Prince Harry has accused the royal family of “total neglect”.
The 36-year-old royal claimed he was desperate for help and support from his relatives after wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex “struggled” with her new role but the couple were met with “total silence”.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey on their new TV show ‘The Me You Can’t See’, he said: “I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever, it is just got met with total silence, total neglect.
“We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything that we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job. But Meghan was struggling.”
Harry found it “triggering” to see Meghan suffering because he was reminded of his late mother, Princess Diana – who died in a car accident in 1997 alongside boyfriend Dodi Fayed – in her final days.
He added: “History was repeating itself. ‘My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone who wasn’t white. And now look what’s happened.
“It’s incredibly triggering to potentially lose another woman in my life. Like, the list is growing. And it all comes back to the same people, the same business model, the same industry.”
Meghan has previously confessed to feeling suicidal and Harry claimed that when they decided to quit royal life and relocate to the US to ease the pressure she felt, the institution told him they “can’t do this”.
He said: “Eventually when I made that decision for my family, I was still told, ‘You can’t do this.’ And it’s like, ‘Well how bad does it have to get until I am allowed to do this?’ She [Markle] was going to end her life. It shouldn’t have to get to that.”
The former ‘Suits’ star had confessed to having suicidal thoughts around January 2019 and Harry recalled “feeling sorry” for his wife at that time and “ashamed” of the situation.
He admitted: “I’m also really angry with myself that we’re stuck in this situation. I was ashamed that it had got this bad. I was ashamed to go to my family because — to be honest with you, like a lot of other people my age could probably relate to — I know that I’m not going to get from my family what I need.”
Harry also accused “the firm” of trying to “smear” his wife and recalled waking up to find her in floods of tears shortly before her tell-all interview with Oprah aired in March because she was so upset with negative stories being written about her.
He said: “I was woken up in the middle of the night to her crying in her pillow because she doesn’t want to wake me up, because I’m already carrying too much. That’s heartbreaking. I held her, we talked, she cried, and she cried, and she cried.”