In a wide-ranging interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired on TV American network CBS Sunday, made stunning and self-serving revelations about their experience and life as royals and their decision to quit being senior members of the monarch.
Among the bombshell revealed by the couple was the origin of the alleged feud between Markle and her sister-in-law Kate Middleton.
Media reported that Markle made the Duchess of Cambridge cry ahead of their wedding on May 19, 2018.
However, Markle denied the report and instead alleged that a few days before the wedding, Middleton was upset about the flower girl dress that her daughter, Princess Charlotte, was meant to wear.
"It made me cry and it really hurt my feelings," Markle claimed. "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."
Markle claimed that Middleton apologized. "It was a really hard week of the wedding," she told Oprah. "And she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologized. And she brought me flowers and a note, apologizing. And she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right, to just take accountability for it."
Another bombshell that has caused outrage in the United Kingdom, is her claim that when she was pregnant for their first baby Archie, there were "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born."
The Duchess declined to specifically mention who was having the conversations, but noted that revealing their identity would be "very damaging." However, Prince Harry made sure to note after the interview aired that neither the Queen nor Prince Phillip inquired about the child’s skin tone.
The couple claimed during the interview that they felt trapped in the family. Harry said that he felt "trapped" by royal life and was surprised that he was cut off financially and lost his security last year. He also said he felt his family did not support Markle, who acknowledged her naivete about royal life before marrying Harry, as she endured tabloid attacks and false stories.
"He needs to be safe," a teary-eyed Markle recalled. "We’re not saying don’t make him a prince or princess, whatever it’s going to be. But if you’re saying the title is going to affect their protection, we haven’t created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid fodder. You’ve allowed that to happen, which means our son needs to be safe."
The couple also revealed that they held a private wedding ceremony prior to the massively public royal wedding in 2018.
"Three days before our wedding, we got married," Markle revealed during the interview. "No one knows that, but we called the archbishop and we just said ‘look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world but we want our union between us.’ So, like the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our back yard with the Archbishop of Canterbury."
The Duchess also spoke out about her relationship with her estranged father, Thomas Markle. Thomas featured in UK tabloids for months following the royal wedding of his daughter which he claimed he was not invited to.
Markle told Oprah that she tried to reason with her father, "I just need you to tell me, if you tell me the truth we can help. And he wasn't able to do that... that for me has really resonated as a mother."
The Duchess compared her father's behavior to her mother, Doria Ragland, who has remained quiet for four years and has never made a comment or given an interview. "Everyone has accountability," Markle said. "Look [the tabloids] hunted my mom down. You've never heard her say a word. She's remained in silent dignity for four years watching me go through this."
Markle was also asked about her half-sister on her father's side, Samantha Markle, who recently published a "tell-all" book called 'The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1.'
"I think it would be very hard to 'tell-all' when you don’t know me...," The Duchess said. "This is a very different situation to with my dad. Betrayal comes from someone you have a relationship with. I grew up as an only child, I wished I had siblings, I would be so excited to have siblings. The first time I saw [Samantha] must have been 18 or 19 years ago, and the last time, 10 years ago."
The interview has sparked backlash in the UK and especially in the media.
“This interview is an absolutely disgraceful betrayal of the Queen and the Royal Family,” ITV host Piers Morgan wrote Sunday, on Twitter. “I expect all this vile destructive self-serving nonsense from Meghan Markle – but for Harry to let her take down his family and the Monarchy like this is shameful.”
On his show 'Good Morning Britain' Monday, Morgan also likened the interview to a “two-hour trash-a-thon” of the royal family. “They trash everybody,” he said, adding, “They basically make out the entire royal family a bunch of white supremacists.”
The bombastic TV host also got into a bit of a screaming match with a guest, notorious 'woke race-baiter' Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, who called Morgan “a liar and a disgrace” for his criticism of the royal couple's interview with Oprah.
The Harry-Meghan interview airs in UK Monday.