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‘Privacy Doesn’t Mean Silence’ – Oprah Defends Prince Harry And Meghan Markle’s public bashing of the royals

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Updated on June 17, 2023

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The controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry took place over two months ago. The pair detailed how Markle’s mental health was allegedly harmed by the British monarchy, leading to their departure from royal duties in 2020. Now, in a recent interview with Oprah for a mental health docuseries, Prince Harry expanded on how mental health awareness is personal to him, as well as why the constant focus on him and his relationship always irritates him.

Amid their vehement calls for ‘privacy’ and ‘boundaries,’ Oprah Winfrey has defended Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to consistently criticize the royal family, maintaining that the pair should not be forced to remain ‘silent.’

On Saturday, Oprah spoke out in support of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announcing that “privacy does not mean silence” in an interview with the US Today show.

Winfrey discussed the couple’s critics with Today’s Hoda Kotb, who point out that they both request privacy from unwelcome media coverage and have lately become very vocal about their personal challenges.

“You know, I ask for privacy, and I’m talking all the time,” Oprah quipped. “So I think being able to have a life that you are not intruded upon by photographers or people flying over head or invading your life is what every person wants and deserves. That’s what people are missing. Privacy doesn’t mean silence.”

For the uninitiated, in March 2021, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry appeared on Oprah for an interview, causing a stir on the internet. The pair dropped a lot of explosives and revealed a lot about the royal family. After several members of the British royal family mentally harassed Meghan and made derogatory remarks about the skin color of their biracial son Archie, the pair opted to step down from their duties. Meghan also revealed that she had suicidal feelings as a result of the public attention and media spotlight.

Her public defense of the couple came just hours after Harry released a new five-part mental health series in which he accuses his father, Prince Charles, of making him’suffer’ as a child and claims that the royals attempted to ‘bully him into silence.’

Harry also said that the royal family wanted to ‘trap’ him and Meghan, 39, saying that as they sought help from The Firm, they were met with “total silence, total neglect.”

Harry has been chastised for giving interviews about the topic, despite the fact that one of his motivations for moving to California last year was to protect his privacy.

“One of the things that Prince Harry and I wanted was for people to understand that mental health and mental fitness is a spectrum and we’re all on a spectrum,” Winfrey added.

“Everybody either is or knows somebody who’s going through something.”

She also revealed whether the pair regretted telling their story after resigning as senior members of the royal family in March.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, according to Oprah, “They have not shared any regrets with me,” “I understood what had happened to them, and I wanted the rest of the world to come away being able to answer the question, ‘Why did they leave?’ I think by the time that interview was done, people understood.”

The Me You Can’t See, a five-part new Apple TV+ program starring Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey, delves further into the mechanisms of mental health issues. Prince Harry believes that his problems are directly linked to the negativity of paparazzi society, which began with his mother, Princess Diana, and has progressed with his wife Meghan Markle. He said to Oprah,

“The clicking of cameras and the flash of cameras makes my blood boil. It makes me angry. It takes me back to what happened to my mum, what I experienced as a kid. I was so angry with what happened to her, and the fact that there was no justice at all … The same people that chased her through that tunnel photographed her dying on the back seat of that car.””

The Duke of Sussex went on to say that one of the “biggest reasons” he and his wife left for California last year was that they felt betrayed by his family.

‘Certainly now I will never be bullied into silence,’ he told Oprah, adding: ‘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.’

He added: ‘That feeling of being trapped within the family, there was no option to leave. 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 [Meghan] was going to end her life. It shouldn’t have to get to that.’