Oprah asks about how Harry and Meghan dealt with Meghan experiencing suicidal thoughts.
“I had no idea what to do, I wasn’t prepared for that, I went to a very dark place as well,” he says.
Harry says he did not tell anyone in the family because “that’s just not a conversation that would be had”.
“I guess I was ashamed of admitting it to them,” he says, adding that it’s a very trapping environment.
“I didn’t have anyone to turn to,” he adds.
“For the family, they very much have this mentality of: this is just how it is. This is how it’s meant to be, you can’t change it, we’ve all been through it.
“But what was different for me, was the race element. Because it wasn’t just about her, it was about what she represents.
He adds that for Meghan and Harry, “and the specifics around her race”, it was an opportunity for the Royal Family “to show some public support”.
He says the “most telling” parts – and “saddest parts” – was that more than 70 MPs came out and condemned the colonial undertones of headlines and news articles.
“Yet no-one from my family ever said anything over those three years,” he says. “That hurts.”
Harry says his biggest concern while living in Canada was that their security was going to be removed and people knew their location. He adds in a jibe at the Daily Mail newspaper at this point – saying that people knew their exact location “courtesy of the Daily Mail”.
He says the palace’s justification for removing security was “a change in status”- but Harry says he “pushed back” and asked whether there had been a change of threat or risk, to which the palace said no.
They decided to move to California because they felt they were not safe there.
Oprah asks them what was the tipping point was to their decision to step back as senior royals.
“It was desperate,” says Harry. “I went to all the places which I thought I should go to to ask for help, we both did, separately and together.
Oprah asks: “So you left because you were asking for help but couldn’t get it?”, “Yeah, basically,” says Harry.
“But we never left,” he says.
“We never left the family,” adds Meghan, saying they only wanted to have a type of role that already exists – a non-senior royal.
Harry says they wanted to “take a breath” from this “constant barrage”.
Harry said he and Meghan wanted to “take a breath” from “the constant barrage” the couple were facing as working royals.
“My biggest concern was history repeating itself,” he tells Oprah.
“And what I was seeing was history repeating itself.”
But he said this time it was “far more dangerous” compared to his mother’s situation, taking into account the race and social media dimensions.
He said he asked for help to “call the dogs off” but said none was given, and was instead told continuously “this is how it is”.