Meghan Markle is preparing for a return to Britain, more than six years after she and Prince Harry stepped away from royal life and moved to California. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to return with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet later this month, with their children reportedly set to begin school in the UK when the new academic year starts in September.
Since stepping back as working royals in 2020, Meghan has made a string of claims about her time in Britain, spanning allegations about the institution to personal accounts of how royal life affected her. These include the Oprah interview, the Sussexes' Netflix documentary, magazine interviews and Meghan's own podcast appearances.
Archie's Skin Colour and Title
Perhaps the most explosive moment of Meghan and Prince Harry's 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey came when the Duchess claimed conversations had taken place within the Royal Family about their unborn son's skin colour. Meghan said there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born”, but declined to identify the person involved. Harry later disputed the suggestion that the couple themselves had accused the Royal Family of racism, telling ITV in 2023 that the British press had made that interpretation and describing the issue as “unconscious bias”.
During the same interview, Meghan discussed conversations surrounding Archie not becoming a prince alongside her claims about his skin colour and security. However, when Archie was born in 2019, he was a great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and was not automatically entitled to be a prince under King George V's 1917 Letters Patent. Archie became entitled to use the title Prince following Charles's accession to the throne in September 2022.
Security, Media and Being Silenced
Meghan said her biggest concern over Archie's title was his security. The Duchess told Oprah that her concern was not the grandeur of her son becoming a prince but what she believed it would mean for his protection. She discussed being told Archie would not receive security while conversations were taking place about whether he would receive a title. However, being a prince or princess does not in itself automatically entitle a member of the Royal Family to taxpayer-funded police protection.
One of Meghan's most extraordinary remarks about the British media came during her 2022 interview with The Cut. Discussing the Royal Rota system and the expectation that photographs of her children could be distributed to British publications, Meghan questioned why she should provide pictures to people she said were “calling my children the N-word”.
Meghan claimed she was “silenced” after joining the Royal Family. The Duchess painted a deeply restrictive picture of life inside the monarchy during her interview with Oprah. She was asked directly whether she had been silent or silenced; the Duchess answered: “The latter.”
Mental Health and Lack of Training
In one of the most serious disclosures from the Oprah interview, the 45-year-old revealed that her mental health had deteriorated to the point where she “didn't want to be alive anymore”. She claimed she approached a senior figure within the institution about seeking professional treatment but was told it would not be good for the institution. Meghan also said she approached the Palace's human resources department but was told they could not help because she was not a paid employee.
Speaking in the Sussexes' Netflix documentary, the Duchess rejected the idea that there had been extensive behind-the-scenes coaching to prepare her for becoming a working royal. She joked that there was no Princess Diaries-style class teaching her everything she needed to know and claimed she was largely left to figure things out herself. Meghan even said she learned the British national anthem by searching for it online, explaining: “I Googled it and I'd sit there and I'd practise and practise.”
Royal Formality and Personal Conflicts
Meghan claimed royal formality continued even behind closed doors. The Duchess recalled meeting Prince William and Princess Catherine while she was barefoot and wearing ripped jeans, explaining that she had been a “hugger” and had not initially realised that this could be “jarring” for some Britons. Meghan suggested she had expected the formality associated with the royals' public appearances to disappear in private. Instead, she said she quickly discovered that the formality and stiff upper lip displayed “on the outside, carried through on the inside”.
The Duchess used her Oprah interview to challenge reports that she had reduced Catherine, 44, to tears during a disagreement in the run-up to her 2018 wedding to Harry. Meghan said: “The reverse happened”, describing the episode as a significant turning point in her relationship with the media and institution. However, she also stressed that Catherine had subsequently apologised, brought her flowers and taken responsibility for what happened.
The Duchess sparked a royal frenzy when she claimed she and Prince Harry had actually “got married” three days before their spectacular Windsor wedding. Speaking to Oprah, the Duchess said: “Three days before our wedding, we got married”, explaining that the couple had privately exchanged vows with the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, Justin Welby later confirmed that their legal marriage took place at St George's Chapel on May 19, 2018, saying he would have committed a serious criminal offence had he signed a false marriage certificate. A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan subsequently clarified that the couple had “privately exchanged personal vows” three days before their official wedding.
