Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have paid tribute to Princess Diana on several occasions over the years and their Sunday, March 7, CBS sit-down was no exception.
During the lengthy interview, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke candidly about their decision to stop working for Queen Elizabeth II as Meghan’s mental health suffered in the U.K.— something the late princess was also open about before her untimely passing.
“My biggest concern was history repeating itself,” the 36-year-old prince said, referring to his late mother, who died in 1997. “I’ve said that before on numerous occasions, very publicly. And what I was seeing was history repeating itself, but more, perhaps, or definitely far more dangerous, because then you add race in, and you add social media in. And when I’m talking about history repeating itself, I’m talking about my mother.”
Harry and Meghan, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, a baby girl, announced their plans to step back from the royal family in January 2020. According to the couple, they spent months trying to work with “the institution” to create new roles for themselves within the family. In the end, however, the duke and duchess felt like there was “a lack of support and lack of understanding” from the royals. They made their exit permanent last month.
“We were saying, ‘OK, if this isn’t working for everyone, we’re in a lot of pain, you can’t provide us with the help that we need, we can just take a step back. We can do it in a Commonwealth country,’” Meghan said. “We suggested New Zealand, South Africa.”
Harry added: “When you can see something happening in the same kind of way, anybody would ask for help, ask the system of which you are a part of, especially when you know there’s a relationship there, that they could help and share some truth or call the dogs off, whatever you want to call it. So, to receive no help at all and to be told continuously, ‘This is how it is. This is just how it is. We’ve all been through it.’”
During a bonus clip from Sunday’s interview — released on CBS This Morning on Monday, March 8 — Harry noted that it would’ve made a “huge difference” for the twosome if his family denounced the racism aimed at Meghan in the British press.
“You know, as I said, there’s a lot of people that have seen it for what it was. A lot of people,” the prince said. “Like it’s talked about across the world. Yet, the very people that don’t want to see it or can’t see it choose not to see it.”
The palace has yet to publicly respond to Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview, in which the couple also alleged that there was a behind-the-scenes discussion about their son Archie’s race before he was born in 2019.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince … which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” Meghan said. “We have in tandem the conversation of, ‘He won’t be given security. He’s not going to be given a title.’ And also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Harry refused to reveal which member of his family made the remarks, sparking speculation about his father, Prince Charles, and his brother, Prince William, on social media. On CBS This Morning, it was revealed Harry made it clear it wasn’t his grandmother, the 94-year-old queen, or his grandfather, Prince Philip.
Scroll through for every reference to Diana during Sunday’s tell-all:
