This Is Why Meghan Markle Was So Upset Before Leaving The Royal Family
Meghan Markle's fairy tale romance has been far from idyllic. Since becoming a royal, she has been hounded by the press and, while she was prepared for some of it, the situation quickly became unbearable. "I never thought that this would be easy but I thought it would be fair and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile," said Meghan in the 2019 ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey (via People).
Megan admitted that she was struggling under the pressure. A few months after the documentary was released, she and Prince Harry announced that they would be stepping back from the royal family and giving up their positions as senior royals. The couple have since moved to Los Angeles and are pursuing new projects, including a charitable foundation called Archewell.
Two forthcoming books claim they will shed more light on what was really going on before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex broke away from the royal family.
Was it really Meghan Markle's decision to leave the royal family?
Celebrity biographer Sean Smith promises to reveal why Meghan was "so upset" before leaving the royal family in Meghan: Misunderstood, slated for publication in November. "Last November, I watched the TV documentary in which Meghan Markle confided it was not enough to survive something, that was not the point of life," he explained (via Express). "I immediately wanted to know how it had come to this: why was the most charismatic member of the Royal Family clearly so upset? Meghan Misunderstood is her story, her amazing journey."
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, to be published in August, claims that it wasn't Meghan's unhappiness that spurred the couple to break away from the family, but Prince Harry's. As a source told The Sun, "The book... will make clear that far from it being a snap decision that they took a long time to make it. The seeds of Megxit were sown before they even got married. The truth is that Harry had been deeply unhappy for a long time. And he and Meghan openly discussed going in a different direction well before they got married."
While Meghan was undoubtedly upset in the months leading up to Megxit, the book will provide a more nuanced view of the situation. "The reality is Harry drove that decision," said the source. "The book will make that clear and explain why it had to happen. The truth is Harry had been unhappy for a long, long time."
Prince Harry has taken responsibility for Megxit
Prince Harry himself has said that he is the one who made the decision to break away from the royal family, although he did hint that Meghan played a large role in that decision. In January, he spoke of the decision at a private dinner for his charity, Sentebale.
"Once Meghan and I were married, we were excited, we were hopeful, and we were here to serve," said the royal (via E! News). "For these reasons, it brings me great sadness that it has come to this. The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back, is not one I made lightly. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I haven't always gotten it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option."
A close friend of his also confirmed that Prince Harry had long wanted to distance himself from the royal family, and revealed that this led to Megxit. "He has suffered a lot from all of the things that have happened to him," Nacho Figueras said in the ABC special Royal Divide: Harry, Meghan and the Crown (via Town & Country). "He wants to live a normal life, as normal as his life is going to be, right? Because when you have a thousand paparazzi outside your house in Canada waiting to get a picture of your son, that's not very normal."
Meghan Markle was treated unfairly by the press
One of the factors that may have driven the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to break away from the royal family could be the double standard used by the press in their treatment of Meghan. In January 2014, for example, the Daily Mail applauded Prince William and Kate Middleton for setting up their own companies. The outlet wrote that this would enable the couple "to bring out, should they ever chose to, myriad items of officially-endorsed merchandise from tea towels to coffee cups." The Daily Mail added, "Kensington Palace officials said they were doing the 'sensible thing' in protecting the couple's rights."
Six years later, however, when Harry and Meghan made a similar move, they were criticized by the same outlet. The couple moved to trademark the Sussex Royal brand, which inspired a very different tone from the Daily Mail. "The Sussexes want to stamp their name on dozens of products including T-shirts, hoodies, journals and gloves for their newly-created foundation Sussex Royal," wrote the tabloid.
The media's ongoing harsh treatment of Meghan so upset the couple that they eventually sued the Mail on Sunday for unlawfully breaching her privacy.