'I blame the Mail for the miscarriage' and other bombshells from Netflix's Harry & Meghan finale

Whew. Harry said he blames media coverage for wife Meghan's miscarriage and accused his family of being willing to lie to protect his brother but not tell the truth to protect him

Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle

Content warning: the below article contains references to self-harm and miscarriage.  

If you're affected by the topics raised, please contact Samaritans at 116 123, Pieta House at 1800 247247, and the Miscarriage Association of Ireland at miscarriage.ie.

DARK DAYS

Meghan Markle said she thought about taking her own life, saying in episode four: “It was like ‘All of this will stop if I am not here’. And that was the scariest thing about it because it was such clear thinking.” 

Her mother, Doria Ragland, said: “I remember her telling me that, that she had wanted to take her own life, and that really broke my heart because I knew… 

“Well, I knew it was bad, but to just constantly be picked at by these vultures, just picking away at her spirit, that she would actually think of not wanting to be here. That is not an easy one for a mum to hear.” 

Wiping away tears, she added: “And I can’t protect her. H (Harry) can’t protect her.”

Harry adds: “I was devastated. I knew that she was struggling. We were both struggling, but I never thought that it would get to that stage, and the fact that it got to that stage, I felt angry and ashamed.

“I didn’t deal with it particularly well. I dealt with it as institutional Harry, as opposed to husband Harry. And what took over my feelings was my royal role.

“I had been trained to worry more about ‘What are people going to think if we don’t go to this event, we’re going to be late’, and looking back on it now, I hate myself for it.

“What she needed from me was so much more than what I was able to give.” 

Meghan said: “I wanted to go somewhere to get help, but I wasn’t allowed to. They were concerned how that would look for the institution.”

THE QUEEN

Harry and Meghan have claimed the institution was “blocking” Harry from seeing his grandmother.

In episode five, Harry said that they were planning to fly back to the UK for a visit in early 2020 and the Queen told him she had no plans all week so they could go for tea and stay the night.

Meghan said: “So, we’re flying back from Vancouver straight to Heathrow, and right as we’re getting on the plane, this urgent message comes through to H, saying ‘You are not allowed to go and see Her Majesty. Make sure that your principal is aware he cannot go and see her. She’s busy. She has plans all week.'” 

Harry tells the camera: “I was like ‘Well, that’s certainly the opposite to what she had told me.'” 

“Once we were back in the UK, I rang her and said ‘We’re now told that you’re busy.’ And she said ‘Yes. I didn’t know that I was busy. I’ve now been told I’m busy all week. I’ve actually been told I’m busy all week.’ I was like ‘Wow’.” 

Meghan said: “I remember looking at H and thinking ‘My gosh. This is when a family and a family business are in direct conflict because they’re blocking you from seeing the Queen, but what they’re really doing is blocking a grandson from seeing his grandmother.”

TAKING STEPS AWAY

Harry said he wrote to his father, the then Prince of Wales, in January 2020 to say that he and his wife would be willing to relinquish their titles if the couple’s plan to move to Canada as working royals did not work out.

In the fifth episode, he said: “By the time I was speaking to my father from Canada, the family and their people knew that we were trying to find a different way of working for the minimum of two years.

“Canada, I was speaking to my father, ‘This is the plan’, and he says ‘Can you put it in writing’, and I said I would rather not because of what happened last time… “And he said ‘I can’t do anything unless you put it in writing’. So I put it in writing, sent him emails on the 1st and the 2nd and the 3rd of January.

“And in one of those I had mentioned that if this wasn’t going to work out, then we would be willing to relinquish our Sussex titles if need be. So that was the plan.”

THE LOSSES WE SHARE

Speaking about Meghan's miscarriage, her mother, Doria Ragland, said in the final episode: “I thought she was brave and courageous. But that doesn’t surprise me because she is brave and courageous.” 

At this point, the episode refers to the piece Meghan wrote for The New York Times with the headline “The Losses We Share”.

Meghan tells the programme: “When I reveal things that are moments of vulnerability, when it comes to having a miscarriage and maybe having felt ashamed about that, like, it’s OK, you’re human, it’s OK to talk about that.

“And I could make the choice to never talk about those things, or I could make the choice to say with all the bad that comes with this, the good is being able to help other people.

“That’s the point of life, right, is connection and community like that.”

The episode also reflects on Meghan’s victory in her long-running case against Associated Newspapers – publisher of the Mail On Sunday and Mail Online – who she sued over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private letter” to her father.

Recounting the effect of the legal action, the duchess said: “I was pregnant, I really wasn’t sleeping and the first morning that we woke up in our new home is when I miscarried.” 

Harry went on to say: “I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what the Mail did. I watched the whole thing. Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was caused by that – course we don’t.

“But bearing in mind the stress that caused, the lack of sleep and the timing of the pregnancy – how many weeks in she was – I can say from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.”

TENSION WITH WILLIAM

Harry said he was not told about a joint statement issued in the name of him and his brother, then the Duke of Cambridge and now the Prince of Wales, in response to reports William had “bullied” the couple out.

On the day the statement was released, Harry says he had been called to a crisis summit in Sandringham with his brother William, his father Charles and the Queen, with Meghan "deliberately" not invited. 

During the meeting, plans for the couple to step back from their royal duties were discussed and Harry claims William "screamed and shouted" at him, with his father saying things "that were just simply untrue". 

Speaking over clips of the brothers playing in an old fire truck and newspaper headlines about the acrimony in their relationship, Harry said: “The saddest part of it was this wedge created between me and my brother so that he’s now on the institution’s side.

“And I get, part of that I get. I understand right? That’s his inheritance, so to some extent it’s already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and the continuation of this institution".

Regarding the joint statement, he said, "I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and my brother’s name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family.

“I couldn’t believe it. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang M and I told her and she burst into floods of tears because within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”

HIS OWN DECISION

Harry said it was his decision to step back as a working royal, not his wife’s.

In the fifth episode of Netflix’s Harry & Meghan series, Harry said: “I’ve seen little cartoons of me on all fours and her holding a dog lead, and me wearing the dog collar. 

"How predictable that you know the woman is to be blamed for the decision of a couple.

“In fact, it was my decision. She never asked to leave. I was the one that had to see it for myself. But it’s misogyny at its best.” 

Meghan said: “I mean, it took what felt like everything from me – your sense of self, your confidence.

“And the truth didn’t matter, and the clickbait did.”