A “ROYAL” FAMILY MATTER –

March 11, 2021 – Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey first aired on CBS on Sunday, and one area in particular that seems to have resonated is Markle’s struggle with mental health, not least because many people watched Princess Diana outline similar experiences 26 years ago. During the two-hour CBS special, Markle said that she too experienced a decline in mental health, which led to suicidal thoughts for the first time in her life due to mistreatment from “the firm” and British tabloids.  Markle and Diana both reported feelings of loneliness after their marriages invited increased media attention.  Markle told Winfrey she “could not feel lonelier” after relocating to the UK to begin a life of public service with Harry.  “I said: ‘I have left the house twice in four months, I am everywhere but I am nowhere,’” she recalled telling a member of the royal family who told her to lay low and not have lunch with friends due to heightened media interest in her. “I continued to say to people: ‘I know there is an obsession with how things look, but has anyone talked about how it feels? Because right now I could not feel lonelier,’” she added, noting that Harry would often have to be away for work. Diana had told Martin Bashir that she “very much so” experienced this media-induced isolation, saying: “I seemed to be on the front of a newspaper every single day, which is an isolating experience, and the higher the media put you, place you, is the bigger the drop.”  She also said that Kensington palace itself was isolating “by nature.”  After relentless negative media coverage, Markle said she began to experience regular suicidal thoughts while she was pregnant with Archie.

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