm.

I'm sure it must've been pretty daunting actually for Meghan to rock

up at Sandringham for Christmas with the Queen.

What do you give the Queen, you know, what do you give your

prospective father-in-law, you know, Charles, I mean,

it must be frightfully difficult.

The Royal Family had this tradition of not giving each

other expensive gifts.

In fact, the cheaper the gift, the better it is.

Harry once

gave it his grandmother, you know, a pair of rubber gloves

for doing the dishes.

I mean, really quite bizarre presents.

Meghan would have found that as extraordinary as a certain

Diana Spencer did at her first Christmas by buying lavish

gifts for her in-laws.

She never made that mistake again.

Meghan played a blinder on that first Christmas.

She got a toy, a singing hamster, for the Queen

and apparently she loved it.

And so did the corgis.

Despite winning over the Queen, Meghan's first royal

Christmas wasn't completely free from controversy.

After the festivities, a remark from Prince Harry on live

radio was said to cause tensions between Meghan and her own family.

I think we've got one of the biggest families that I know of,

and every family is complex as well.

No, look, she's done an absolutely amazing job.

She's getting in there and it's the family, I suppose,

that she's never had.

Harry was guest editing the Today programme on Radio 4,

shortly afterwards.

And he said that they'd had a lot of fun at Christmas

and then he made a rather unfortunate remark, he said,

"I suppose it's the family she never had," meaning Meghan.

Well, that went down like a lead balloon

with the Markle family, obviously.

And it's a remark they've never forgotten.

The family Meghan was joining was a far cry from the world

in which she grew up.

It was against the golden backdrop of Hollywood

that Meghan's parents, Doria Ragland and Thomas

Markle, first met.

Thomas went into the entertainment industry and became

a lighting director.

And it was when he was doing that job on the show General Hospital,

a big show, that he met Doria, who was training at that

time as a make-up artist.

She was 12 years younger than him, but they fell in love and got

married and Meghan came along a couple of years later.

Thomas had been married before, and he had two children much older

than Meghan from his first marriage.

Thomas Jr and Samantha, her two half siblings,

they weren't close to her.

She was not close to them.

Despite her parents divorcing whilst she was young,

Meghan enjoyed a supportive upbringing with both Doria

and Thomas, evident in intimate home videos that have been shared online.

Go ahead.

We're gonna catch fish for dinner.

Fish for dinner.

That's our goal, yes it is.

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F

Am I there?

I wonder?

OK, see ya later.

Bye bye.

Where is the little button?

OK, I got to press the button now.

Home footage of Meghan driving in Los Angeles also gives an insight

into the early and possibly fractured relationship

with her father.

We're about four minutes from my dad's house.

From my dad's house you can see the Hollywood sign.

But we're not going to go there because my dad and I aren't

on the best of terms.

She says, "We're not going there because my dad

and I aren't getting along at the moment."

This also gives a hint at a real relationship and it might

show the reality of some of their relationship that perhaps

it wasn't always great.

Despite potential frictions, Thomas continued to be a strong

presence in Meghan's life as she immersed

herself in Hollywood.

She hung around the studios where her father was

the lighting director.

That must be really exciting.

And she certainly got the bug.

Her first big break came with Suits when she got

the plum rule of Rachel, that everybody fell in love with.

Rachel's character was very sexy.

She was savvy, she was ambitious.

Actually, not dissimilar to Meghan Markle herself.

Whilst Meghan was being thrust into the limelight, Prince Harry,

a young officer in the British Army, was trying to escape it.

What do you think the public perception of Harry is?

Erm...

I don't know.

It fluctuates.

It depends on what the media wants to write, I suppose.

It's two very different things, what the public think

and what the media think.

The British public have always had a huge amount

of affection for Prince Harry.

But certainly the press have had quite a love-hate

relationship with him.

He was seen as a bit directionless.

He was seen as a bit of a party boy.

He liked having a good time.

Despite being labelled a party Prince, as he entered his 305,

Harry proved that he still had an important role to

play within his family.

He created some wonderful initiatives, the Invictus Games,

which was very much his baby.

He also worked on Heads Together, taking away some of the stigma

surrounding mental health and mental health issues, being very open

and honest about his own struggles, which was incredibly brave.

And Harry was, at that time, arguably the most popular Royal.

In 2016, Meghan touched down in London.

The last thing she would have expected was a blind date

with the fifth in line to the throne.

It's a lot easier if you have a boyfriend that understands

the press and understands fame.

And she definitely got that with Prince Harry,

you couldn't meet a more famous man in all the world than Prince Harry.

Buckingham Palace proudly announce the engagement

of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

God Save The Queen!

At the end of November 2017, news of Harry and Meghan's

engagement emerged from the Palace.

Congratulations from all of Us.

How are you both feeling?

Yeah, thrilled!

Over the moon.

Very glad it's not raining too.

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Two completely different families were to be joined together.

But behind the scenes, tensions had already emerged.

In my opinion, the engagement interview is when things

really started to sour.

Have you met each other's families, I imagine?

Q

F

And Meghan, your parents, do you think - you know while very

happy for you, obviously...

Q

Do you think they have worried at all about the scale

of what you're getting into?

F

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The year before their engagement announcement, Meghan had landed

in the UK to promote her latest season of Suits.

Lizzie Cundy spent time with Meghan as she settled into London life.

Meghan and Harry were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend.

They immediately clicked.

Harry actually said it was like love at first sight.

She was so open and he thought she was so sweet.

And they just got on like a house on fire.

Oh, yay, thank you for watching.

Hi, there!

Very few people knew the couple were dating,

but Meghan let her mother Doria in on the secret.

Any young man wants to make a very good impression,

and I don't think Harry was any different.

So when they met in in LA in a rather luxurious mansion,

he was a bag of nerves, apparently.

She rather less so.

She said that the meeting was a little bit surreal, actually,

and I suppose it would be - "Hey mum, here's a Prince."

But it went very well, and Harry has become

extremely fond of Daria.

She's been a close part of their lives pretty much ever since.

But Harry and Meghan didn't meet with her father, Thomas.

This is one of the great, what-ifs of the whole saga.

Why didn't Harry go to Mexico to meet him?

Why didn't Meghan take him?

Why didn't Harry insist before it all blew up?

I mean, the whole thing was so avoidable and I think Harry

does have to take some responsibility for that.

Thomas was simply not part of these early meetings.

She seemed as she got closer and closer to Harry and a Royal life

to be less and less inclined to rekindle her relationship

with the Markle side of her family.

For a few months, Harry and Meghan were able to keep their relationship

from the outside world.

But eventually, their secret got out.

There weren't many that knew, only a very few friends.

Then suddenly it got leaked to the press that Harry

had a new girlfriend.

If you haven't read any of that coverage, she's Meghan Markle,

a 35-year-old film and TV actress from California.

The world's press knew about it.

And Harry knew more than anyone, things were going to change.

Whilst Harry was used to intense media pressure,

nothing could prepare Meghan and her family for the

attention that followed.

After the relationship became public, there was a huge amount

of interest in Meghan.

Some of it was extremely negative.

And there were things like that that I think put a really bad taste

in Harry and Meghan's mouth in terms of the underlying and even

blazing blatant racism.

With the glare of the world's media now upon both the Markles

and the monarchy, questions were quickly asked as to

how the relationship had reached the press.

When in a relationship or dating with a member

from the Royal Family from the Palace, it's not an easy

thing to keep secret.

Prince Harry has got his close protection and they're very

discreet, but at the same time, there's other people who quite

enjoy, can I say, a gossip.

In the case of the leak about Meghan and Harry's relationship,

which Harry was said to be incandescent and furious about,

was rumoured to have come from someone in Prince Andrew's camp.

I have no idea if that's the case, but what I can say is that there

are so many leaks in the family, there were rumours about Harry's

new girl and he was madly in love and those got out and I don't think

Harry was quite prepared for all of that when it happened.

The wave of intense media attention led Harry to take a public

stand against the press.

An explosive public statement from Harry was the first indication

that the press were now on notice - he requested the media "pause

and reflect before any further damage is done."

The one thing the Royals are meant to do is make sure that everyone

is on the same page.

And the fact is that the Prince of Wales was abroad

or on an official tour, Charles himself was only

given a matter of moments to scan his son's statement.

And there was a feeling that Harry had been thoughtless

and that he should have consulted his father.

He should have consulted his brother and there could have been

a more measured response.

With Harry and Meghan's relationship now public,

the media interest was out of their control.

But Meghan would need to put all that to one side,

as she focused on important meetings behind palace walls.

Meeting the in-laws is always a bit of an ordeal.

Isn't it?

And meeting your in-laws when one is going to be a future King

meeting Prince Charles, it must have been quite tough

for Meghan, or a little bit daunting, but she is a strong woman

she probably marched in there and, just got on famously because she's

a woman with lots of opinions, lots of views,

and a confident woman.

And those are the kinds of attributes that Charles likes.

Charles famously adored Meghan.

That first meeting went extraordinarily well.

She was welcomed as a daughter, even more so than Kate Middleton

was at the very beginning.

As well as charming Prince Charles, Meghan also had a very successful

first meeting with the Queen.

The meeting went extremely well.

It actually ran over, which is an extraordinary thing

for the way the Queen keeps her schedule.

Meghan was warmly welcomed.

You know, here she is - articulate, bright, intelligent,

well-spoken, beautiful, elegant.

What's not to like?

Despite charming Harry's family, did Meghan soon start to resent

aspects of royal protocol?

The Markle way, it seemed, was not the Windsor way.

Meghan's first real reality check with how Royal protocol works

was when she was wearing a necklace with "H and M" on it, and then

told to remove it by senior courtiers,

because it might encourage the press.

To be told what to do, it must have been quite a shock

anyone would kind of think, hang on, wait, someone

telling me what to wear and which jewellery

to wear, excuse me.

Was it an early sign Meghan wasn't prepared to tow the royal line?

She likes to have to have the freedom to do

what she wants and when she wants.

She wouldn't want to be told, you know, what to

wear at any occasion.

You could look at this instance and say,

was that the beginning of, of Meghan saying, I'm not

going to have people like this controlling me.

Despite a whirlwind introduction to Royal life, Meghan stood firm.

And as the final preparations for the royal wedding were put

in place, Meghan's mother Doria was introduced to the

establishment's key players.

She was given VIP treatment, I suppose, perhaps it was her first

taste of being associated with royalty, you know,

being whisked through security at Heathrow Airport.

She was taken first to Clarence House to meet

Charles and Camilla.

And I think that went very well indeed.

Meeting all the Royals - Kate, William, Charles -

must have felt like Royal speed dating.

"I've got to get to know everybody.

"I've got to form these connections really quickly."

Even the rather wonderfully confident Doria found, you know,

fairly awesome, actually, meeting the Queen.

Harry again had prepared his mother-in-law to be by saying,

"You know, she's my gran, she's my gran, try to

think of her that way."

I don't think many people will think about the Queen that way.

While Doria was winning over the Windsors, another member

of the Markle family was conspicuous in their absence.

It had been planned that Thomas Markle would have flown over

and that he was going to walk Meghan down the aisle as father

of the bride, however, it came to light that Thomas Markle

had worked with the paparazzi photographer to stage photographs

of him ahead of the wedding.

He was living in Mexico, surrounded by paparazzi.

He tried to set up this deal with a photographer, in the belief

that they would then go away.

Well, I'm afraid that just shows his naivety.

He found himself profoundly embarrassed.

He thought he'd embarrassed the Royal Family, that he'd let

down his beloved daughter, who he used to call princess

What we've since learned, according to members of the family,

is that there was zero support from Buckingham Palace

or Harry and Meghan, in order to support Thomas.

The stress of dealing with the press and the build up to the big day

took its toll on Thomas.

Just days before the wedding, he had a heart attack and had to go

to the hospital.

He had to have stents put in, and by the time

he emerged, he declared that he was not able to fly

because of these procedures.

And he pulled out of the wedding, and this was a huge drama

on the eve of a wedding.

I mean, it's stressful enough marrying into the Royal Family,

but to do it with all this scrutiny and there's media frenzy and this

scandal around your family, you know, the stress must've been

unbearable.

Despite the frenzied build up, Harry and Meghan's big day

was finally upon them.

But with her father unable to give her away, Meghan was left

with a huge dilemma.

In finding a solution she broke with tradition,

leaning on Harry's father, Prince Charles.

I thought it was the perfect embodiment actually of the modern

woman that she started out on her own, walked

halfway down on her own.

And then Charles joined her.

It looked right.

It sort of gave us an idea of, of what Meghan was going to be like,

the sort of declaration of independence, if

you like, on her part.

"I don't need anyone to give me away.

"I'm a free person."

Was Meghan's independence also evident from the wedding's

exclusive A- list guests?

We saw Idris Elba and George Clooney and Oprah, you know,

walking in, there was this kind of like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

"I didn't know Meghan knew all these people."

It was a star spotting day.

And she looked great.

The bride looked fantastic, it was a wonderful day.

I think everyone just thoroughly enjoyed it.

And you just felt a sense of true welcome of this young bride

into the Royal fold.

To the eyes of the world, Harry and Meghan's wedding had

the flavour of a fairy tale.

Meghan wanted it to be right.

She wanted to be perfect, but she wanted it to be

done her way, not the Royal way or how the other royals had done it.

Forget the red carpets in Hollywood.

This was something else.

But even as the signatures on the wedding license

were still drying, the Markles' wider family were beginning

to make themselves heard.

Everything seems so, you know, magical, hunky-dory

after the wedding, and then it all got a bit soured,

a bit tarnished by Meghan's family piping up again and again.

The honeymoon for the Markles and the monarchy would soon

come to an abrupt end.

She was an adult, she had her own ideas

and she was going to do it her way.

In the past, when Royals married Royals, all the organisations,

the firms all work together to make sure there's no issues

where they can't have that control when you're mining into,

um, can I say normalfamilies?

Just days after their wedding, the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex

were seen at their first official engagement, a garden party

at Buckingham Palace.

This one actually was a little bit special because the theme

was Prince Charles, his 70th birthday.

And that must have been extraordinary for Meghan.

From the first instance the Queen had implored upon the Windsor

family to embrace Meghan, not only because she was a person

of colour and someone from an international country,

but that she had this charm about her, almost this sassiness.

Everything seems so, I don't know, magical,

hunky-dory after the wedding.

We've got this wonderful new mixed heritage, modern woman as part

of the Royal Family, such a symbol of the monarchy

moving with the times, and then it all got a bit soured,

a bit tarnished by Meghan's family piping up again and again.

Like it's so good to have a role model, someone you look up to,

often times when it's someone who looks like you or comes

from where you come from it's easier to connect and see it

in a different way.

Meghan was used to cameras and publicity, but really nothing

can prepare someone for entering the most famous family in the world.

And I think even she admitted she was taken aback by it.

As Meghan was starting her new life, her father felt he was

no longer part of it.

It was extraordinary that Meghan's dad did, like,

a press tour in the days after the wedding, putting

forward his side of things.

It can't have been very easy for Meghan to watch her dad

on television, publicly disputing her side of the story

or her version of events.

Well, I'm very disappointed by it.

Millions watched as he gave an interview to good morning

Britain, saying he hadn't heard from his daughter since

before the wedding.

I'm not sure why it's happening.

I'm waiting, I'm reaching out, I've been trying to reach

out for several weeks, everyday I try to text her.

It demonstrated that he was a man who was going to, you know,

shoot from the lip, if you like.

And he wasn't afraid to say what he wanted.

I love you very much,

you're my daughter and I'd love to hear from you.

Whatever differences or problems we've had,

we should be able to work them out.

We're family.

If you think about a father daughter dynamic, and this isn't...

This is an intimate family space.

So they are now three of them.

It's Meghan, it's Thomas and it's the media.

I do have sympathy for Thomas Markle.

This was a guy who had never been a celebrity,

had never courted fame and being a celebrity,

who was thrust into a national spotlight with zero support.

In the past when Royals married Royals, the,

all the organisations, the firms all work together to make

sure there's no issues - where they can't have that control

when you're marrying into, um, can I say normalfamilies?

Seemingly left to cope on his own, Thomas continued

to speak out in the press.

Meghan took full control herself because it was her dad,

and the Palace didn't feel that they could step

in and insist on how she handled things with her father.

She was an adult, she had her own ideas

and she was going to do it her way.

If that's the case, it was a gross miscalculation and a huge mistake.

Where was any help from Harry or anybody in the Royal household

to give him some guidance?

Was he even offered it?

Did he turn it down?

We don't know.

As her deteriorating relationship with her father continued

to play out in the press, Meghan became centre stage

in the Royal Family.

Once you're in the family firm, you are put to work and I covered

their first big tour in the Autumn, which was Australia,

New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.

It was relentless, but, you know, they were the most famous couple

in the world and the world wanted to see them.

I think for Meghan, it may have been a bit of a shock because these

tours are quite full on, you know, the long days,

the long hours, lots to do, but it was a great introduction

for her into the world of, of royalty British royalty

and how to do things.

Then a surprise announcement by the couple wrong footed

the royal press pack - signalling that from now

on they were determined to do things their way.

The Palace press officials were there going through the itinerary.

And at the end of that the British royal correspondents were called

into a corner and we were told, "Oh, and by the way,

she's pregnant."

It's like, "What?"

It was massive news and strange timing, but I think Harry and Meghan

made that announcement because, who knows, in those early stages

of pregnancy she might've suddenly felt that that tour was going to be

a bit hardcore and she'd need time off.

As Meghan and Harry prepared to start a family of their own,

wider members of the Markle family began selling stories

to the tabloid press.

Meghan's half siblings, Thomas Junior

snd Samantha, just seemed incapable of keeping quiet at this point.

They...

Every other week it seemed, they came out with some more

very cruel criticism of their half-sister.

The fact that none of them have been invited to the wedding

clearly rankled hugely.

You know, Meghan's answer to that was that they played very

little part in her life.

In a remarkable interview for ITV, Samantha criticised her step-sister.

The smiling and the waving and, you know, the contrived British accent.

You know, it was all seemingly great and wonderful then,

but when the public began to criticise some of

the expenditures and the behaviours and protocol that had been broken,

the tune changed.

The Queen and the members of her family must have been very

disappointed is probably the word that Meghan's family had chosen

to speak out in the way they did.

So Was Meghan's key ally in the Windsor camp also

now under pressure?

Charles has tried to be a support, a listening ear, to give guidance,

to help the couple.

But from the very beginning, Harry and Meghan have

done things their way.

The couple themselves were under increasing pressure in the media -

now the £2.4 million renovations to Frogmore Cottage

came to the fore.

Harry and Meghan took any kind of criticism very personally,

and none more so than the debate over the renovations

to Frog more Cottage.

Frogmore Cottage is not a cottage, it's quite a few different buildings

that they've knocked through, spent a lot of taxpayers'

money on renovating.

Harry took grave exception to this idea that they were lavishing

public money on something which was unnecessary.

And it did feed into the narrative as far as he was concerned

that the press was somehow being highly critical of every

motive and everything they did.

Meghan's mother Doria could only watch on as her daughter

struggled with the criticism and harsh media spotlight.

There's no doubt in my mind for what we can see that Meghan has

a really close relationship with her mother, somebody

who would always, you know, have her back, speak truth

to her and help her make the kind of choices that she needs to make.

It must be difficult for any mother to see a daughter being splashed out

of the papers for things that she might not want to be

in the papers, but ultimately you can't control the press,

it is a beast of its own.

But on the May 6th 2019 Meghan and Harry were able

to share some happy news.

Meghan gave birth to a baby boy - Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Ancl secured the couple's direct line to the throne.

Mother and baby are doing incredibly well,

it's been the most amazing experience I could ever possibly

imagined.

Archie would be part of the blood lines of,

uh, of a storied family with hundreds of years

of history behind it.

Harry and Meghan released a touching family photograph to mark Archie's

monumental first meeting with the Monarch.

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The birth of Archie was quite a moment for the Markle

family certainly but for Doria that must really have resonated with her.

She was over here so she was very much part

of this, this new little family.

After the birth, Meghan decided to keep her mother close by,

Doria stayed with Meghan and Harry at Frogmore Cottage.

And the royals began to visit the new arrival.

William and Kate went on their own without their children

to visit the baby, people saw that as a snub.

I think that was fair enough, they didn't want three children

running around the place.

He would have turned up and given his brother a hug and,

and they would have, um, and congratulated them.

Charles took ten days before he visited Archie.

Camilla could have been in tow, he perhaps thought

he was being respectful.

But when her mother returned to Los Angeles,

did Meghan feel alone?

Doria was very supportive,

but of course, she had to go home.

So I think Doria's absence would have hit Meghan very hard.

In public the Sussex's appeared to be content with royal life,

but behind the scenes, cracks were beginning to appear.

I think she did feel very misunderstood

and she felt trapped.

And so she decided to do something about it.

And I think that she and Harry, I think she kind of,

she and Harry kind of fed off each other actually.

Resulting in a bombshell which would rock the monarchy.

They wanted an exit strategy from the Royal family.

With the birth of Archie in May 2019, Meghan and Harry seemed

to have cemented their place at the very heart of

the Royal Family Despite ongoing battles between Meghan,

her family and the press, for now, their popularity

with the public remained undimmed.

I think the Queen had, um, high hopes for them being, you know,

great brand ambassadors for the Royal Family.

Harry and Meghan made it clear.

They wanted to do, they want it to be different kinds of Royals.

They want to engage more.

Uh, they clearly wanted to have, uh, close links with, with young people.

I think the Queen seized on that with alacrity.

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In September 2019, the new family embarked

on a tour of Southern Africa.

On the surface, they seemed happier than ever.

You've given us so much inspiration, so much hope and above all you have

given us joy, thank you.

But, in reality, they felt under pressure.

In a revealing interview for an ITV documentary,

Meghan dropped a bombshell.

Yeah, well, I guess and thank you for asking, not many people

have asked if I'm OK, it's a very real thing to be

going through behind the scenes.

Remember at this point she's had an absolute beating from the press

on a sort of daily basis.

She's had this horrible fallout with her father,

she's also a new mother, um, as well and you can just see

the sort of weight on her shoulders.

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The interview seemed to mark a sea change in the once happy

relationship between Harry, Meghan and the rest

of the Royal Family.

Meghan seemed intent on sort of ripping up the Royal, uh,

guidebook if you like and doing things her own way.

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One of the rules of being a member of the Royal Family is you never

complain, about anything.

So I think that, um, they would have been furious.

And the sad thing is, I think, you know, she was just

being honest about how she felt, but that interview probably

made things about 100 times worse in terms

of already frosty relations.

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Harry then opened up on the relationship

with his brother William.

He revealed his true feelings to journalist Tom Bradby.

Inevitably, you know stuff, stuff happens but look we're brothers,

we'll always be brothers.

We're certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be

there for him and as I know he will always be there for me.

Harry's revelation further fuelled the rumours there had been

a breakdown in relations between the two couples.

Was it now Harry and Meghan versus the monarchy?

I think it stemmed from William giving what he believed to be good,

brotherly advice to Harry, make sure about your

feelings about this girl.

And from what we gather, it was those words, this girl,

that particularly riled, uh, Harry, we, the, the media went

a bit to town on that fab four.

But that wasn't to be.

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Harry and Meghan were now fighting battles on multiple fronts.

As the negative headlines continued to engulf them,

they became increasingly frustrated with palace protocol.

I think someone like Meghan, who's always been very outspoken

would have struggled very much with not being able to comment

and put out her version of events.

This is not what happens in Hollywood.

Meghan couldn't do that as a member of the Royal Family.

And that would have been maddening for her.

Harry and Meghan's ongoing battle with the media came

to a head in February 2019, when excerpts of a private letter

sent from Meghan to her father were published in the British press.

This letter was such a watershed moment and I think this

was the point at which, you know, this was the straw that

broke the camel's back.

And they announced that they were going to fight back

and that they were taking legal action against associated

newspapers.

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And remember he hasn't even met Prince Harry at this point.

So there was a possibility that had this gone to court.

The first time he would have met his son-in-law would have

been in a courtroom.

The whole thing was an absolute nightmare, it was very,

very high stakes.

A recent ruling in the case went in Meghan's favour but there's

still a possibility they could end up in court.

There is one residual issue over copyright.

Um, and I think that certainly, um, the Mail on Sunday

and Associated Newspapers will be pushing hard to try

and get that to court.

In the wake of their legal action against a section

of the British press, Harry and Meghan announced

they were taking a six-week break from royal duties and heading

to Canada to spend Christmas with Doria.

What you do sometimes psychologically for yourself,

is you remove yourself from a situation that you find

difficult and painful, and put yourself in a space that

you feel might be more nurturing and safe and secure.

Christmas is a very, very important part in the Queen's calendar.

Uh, she likes to draw her family around her.

She and Prince Philip were getting older, they knew that there wouldn't

be too many more Christmases and they must've been disappointed.

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Doria could not be, uh, further away from the stuffiness

of the senior members of the Royal Family.

Although the festivities may have been relaxed,

were decisions about the growing divide between Harry,

Meghan and the monarchy being considered in Canada?

I suspect that Meghan uses her mother a great deal

as a source of wisdom and advice, I'd be astonished if during that

time both she and Harry, no doubt.

Um, hadn't spoken about the fact that they actually wanted to step

back as senior Royals.

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When Harry and Meghan returned to Britain in January 2020 they made

a shock announcement.

In a statement released in the last few minutes,

they say they intend to step back as senior members of

the Royal Family and work to become financially independent.

The royal firm had been here before.

It was an electric moment in Royal history.

Diana had essentially left the Royal Family

and before her Fergie, Edward VIII left the Royal

Family, he abdicated.

Leaving the Royal Family is possible, but it's messy.

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The tabloids clubbed their decision as Megxit and it sent shock waves

through the Royal Family.

I actually spoke to some colleagues from the Royal household

and we were all in absolute disbelief that this

had actually happened.

Harry, I'm sure he felt, he was freeing himself,

but for his father and brother and grandmother it probably felt

like an act of vandalism against the monarchy.

They would have been both furious, but equally heartbroken as well.

Away from the Royal Family, Meghan's supportive mother Doria

treated the announcement with the utmost discretion.

I think Doria has acted in the most regal way in all of this

because the Royal way is to, uh, don't complain

and don't explain.

And that's exactly what Doria did.

However, the wider members of the Markle family again

talked to the press.

Thomas Markle saying, oh, she, she dumped her own family.

Now she's going to dump the Royal Family.

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In the Windsor household, the Queen called an emergency

meeting at Sandringham.

Prince William was centre stage.

It was an extraordinarily awkward, family meeting.

And, uh, there were reports that William was actually less, um,

inclined to negotiate.

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The Queen and certainly Prince William's view

was that the Royal Family doesn't work like that as an institution,

you've got to be around for the whole gig.

You can't just pick and choose.

The Queen issued a statement that outlined a transition period

to allow Harry and Meghan to step back from their roles as senior

members of the Royal Family.

The Queen's statement was obviously very much

from her heart but at the same time, it was very clean cut.

You know, this is how it is you're out.

It's as simple as that.

Preparations for their new life could begin, but what would become

of the broken union between Harry, Meghan and the monarchy?

Meghan and Harry seem to live by the beach, you know,

do yoga and it's a very different life to the Windsors.

And I don't think Harry will ever be able to go back to that life.

And how would life stateside affect the dynamic

between the two families?

In January 2020, Harry, Meghan and Archie left

behind their Royal life and home at Frogmore Cottage

for a new life abroad.

For Prince Harry it was a big decision because, uh,

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leaving his friends, his family.

He felt he had to get his family out of Britain.

He felt so angry and hurt about the press and about

the institution of the monarchy.

After a brief stay in Canada, Meghan and Harry settled

in Santa Barbara in California, a familiar glitzy

surrounding for Meghan.

Meghan and Harry live in Montecito, which is a very posh, fancy enclave.

I happened to live there for four years.

It's very private, we know that Oprah is a neighbour,

Katie Perry and Orlando Bloom, they all live nearby.

Montecito residents are very protective of their own.

They won't talk about Harry and Meghan much

to the press and I should know because I've tried.

She wanted to be around the place she knew.

Meghan didn't know hardly anyone here in the UK and it can be a very

lonely place in the palace.

She didn't want that life.

She wanted to be free.

So I do feel Meghan had that influence over Harry to say, look,

I'm not happy with this and I'm going to the States,

that's what Meghan wanted and that's what Meghan got.

They reportedly bought their nine-bed, 16-bath

mansion for £112 million.

They've seamlessly slipped in to the Californian lifestyle,

a million miles away from the Windsor's world.

Their friends are not going to be members of the aristocracy

with wonderful estates in Scotland to shoot grouse on, but Hollywood

and a celebrity culture.

Oprah Winfrey is a friend of Meghan and Meghan's mother,

they're friends with the Clooneys, they're making connections

all over Tinseltown.

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Meghan and Harry seem to live by the beach, you know,

do yoga and It's a very different life to the Windsors.

What tore Harry from the British people was Meghan Markle

and the decision to move to Los Angeles.

Meghan never lost that desire to be a star and returning to LA

and Hollywood was what she wanted.

The move has only deepened the divide between Harry

and Meghan and the Monarchy.

Meghan's mother Doria is nowjust a 90-minute drive away,

a stark contrast to over 5,000 miles from the Windsors.

Harry loves Charles, they clearly have a strong bond,

now they are literally not as close as they used to be.

I think they are staying in touch over Skype and Zoom,

but it's not the same, is it?

I'm sure it pains Charles that he will not have an active role

in the upbringing of Archie.

Harry seems to have an absolutely brilliant relationship with Doria.

And there's no doubt that Meghan and Doria

are closer geographically, physically, um, perhaps emotionally,

as well than they ever have been.

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But could Harry and Meghan's plan to build their brand and become

financially independent from the Windsors push

the families even further apart?

They recently released a promotional video for their Podcast with Spotify

which reportedly looks set to bring them in around £30 million.

MEGHAN: We created Archewell Audio to make sure we can elevate voices

that maybe aren't being heard and hear people's stories.

And the biggest part of this is trying to create this community

of where you can share.

Their biggest and perhaps most lucrative signing is with Netflix,

rumoured to be worth over £100 million.

But will the inevitable publicity from their deals,

be seen as a step too far by the firm?

Effectively, the money that they are being paid

is because of their platform, as royalty as members

of the Royal Family, and that's quite tricky.

People always want the most compulsive viewing and the things

that are going to command the most column inches and effectively

that then translates into dollars, are those personal

and intimate revelations.

So I think that will be a very tricky tightrope

for the couple to walk.

They've created a new standard and that is one to exploit

themselves for profit.

Meghan is creating a new form of celebrity for herself by securing

deals with media conglomerates in the tens and hundreds of millions

of dollars sets her on a path to unparalleled stardom.

Let's not be surprised if you see her return to acting.

This here, right there is the house from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air...

However, in February 2021 it was Harry, not Meghan who took

centre stage on CBS in America.

Haz - how's your tour of LA going?

Haz, I didn't know we were calling you Haz now.

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In an unprecedented move, he gave a candid TV interview

to his long-term friend James Corden.

Interestingly, my grandmother asked us what Archie wanted for Christmas

and Meg said a waffle maker, she sent us a waffle maker.

I think it's quite tricky for Harry because we know that one

of the things that he found very uncomfortable was

the press coverage.

He's then talking about his personal life.

He's talking about his grandparents and that is going to be written

all around the world.

It's going to be turned into more clickbait.

By choosing to do these interviews, it frankly just encourages more

of that stuff to be written.

Harry, in a bombshell move, also spoke openly about his move

away from the Royal Family.

It was stepping back rather than stepping down.

It was a really difficult environment, as I think

a lot of people saw.

We all know what the British press can be like, and it was

destroying my mental health.

The actions of Harry and Meghan in the United States goes

against the very grain of the Royal rule book.

At the very core of this brand building exercise

is not Harry, it's Meghan.

There is a delicious irony where they live in Los Angeles,

the heart of the paparazzi, at the same time in London,

they're fighting these legal arguments and that must not be lost

on the Royal Family itself, it's almost cringe-worthy to an extent.

As they embark on this brand building exercise we're only

going to see earthquake after earthquake shattering

Buckingham Palace.

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I think that there were people who truly wish them well,

but of course there were also people who wanted to poke holes

into their love affair and bring out as much dirt as they could.

I think they found a way to say, you know what, enough is enough.

We refuse to be pillars of abuse.

Then on the 14th February 2021 they made another

surprise announcement.

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And in the days that followed, a war of words erupted between Harry

and Meghan and the monarchy.

Taking part in such a high profile interview with somebody

like Oprah Winfrey won't improve relations with the

Royal Family at all.

The Queen had no choice, but to strip them of the titles.

On Valentine's Day 2021, Meghan and Harry announced their second

pregnancy to the world.

It was clear yet again they were doing things their way.

There's a new baby on the way, which is amazing news,

but I think that is going to, in some respects, draw

them further apart.

They're going to spend most of their time in the US

and they want to make their life there.

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Increasingly one wonders how much influence the Royal

Family will even have.

The Royals are going to become distant relatives I suspect.

A year on from the bombshell announcement that Harry and Meghan

would be moving away from the Royal Family,

they made it clear they would be staying in California.

Harry and Meghan's exit from the Royal Family

ended today as it began with considerable acrimony.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple would be stripped

of all their honorary titles and royal patronages,

including Harry's military titles and Meghan's role as Vice President

of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

I think Harry wanted it both ways.

He wanted to be able to live a life free of responsibility,

but still make change, and the reality was The Sussexes

in another country, are isolated from what everything

the Royal Family means and that puts the Royal Family at peril.

So the Queen had no choice, but to strip them of the titles.

Within minutes of the Buckingham Palace announcement,

Harry and Meghan responded, stating that they "remain committed

to their duty and service."

Their quick fire response was reportedly deemed disrespectful

by Palace officials.

I think Charles and William, and certainly the courtiers

at the Palace, felt that Meghan and Harry's pushback

was disrespectful.

It was petulant.

It was resentful.

Um, and as one said to me, you don't disrespect your granny.

Just days earlier, Harry and Meghan had shot an intimate tell-all

television interview with their friend and broadcast

legend, Oprah Winfrey.

Then in the days building up to the broadcast,

newspapers claimed that Meghan now faced a serious bullying

complaint against her whilst at Kensington Palace.

Her spokesperson said that she was saddened by the reports.

Relations appeared to have finally hit rock bottom.

The $6 million question, though, is just how far

Meghan is going to go, the full truth as she sees it

would be highly explosive but it would certainly burn all bridges

with the institution she has left behind.

Whilst the news reportedly came as a surprise to the Royal Family,

excerpts from the ground-breaking interview were later

teased in the media.

I'm just really relieved and happy to be here, talking to you,

with my wife by my side.

Because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us,

but at least we had each other.

Questions will be asked that will be uncomfortable for the Royal Family.

Not for Meghan - she's open, she's honest and she doesn't

care about that impact.

The interview's scheduled broadcast date has caused another row -

with 99-year-old Prince Philip ill in hospital, the timing has been

criticised by the media, including Piers Morgan

on Good Morning Britain.

And, I'm sorry, I think we're entitled to say this

is incredibly distasteful.

To be doing this kind of confessional in which they're

bound to be critical of the Royal Family and the monarchy

at a time when his grandfather is in hospital and clearly quite

seriously ill, otherwise he wouldn't be in there for two weeks.

It does smack of hypocrisy.

Taking part in an interview, such a high profile interview

won't improve relations with the Royal Family at all.

In the days leading up to the broadcast, new revelations

from the interview exposed the increasingly bitter war

between Meghan and the monarchy.

How do you feel about the palace hearing you speak your truth today?

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It's almost like Prince Harry is driving a wedge with a sledge

hammer through his relationship with Prince William.

William, as a staunch advocate of everything that the Royal Family

means, is obviously going to be dragged into this.

I expect this interview not only to reverberate

through the United States and England, but to rock

the establishment at its very core.

Could Harry and Meghan's fallout with the monarchy leave its mark

for decades to come?

It's like a war.

I don't believe Harry would be outside the Royal Family

except for marrying Meghan Markle.

They've lost a critical component of what the Royal Family

represented, the British people had an affinity with Harry, now

to divorce himself from that family really is an abandonment

of what he was born into.

What began as a breath of fresh air cascaded into a series

of family conflicts, controversies and trouble for Harry

and Meghan and the monarchy.

These are family stories that are complicated,

run deep, if people feel very hurt and betrayed and they feel

that this relationship is broken beyond repair,

then that might be the reality.

Harry and William, you know, they've reached a bad place

in their relationship.

And one can only hope that they build bridges

going forward because the only losers in all this will be them.

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I think that in the initial stage, there was a fairy tale about this,

but that fairy tale was quickly shattered.

I think it's a real lost opportunity for the Royal Family

that they couldn't make it work, that...that...that Meghan couldn't

become an integral part of the future of the monarchy

the Monarchy could be seen to be so much more inclusive, modern,

moving with the times...

Evolving.

I think it is, uh, extremely sad.

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Meghan's Hollywood background Meghan's expectations

as a celebrity, would have hit the Royal Family like a hurricane.

And now look where we are.

It had the potential to be so much better than in fact

it turned out to be.