• 3 months ago
Harry & Meghan: The Rise & Fall S01E01
Transcript
00:00:00You're listening to KFI AM 640 live everywhere.
00:00:09I'm going to shift gears now.
00:00:11The royal family, you know, across the pond, yeah, those guys.
00:00:16I wanted to point out something about Americans' fascination with the royal family, right?
00:00:2229 million people watched Meghan and Harry's wedding.
00:00:25That's more people than watching American Idol in prime time, okay?
00:00:30My question to you is, are they still relevant?
00:00:33Harry, Harry, any regrets?
00:00:36We're invested in Harry as a person.
00:00:39Like, it's wild that he left his entire existence and life and anything that he would know
00:00:45to come to crazy America. America's crazy.
00:00:50So, he made a big change, and to know that now he has a family,
00:00:54and like, how is he going to move forward, I think is fascinating.
00:00:58We love a train wreck, we love a reality show that's messy,
00:01:02and that's kind of what they can give us.
00:01:05So, we want it to be okay, but we also love it not being okay.
00:01:28We love you, Harry.
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00:02:27MUSIC
00:02:30It's November 2017.
00:02:33The world's media is gathering at Kensington Palace
00:02:37for a special announcement.
00:02:40We got a message. It was an email that morning
00:02:43saying that within a few hours we had to get down to Kensington Palace.
00:02:48Masses of media are all there, the interest was off the scale.
00:02:53And no-one wanted to miss out on this one.
00:02:56Being there, you know full well this is massive, it's global news.
00:03:04It was exciting to be there.
00:03:06Congratulations from all of us, how are you both feeling?
00:03:11I'm just thrilled.
00:03:13Three cheers for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, hooray!
00:03:18You're thinking, God, I don't want to mess this picture up, it's a hugely important picture.
00:03:26When did you know she was the one?
00:03:28When was I going to be the one?
00:03:30The very first time we met.
00:03:33The Royal Family soon respond to the news.
00:03:37We're thrilled, thank you very much, the both of them.
00:03:40I hope they'll be very happy indeed.
00:03:42Absolutely thrilled, it's brilliant.
00:03:44William and I are absolutely thrilled, it's such exciting news.
00:03:52Your Royal Highness, Meghan Markle, congratulations to you both.
00:03:56They just looked very much in love and it was a really nice moment to see them together
00:04:01and they looked comfortable with the media at that point.
00:04:04Was it an instant yes from you?
00:04:06Yes, as a matter of fact I could barely let you finish proposing, I said, can I say yes now?
00:04:10She didn't even let me finish, she said, can I say yes, can I say yes,
00:04:12and then there was hugs and I had the ring in my finger and I was like, can I give you the ring?
00:04:16She goes, oh yes, the ring.
00:04:18How did you first meet?
00:04:21Yes, it was definitely a set-up, it was a blind date.
00:04:25Prince Harry is 31, single and a working member of the Royal Family
00:04:31when he goes on a blind date at an exclusive members club in London
00:04:35with an American actress and model, three years older than him.
00:04:39We went and met for a drink and then I think very quickly into that we said,
00:04:45what are we doing tomorrow, we should meet again.
00:04:48It was hugely refreshing to be able to get to know someone
00:04:51who isn't necessarily within your circle, doesn't know much about me, I don't know much about her.
00:04:58So to be able to start almost afresh, right from the beginning
00:05:01and getting to know each other step by step.
00:05:04We had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing.
00:05:09But we were totally unprepared for what happened after that.
00:05:19The relationship doesn't stay hidden from the public for long.
00:05:24The first report about the couple soon emerges.
00:05:28The journalist who breaks the story is Camilla Tomminy.
00:05:33As far as the scoop's concerned, obviously no, a journalist won't discuss their sources.
00:05:37There was a huge amount of secrecy around the scoop.
00:05:40Once we knew that we had stood it all up and it was ready to publish,
00:05:44we didn't really tell anybody.
00:05:46I think I had a printout of what she looked like in the Deal or No Deal shoot.
00:05:51And I think I said to my editor at the time, you know,
00:05:53this is the woman that Prince Harry is dating.
00:05:56And I think he replied with, I've just felt a gust of wind go up my trousers.
00:06:01As in, it was quite obvious that it was going to make for a really good story.
00:06:06The idea of a British prince with an American potential princess.
00:06:10And yeah, I mean, it was just one of those stories that ran and ran.
00:06:17An American, a Californian.
00:06:19She's said he's grown up on a diet of avocados and yoga.
00:06:22She is a divorcee and is mixed race.
00:06:26She's a very successful actress. Suits is a big show in America.
00:06:29She's lovely. She's successful.
00:06:32Obviously come from an interesting family.
00:06:34She's used to the camera. She's been on TV.
00:06:36What should we tell her about Britain first?
00:06:38She's got a lot to learn is all I'll say.
00:06:40Have a good day.
00:06:47Meghan Markle was a well-known face on television,
00:06:51but the public were hungry for more.
00:06:54Who was Prince Harry's new girlfriend?
00:06:58Meghan was born in LA in 1981 to a white father, Thomas Markle,
00:07:03a television lighting director, and an African-American mother, Doria,
00:07:07who's a yoga instructor.
00:07:09She was born in London, England.
00:07:11And there was this clear sense, really from the very beginning,
00:07:14that this could be the one, this glamorous American
00:07:18who clearly had a really interesting back story herself.
00:07:23Interviews with Meghan's estranged half-sister, Samantha,
00:07:27lead to damaging headlines.
00:07:30I think for Meghan, the level of scrutiny,
00:07:37of both her and her family and her past,
00:07:40you cannot prepare yourself for what that's like.
00:07:52One, two, one, two, one, two.
00:07:57One person who knew Meghan before she met Prince Harry was Nick Ede.
00:08:02I met Meghan in 2013.
00:08:04I organised a thing called the Global Gift Gala,
00:08:07a really big philanthropic event.
00:08:11I love new celebrities or people I didn't actually know too much about,
00:08:15and so I was approached by an agent who said,
00:08:18I represent Meghan Markle, she's in suit, it's a big show in America.
00:08:22I did a bit of research, I saw that she was quite philanthropic,
00:08:25and I thought, actually, it would be really great to have somebody like her
00:08:29to host an event like this, so I asked her and she said yes.
00:08:33We had a really nice friendship, really fun, very humble, very intelligent,
00:08:38and somebody who I love spending time with loved her fashion
00:08:42and was quite quiet and it was quite interesting
00:08:44because I think where she was filming in Canada,
00:08:46everybody knew exactly who she was,
00:08:48whereas in the UK, not everybody did,
00:08:50but when we used to go walking around London,
00:08:52suddenly you'd get some guys who work in the city,
00:08:54and they're like, oh, my God, it's Rachel.
00:08:56In 2011, Meghan Markle got her big acting break,
00:09:00playing the role of feisty lawyer Rachel Zane
00:09:03in the American legal drama Suits.
00:09:06I'm not going to go back inside and be there for him.
00:09:08Why not?
00:09:09Because he told me that he wasn't going to do this.
00:09:11What was really good about her, she was extremely proactive.
00:09:14You know, there are some people who probably rest on their laurels
00:09:17and they just wait for their agents and their publicists
00:09:19to create the magic for them,
00:09:21but actually I saw very early on that Meghan was somebody
00:09:23who had her own drive and wanted to do it for herself.
00:09:29Having divorced film producer Trevor Engelson in 2013,
00:09:34she was travelling in Europe in between filming
00:09:37when she went on a blind date with a mystery man.
00:09:41I heard a few rumours from a few of my friends who said,
00:09:44oh, is it true?
00:09:45And when I found out, I was surprised,
00:09:47but I thought actually if anybody would be dating Prince Harry,
00:09:50it would be Meghan.
00:09:51A week after their dating story is published, Harry breaks his silence.
00:09:56It was quite unprecedented, the nature in which he did it,
00:09:58and I remember looking at it and thinking,
00:10:00well, this must be serious then.
00:10:02There were even reports that he was quite desperate at that point,
00:10:05that if he didn't say something, he was going to lose her,
00:10:08that if she didn't feel protected, she'd just do a runner
00:10:11and think, no, thank you, this royal life isn't for me.
00:10:14So I think there was a lot of pressure on him at the time to say something.
00:10:17But the statement is also a withering attack on the press and social media,
00:10:22saying she has been the subject of a wave of abuse.
00:10:26It reads,
00:10:28some of this has been very public,
00:10:30the smear on the front page of a national newspaper,
00:10:33the racial undertones of comment pieces,
00:10:36and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls
00:10:39and web article comments.
00:10:41So we had the ball rolling.
00:10:43So we had the voices on the street,
00:10:45be they people of colour or white people,
00:10:48saying, this is going to be amazing, this is going to be fantastic,
00:10:51this is going to be wonderful, we want to embrace Meghan.
00:10:54But the headlines were starting to tell a very different story.
00:10:58There was some unfavourable coverage of her,
00:11:01one referring to exotic DNA
00:11:03and another talking about Meghan being straight out of Compton,
00:11:06which was geographically completely incorrect,
00:11:09let alone inappropriate.
00:11:11And at the time, journalists like me and others called those headlines out.
00:11:14There was, unfortunately, no surprise there
00:11:18when I saw headlines like that.
00:11:21It was clear that her race was going to play a part
00:11:25in this path that she was going to take with Harry.
00:11:30Over the years, all new royal partners have felt the pressure
00:11:34of intense public scrutiny.
00:11:36There's always concern that royal wives and girlfriends
00:11:40are going to be hounded by the paparazzi,
00:11:43as Diana, and indeed, in the earliest days of her relationship with William,
00:11:47Kate was.
00:11:49And I think that's what's happened.
00:11:51I think that's what's happened.
00:11:53I think that's what's happened.
00:11:55I think that's what's happened.
00:11:58This was Kate, confronted by cameras on her 25th birthday.
00:12:02The Palace say they will present video to illustrate their claim
00:12:06that she is being harassed,
00:12:08a harassment, they say, that goes beyond the public's right to know
00:12:11and infringes her right to privacy.
00:12:16He'd had, obviously, long-term relationships
00:12:18with Chelsea Davy and Crested Bonas,
00:12:20and it hadn't worked out because they hadn't wanted that baggage,
00:12:23that baggage of being caught,
00:12:25and they hadn't wanted that baggage,
00:12:27that baggage of being a royal girlfriend.
00:12:31Meghan seemed a bit different.
00:12:33It seemed as if because she had her own career
00:12:35and because she had a past,
00:12:37that actually it wouldn't be too daunting to be a princess.
00:12:40So it kind of all stacked up to have the promise of something great.
00:12:45It's September 2017.
00:12:50So far, the public have only seen photographs of Harry
00:12:54with his new girlfriend.
00:12:56That's all about to change.
00:13:03So we have the first sighting of them together,
00:13:05I think, Meghan in her famous white shirt,
00:13:07looking very relaxed together, a whole lot of excitement.
00:13:10Obviously, the media frenzy around her as a royal girlfriend
00:13:13completely overshadowed anything that she had experienced
00:13:16on red carpets in the past.
00:13:26I was so happy when Harry found Meghan, I really was.
00:13:30He'd found love in his life again,
00:13:34and everyone was delighted.
00:13:37But I thought, you're going to have to learn fast, girl,
00:13:42because this family takes no prisoners.
00:13:54After a year and a half together,
00:13:56Prince Harry has announced his engagement to 37 other women.
00:14:01After a year and a half together,
00:14:03Prince Harry has announced his engagement
00:14:06to 36-year-old actress Meghan Markle.
00:14:11In contrast to his brother, William,
00:14:13who had been dating Kate Middleton for eight years before proposing,
00:14:17Harry appeared to be in more of a rush.
00:14:22There was a sense that this was a couple in a hurry.
00:14:25It's quite obvious that Harry desperately wanted to start a family,
00:14:28and so did Meghan, and therefore everything, I think,
00:14:31was pretty hurried at that stage,
00:14:33which is why you see Meghan go from sort of suits actress
00:14:36to ready-made royal in a matter of months.
00:14:40The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly
00:14:44was a sort of confirmation to me that everything,
00:14:47all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect.
00:14:50It was this beautiful woman just sort of literally tripped
00:14:53and fell into my life, I fell into her life,
00:14:56and the fact that she...
00:14:58I know the fact that she'll be really unbelievably good
00:15:01at the job part of it as well.
00:15:05The reason why this story fascinates us
00:15:07is that it did have a beautiful start,
00:15:11and at its heart, this is a love story.
00:15:15There was a naturalness to them both, and you felt Harry's excitement.
00:15:19It was almost tangible that Harry was so madly in love with her,
00:15:22and we were genuinely, as a nation, thrilled for Harry.
00:15:25The ring is obviously yellow gold, because that's her favourite,
00:15:30and the main stone itself is sourced from Botswana,
00:15:34and the little diamonds either side are from my mother's jewellery collection
00:15:39to make sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together.
00:15:44SIREN WAILS
00:16:00For many, Harry and Meghan's interview had obvious echoes.
00:16:05Lady Diana's father described her this morning as...
00:16:08He said he thought she'd make a very good housewife.
00:16:11No-one's ever said that!
00:16:14We've yet to see.
00:16:16With Harry and Meghan, we felt so excited about this love story,
00:16:19we really believed in it, in the same way we all wanted to believe
00:16:23that Diana's marriage to Charles was this fairytale love story.
00:16:27And, I suppose, in love. Of course.
00:16:31Whatever in love means.
00:16:33And we believed in it because the myth of fairytale
00:16:36is so ingrained into our psyche, but it's not real.
00:16:42What do you think your mother would have thought of Meghan
00:16:45or said about Meghan?
00:16:47They'd be thick as thieves. Without question.
00:16:51I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down,
00:16:55you know, so excited for me.
00:16:57But then, as I said, we'd have probably been best friends with Meghan.
00:17:03Well, because it was so unusual,
00:17:05because it was off the wall in royal terms,
00:17:08Diana would have absolutely loved it
00:17:11and would have been a great friend for Meghan.
00:17:14She would have said,
00:17:15look, if you're happy with my son and my son's happy with you,
00:17:19it doesn't matter where you are, who you are,
00:17:21listen, you've got me as the biggest ally ever.
00:17:24While many looked for comparisons between Meghan and Diana,
00:17:28the engagement interviews highlighted the differences.
00:17:32I had a long time to think about it,
00:17:34because I knew the pressure was on, both of us.
00:17:37They're not comparable, Diana and Meghan,
00:17:39because Diana was a kid, she was 19.
00:17:42She had the most extraordinary,
00:17:44both dysfunctional and very sheltered upbringing
00:17:47as a member of the aristocracy.
00:17:50And Meghan was part of the sharp, elbowed Hollywood world.
00:17:56She was in her mid-30s, she'd been through a marriage
00:17:59and she made a success of herself.
00:18:01And then she actively chose to give it all up
00:18:05to marry Harry.
00:18:07I don't see it as giving anything up, I just see it as a change.
00:18:11It's a new challenge, it's a new... It's a new chapter.
00:18:25Following their engagement,
00:18:27Meghan spent her first Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham.
00:18:33In the past, only married other halves had been invited.
00:18:38It included her first public curtsy to the Queen.
00:18:44And Harry then decided to do something which I thought was very brave,
00:18:48but probably was definitely the right thing,
00:18:51and that was to present his bride-to-be to the country.
00:19:03They are the royal couple of the moment,
00:19:05and Nottingham had come out to wish them congratulations.
00:19:09At the beginning, they were on a huge charm offensive.
00:19:13Meghan! Meghan!
00:19:15I mean, they visited Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.
00:19:18It's so rainy for you!
00:19:20They did a lot of engagements,
00:19:22meeting as many different people as they could.
00:19:24I went on some of these trips.
00:19:26The turnout from the crowds, from the public,
00:19:29was immense and incredibly warm.
00:19:31There's Harry right there!
00:19:33Meghan shook it up a bit, and Harry took that on board,
00:19:37and they were touchy-feely, and he did put his arm round her,
00:19:40and they did hold hands,
00:19:42and that's not something that you've seen specifically with the royals.
00:19:45She was massively popular.
00:19:47Everyone give Meghan a big hug.
00:19:51It must surely have validated Harry's decision
00:19:54that the woman he'd chosen to make his wife was the right woman,
00:19:57because the reaction was uniformly positive.
00:20:11There was a striking similarity with Diana,
00:20:14because Diana was a consummate performer.
00:20:17She knew how to run this show.
00:20:19I don't know how many hundreds of engagements I went on,
00:20:22both in the UK and abroad.
00:20:24The performance was always top.
00:20:29If you look at that comparison with Meghan,
00:20:31this woman knew exactly what she was doing.
00:20:34I remember seeing the camera panning onto Harry's face at that time,
00:20:38and in complete amazement, in a way, almost saying,
00:20:41God, I've been doing this for... I can't do it as good as you.
00:20:44When he thought it was time to go, Meghan had other plans.
00:20:48She kept working the crowd and kept him waiting in the car.
00:20:55Right in front. Right here on your right.
00:20:57Right side, right side.
00:21:00Yes, I guess there's an element
00:21:02that she was used to the attention she was going to get.
00:21:07But the British royal family is very different
00:21:10to the Hollywood red carpet thing.
00:21:12The rules of engagement are different for royals.
00:21:15It would be extraordinary for a senior royal to sign autographs,
00:21:19and yet Harry's fiancée was happy to put pen to paper.
00:21:23What she didn't realise was the protocols
00:21:26and some of the rules that being a member of the royal family entail.
00:21:38I think a good example with Meghan
00:21:40was very early on at one of her first engagements.
00:21:44She visited a radio station in Brixton,
00:21:46and there was a huge turnout.
00:21:48The public came to see her and catch a glimpse.
00:21:51Meghan! We love you, Meghan!
00:21:54And the crowd were all cheering and she turned to the crowd
00:21:58and was just about to blow a kiss.
00:22:01And you could see her hesitating as she almost thought,
00:22:04actually, that's not really the done thing to do.
00:22:07She had to adapt to not being able to act in those ways.
00:22:11Meghan! Harry!
00:22:14Oh, my God!
00:22:16What I saw were the voices of people of colour
00:22:20now playing a more pivotal role in terms of providing an opinion.
00:22:26I feel there's always been something that's missing in the royal family.
00:22:30I mean, all of us support the royal family,
00:22:33and there's just added something on top.
00:22:35I'm coming from a mixed-race background.
00:22:37What was the royal family going to look like?
00:22:39What was Meghan going to do in terms of, you know,
00:22:42moving the royal family forward, making it more modern?
00:22:45Now that she's up there within the royal families,
00:22:47they seem a bit more attainable, they seem a bit more reachable
00:22:50and a bit more down-to-earth.
00:22:52They've got a connection with the public
00:22:54that no other couple in the royal family had.
00:22:57Yes!
00:22:59They were going to be in a position to reach out
00:23:02to that very different demographic
00:23:05that, for obvious reasons,
00:23:07the Queen and the then Prince of Wales couldn't possibly reach.
00:23:13We got this!
00:23:251952, one of the worst flash floods in British history.
00:23:29I've never seen a sight like that before.
00:23:31An entire village washed away overnight.
00:23:34It was a horrendous sight.
00:23:3652 years later, disaster struck again.
00:23:40The Great Devon and Cornwall Floods,
00:23:42next Saturday at nine on Channel 5 and My5.
00:23:52Welcome to the very first Royal Foundation Forum.
00:23:56Now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage
00:23:58the patrons of the Royal Foundation,
00:24:00the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry and Miss Meghan Markle.
00:24:06One month after the Brixton visit,
00:24:08Meghan joins Harry with her future in-laws, William and Kate,
00:24:12who is pregnant with her third child,
00:24:15at the first Royal Foundation Forum.
00:24:19The image of the four young royals together
00:24:22appeared to show a positive vision
00:24:24of what the future could hold for the family.
00:24:27For me, it's been a very long time working on cause-driven work,
00:24:31specifically with women and girls' rights,
00:24:33but, you know, to see the model of the foundation is really interesting.
00:24:37With the Royal Foundation, there was a sense
00:24:39that they're going to be this power group of young royals.
00:24:43This term that was come up with, the Fab Four,
00:24:46I think people were very excited about that.
00:24:49I think the hopeful new vision of the Royal Foundation
00:24:51was the fact that we'd have four
00:24:53taking us forward into the next century.
00:24:57That was the wow factor.
00:24:59Four young, fresh faces taking us forward.
00:25:04You'll often hear people say,
00:25:06well, you're helping women find their voices,
00:25:08and I fundamentally disagree with that
00:25:10because women don't need to find a voice.
00:25:12They have a voice, they need to feel empowered to use it,
00:25:15and people need to be encouraged to listen.
00:25:18I watched that panel that they gave
00:25:20and I absolutely felt that there were going to be problems.
00:25:24It was never going to work.
00:25:26Meghan was so articulate, so confident,
00:25:29so poised on that panel,
00:25:31and I remember watching that thinking,
00:25:33oh, this is never going to work.
00:25:35They're far too polished.
00:25:37Working together as family,
00:25:39do you ever have disagreements about things?
00:25:42Oh, yes.
00:25:45Healthy disagreements.
00:25:47OK, the last thing you disagreed on, how do you resolve it?
00:25:51I can't remember, they come so thick and fast.
00:25:55But is it resolved?
00:25:57While they joked about the difficulties of working together,
00:26:00this would prove to be the only time
00:26:02we saw all four of them at such an event.
00:26:06Working as family does have its challenges, of course it does.
00:26:09The fact that everyone's laughing
00:26:11means that everybody knows exactly what it's like.
00:26:14But, you know, we're stuck together for the rest of our lives, so...
00:26:20It was a bright future.
00:26:24But I think personality has got in the way.
00:26:27I think there's always a moment where you look at people
00:26:30who enter the royal fray and think, do they know what's coming?
00:26:43This historic town is expectant,
00:26:46not to say excited, about making more history tomorrow
00:26:49with the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
00:26:52The forecast is for more sparkling sunshine on Saturday.
00:26:56It's the day before Prince Harry is due to marry
00:26:59his American fiancée, Meghan Markle.
00:27:02Over 100,000 well-wishers are expected in Windsor,
00:27:06including many from all over the world.
00:27:11Look how beautiful it is, it's such a beautiful day here in Windsor.
00:27:14I've met some beautiful women from Texas, Houston.
00:27:18And we're part of history, so why not?
00:27:22CHEERING
00:27:26The people who have gathered a day early
00:27:29are then treated to a surprise royal walkabout.
00:27:33There was a crowd forming, no-one knew quite what was going to happen,
00:27:36but there was definitely a sense that something was going to happen.
00:27:39And then, out of nowhere, William and Harry appeared and met the crowd.
00:27:49On the surface, there is no sign of nerves.
00:27:55CHEERING
00:28:00But behind the scenes,
00:28:02the run-up to the wedding had been anything but smooth.
00:28:07The question today is not whether Meghan Markle will take Prince Harry
00:28:10to be her wedded husband, but whether her father
00:28:13will be accompanying her down the aisle.
00:28:15Will he, won't he? How is he?
00:28:19Over the last week,
00:28:21the focus has been on a small Mexican town on the Pacific coast.
00:28:26It's here that Meghan's dad, Thomas Markle, lives.
00:28:31In the run-up to the wedding, he's been pictured preparing.
00:28:36But it's revealed the photos have been staged,
00:28:39leading people to question if he's making money
00:28:42off his relationship with Meghan.
00:28:44It doesn't immediately make sense.
00:28:47And with the wedding only days away,
00:28:50it throws into question whether he is going to be attending.
00:28:56With the whole world wondering if he will walk Meghan down the aisle,
00:29:01it seems the only person he is speaking to is reporter Sean Mandel.
00:29:07It was an absolute whirlwind the next few days.
00:29:11Because I was the only person in the world,
00:29:14in the news media certainly, he was speaking to.
00:29:17And what came out was interesting.
00:29:21When I first spoke to him,
00:29:23he said he wasn't going to attend the wedding,
00:29:26but it was his decision because he felt he had embarrassed Meghan
00:29:30and he had embarrassed the royal family.
00:29:34Thomas said that he participated in the wedding
00:29:38Thomas said that he participated in the taking of these photos
00:29:43because he wanted to change the narrative around how he was viewed.
00:29:47Because up until the point he was working with this paparazzo,
00:29:53the photos being taken of him were not complimentary.
00:29:58So you have a photo of him going to his local convenience store
00:30:01buying beer in a plastic bag,
00:30:04and you think of that as the father of this glamorous woman
00:30:07who's going to be marrying Prince Harry.
00:30:09And that's not necessarily the image that he wanted the world to see.
00:30:14Over the next day, two days, he waffled a little bit on that
00:30:20and decided, no, I actually, I think I do want to go.
00:30:24I want to be there.
00:30:26It's still not clear tonight whether or not the 73-year-old
00:30:29will walk Meghan down the aisle for her wedding to Prince Harry this Saturday.
00:30:33He was said to have pulled out,
00:30:35but he's reportedly changed his mind.
00:30:37Well, whichever way it goes,
00:30:39the speculation is threatening to overshadow the couple's big day.
00:30:43There were many tears shed by Meghan during that saga.
00:30:48You know, this is her father, who she had,
00:30:51previously said she had a close relationship with.
00:30:54I remember writing at the time and being briefed, you know,
00:30:56that the couple were absolutely beside themselves about this whole thing.
00:31:00And I think the Archbishop of Canterbury had been in and out advising them
00:31:04because Meghan had become confirmed into the Church of England ahead of the wedding
00:31:08and there'd been quite a close relationship between them and the Archbishop
00:31:12and that he was counselling them and that they were both in tears
00:31:15and it was just all a nightmare.
00:31:18There is then another twist to the tale.
00:31:23I was boarding a flight to London.
00:31:26As I'm doing so, I'm on the phone with Thomas.
00:31:29I can hear medical beeping sounds in the background.
00:31:33He is in the hospital.
00:31:35Doctors are about to roll him in for surgery to have stents placed in his heart.
00:31:41And that was the moment when it became clear there was no turning back.
00:31:45Today, Meghan Markle confirmed her father Thomas will not be there
00:31:49for her marriage to Prince Harry.
00:31:51Not because of those staged photographs, though, but because of his health.
00:31:55Meghan learned that her father wasn't going to be attending the wedding
00:32:00from the stories that I had been publishing.
00:32:02Thomas had been speaking with me this entire week
00:32:05and according to her, he hadn't been speaking to her.
00:32:09It was an absolutely wild few days.
00:32:15Surreal, just absolutely surreal.
00:32:23Despite everything that had happened with Thomas Markle,
00:32:27when the wedding day arrives, the world is ready to celebrate.
00:32:33MUSIC
00:32:38A global TV audience of almost two billion
00:32:41witnesses the excitement on the streets of Windsor.
00:32:45Look at the weather! It's a day of happiness and joy!
00:32:49It's been quite a week for the royal couple in one way or another,
00:32:53but today they can put all the build-up behind them
00:32:56and focus on each other.
00:32:59Harry and Meghan Markle are going to be attending a royal wedding
00:33:02unlike any other.
00:33:05Harry had this unique relationship with his grandmother, the Queen.
00:33:09She wanted him to have the wedding that he wanted.
00:33:13Everybody who has been chosen to be invited to this wedding
00:33:16is known personally.
00:33:18David and Victoria Beckham, of course.
00:33:21George Clooney, look where you are!
00:33:23There were so many royal fans, like, from all walks of life,
00:33:27lots of Americans.
00:33:30It's not the first time Americans have been fascinated
00:33:33by one of your weddings, but this one's special.
00:33:36This is our girl marrying into your royal family.
00:33:40This was to be the first glimpse of the bride.
00:33:43Meghan Markle and her mother, Doria,
00:33:45leaving the Cliveden House Hotel in a vintage Rolls-Royce Phantom.
00:33:50CHEERING
00:33:58Thousands line the streets
00:34:00as the bride makes her way to the chapel.
00:34:05She waved at us!
00:34:08Yes!
00:34:10Where she emerges to reveal her hugely anticipated dress.
00:34:15CHEERING
00:34:18The work of a British designer
00:34:20from the French fashion house Givenchy.
00:34:23It is believed to cost in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
00:34:28I was broadcasting for an American network, NBC,
00:34:31and because it was an American princess story,
00:34:34the Americans were going completely bonkers.
00:34:37They absolutely loved every minute of it.
00:34:39Everyone was invested in it,
00:34:41and it was really very exciting.
00:34:43It was a really, really magical day.
00:34:45Everything about the wedding itself was pitch perfect,
00:34:48from the weather to the happiness that was abundantly clear
00:34:52on the faces of the couple themselves.
00:34:55CHEERING
00:34:57It was a joyful union of different cultures and different continents.
00:35:02A love story Hollywood will no doubt try to recreate in future years.
00:35:07CHEERING
00:35:11MUSIC
00:35:14For me, it was very weird. I was with a group of friends.
00:35:17We were watching this woman who I'd known,
00:35:19I'd been shopping with her in Zara,
00:35:21had coffees with her at Pret a Manger.
00:35:23It was a moment of pride I felt for her,
00:35:26because I was like, this is amazing that she's got here.
00:35:29Happiness because the whole country was so happy.
00:35:32We all were feeling quite teary as well,
00:35:35really happy that Diana's son had got married.
00:35:38So it was a really great special moment for everybody.
00:35:41Even Thomas, I remember being on the long walk
00:35:44and texting him as soon as it was official,
00:35:47and I was like, what's your reaction?
00:35:49And he said, my baby girl's a duchess.
00:35:52The House of Windsor has a new member
00:35:55and may never be quite the same again.
00:35:58CHEERING
00:36:05The next morning, the clear-up begins
00:36:08and the world's media packs up and leaves.
00:36:11What next was the sky seemed to be the limit for this couple.
00:36:15I think the public went away at the end of it and thought,
00:36:19well, whatever they do next, it would be hard to surpass this,
00:36:23but they can do literally anything.
00:36:26Harry and Meghan head off on their secret honeymoon
00:36:29in the Mediterranean.
00:36:31But what would the future hold for them as they settle into royal life?
00:36:37It isn't long before the cracks begin to appear.
00:36:42There is a problem with the couple not wanting to toe the royal line,
00:36:46as has been expected.
00:36:48There are tensions between the royal brothers.
00:36:50Lo and behold, there are also tensions between the royal sister-in-laws.
00:36:56A few days later...
00:37:15The first major royal tour that Meghan and Harry did
00:37:20was Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.
00:37:24It started on such a positive note
00:37:26because Meghan announced that she was pregnant on the first day
00:37:30and that increased the excitement of the whole thing.
00:37:33People were really interested to see this rather modern representation
00:37:38of a very old-fashioned institution.
00:37:41And they really did seem to have the future of the royal family,
00:37:45the House of Windsor, in the palm of their hands.
00:37:48To everyone in the royal household,
00:37:51Meghan was performing well in the very beginning.
00:37:54She was feted by everyone and she was following the royal protocol,
00:37:58the way Diana and Charles had done it.
00:38:00And Meghan was being shown off to the world
00:38:03as the new asset for the royal family.
00:38:16As Harry and Meghan prepare to return home,
00:38:19all is not as rosy as it seems.
00:38:22There was hugely favourable publicity about the couple
00:38:25up until after their wedding, and then, by their own admission,
00:38:29the narrative changed after the wedding.
00:38:33Reports emerge about tension in the run-up to Harry and Meghan's wedding.
00:38:38In particular, there are stories around a bridesmaid's dress fitting
00:38:43that suggest a rift between Meghan and Kate.
00:38:47One of the first to report on it is Camilla Tomminy.
00:38:51We now know that the palace was arguably keeping a lid on quite a lot.
00:38:57If you have a wedding where you're then co-opting people in from the outside
00:39:02and you've got many, many, many more people witnessing behaviour,
00:39:08soaking up the atmosphere,
00:39:10observing interactions between different family members,
00:39:13and all doesn't quite seem right,
00:39:16that is more likely to then leak out
00:39:19because the palace hasn't got a lid on it any more.
00:39:22Behaviour that might have been witnessed by people in St George's Chapel,
00:39:27it becomes this massive thing,
00:39:29and that's when you get some of the more negative headlines coming in.
00:39:34It's said Kate was left in tears following a bridesmaid's dress fitting.
00:39:39One report even goes as far as saying Meghan made Kate cry.
00:39:43I wrote my version of events, which, by the way,
00:39:45was a pretty valanced version of events,
00:39:47saying that Kate was left in tears.
00:39:49The Sun then followed it up and said, Meghan made Kate cry.
00:39:52But that wasn't my original story.
00:39:54My original story was about two very different women
00:39:57who weren't quite seeing eye to eye.
00:39:59Sometimes people don't see eye to eye.
00:40:03More headlines follow,
00:40:05suggesting a growing sense of discontent between Meghan and palace staff.
00:40:10It was all a welcome distraction
00:40:12from rumours about how she's fitting in, or not, with the Windsors.
00:40:15Now, reports in some newspapers about fallings out
00:40:17in the royal household of Meghan Duchess of Sussex.
00:40:20If you've opened a paper or looked online in the past few weeks,
00:40:23you won't have been able to escape stories of, and rumours about,
00:40:27discord in Kensington Palace.
00:40:29Is Meghan getting on with her sister-in-law?
00:40:31Are the staff working for her happy?
00:40:34It was around this time that headlines began appearing,
00:40:38which have been characterised since as,
00:40:41was she A, Duchess Different,
00:40:45or was she B, Duchess Difficult?
00:40:48And the implication was that in their relationship,
00:40:53and the implication was that in their rush
00:40:58to be seen to be a different kind of royal couple,
00:41:02they were putting backs up.
00:41:04The honeymoon period between Meghan and Harry and the mass media
00:41:08was quite short.
00:41:10There were all kinds of stories that dribbled out.
00:41:13Not necessarily accurate,
00:41:15but nonetheless they gave an impression of discontent.
00:41:24TRAFFIC RUMBLES
00:41:30With the birth of their first child imminent,
00:41:33many wonder if they will follow royal tradition or not.
00:41:38The birth of Archie was a turning point.
00:41:41Not just British press,
00:41:43mass international interest in the pending arrival
00:41:47of the royal family's first mixed-race, half-American baby.
00:41:53And they decided not to play ball.
00:41:59With previous royal babies,
00:42:01there was always this idea that they would come out
00:42:04and pose up on the steps of the hospital with their newborn baby.
00:42:08Diana did it with William and Harry.
00:42:13William and Kate did it with their three children.
00:42:18So there was this thinking that they would do something similar,
00:42:22but as it got closer to the birth,
00:42:24it became more apparent that things weren't necessarily
00:42:27going to go in that way,
00:42:29and it ended up being a very, very private affair.
00:42:32He made it quite clear that he wasn't going to follow the usual format.
00:42:36He did not see why his wife should perform and stand up
00:42:40with their newborn just because the media expected it.
00:42:43They were putting down a marker
00:42:45that they were not following the royal route.
00:42:48They were going to do things differently.
00:43:04Yes, I'm very excited to announce
00:43:07that Meghan and myself had a baby boy early this morning,
00:43:12a very healthy boy.
00:43:14I'm so incredibly proud of my wife,
00:43:17and as every father and parent would ever say,
00:43:21you know, your baby is absolutely amazing,
00:43:24but this little thing is absolutely to die for,
00:43:27so I'm just over the moon.
00:43:29Thank you very much, guys. Thank you.
00:43:36But the public really, they love these pictures of, you know,
00:43:40the royal standing on the steps of a newborn baby.
00:43:42It's kind of a tradition.
00:43:44So to not have that, I guess, kind of ruffled some feathers,
00:43:48but on the flip side, it's understandable
00:43:51that people want privacy around the birth of their child.
00:44:01Two days after the birth,
00:44:03Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor
00:44:06is introduced to the world
00:44:08at his first photo call
00:44:10in the more private surroundings of Windsor Castle.
00:44:15Magic. It's pretty amazing,
00:44:17and, I mean, I have the two best guys in the world,
00:44:20so I'm really happy.
00:44:23It was a sign that the way things might go with them,
00:44:26that they won't go along that traditional way,
00:44:29and they were definitely going to do things their way.
00:44:33He has the sweetest temperament.
00:44:35He's really calm and...
00:44:37He gets that from me.
00:44:40Yeah, and he's been, it's just been a dream,
00:44:43so it's been a special couple of days.
00:44:46But I think that started to sour things,
00:44:48and then, of course, it's very easy to add the moniker,
00:44:51oh, well, they're entitled, they're going to do it their way,
00:44:54they're difficult, they're not playing the royal game.
00:44:57I think there was definitely a sense that the pressure's building,
00:45:00that the cracks were starting to show, and that there was a friction.
00:45:03Why didn't they want to show the world their joy?
00:45:07They're retreating, they're pulling back.
00:45:10That's when I thought it was going wrong.
00:45:14Less than a year after this moment,
00:45:17Harry and Meghan would board a plane,
00:45:19leaving the UK to start a new life away from the royals.
00:45:25But it wouldn't take them long to burn their bridges
00:45:28with the UK and the media.
00:45:33A bit of breaking news tonight.
00:45:35The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced
00:45:37that they are carving out what they call a new role for themselves
00:45:41in a statement released in the last few minutes.
00:45:43They say they intend to step back as senior members of the royal family
00:45:48and work to become financially independent.
00:45:53I remember getting a text from someone
00:45:56who was a member of the royal family,
00:45:59I remember getting a text from someone in my office saying,
00:46:03oh, have you heard the news about Harry and Meghan?
00:46:05They're stepping down.
00:46:07And I said, oh, yeah, they're always saying,
00:46:09there's always rumours of that, and they go, no, no, no,
00:46:11turn the news on, this is happening.
00:46:13Pretty dramatic stuff, isn't it?
00:46:14I mean, it's a bit of a wow moment, isn't it?
00:46:16I mean, basically, as far as I can tell,
00:46:18this statement landed in my inbox less than ten minutes ago.
00:46:21They are resigning from the royal family.
00:46:23It's simple as that.
00:46:24They are stepping back as what they call senior royals.
00:46:28It's early evening when an Instagram post
00:46:31from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is published.
00:46:35It announces their plan to step back as senior members of the royal family.
00:46:43Huge royal drama in the United Kingdom.
00:46:46I don't think that's fair.
00:46:47Genuine bombshell.
00:46:49Having met in 2016, married in 2018,
00:46:54and had their first child, Archie, who is now just eight months old,
00:46:59Harry and Meghan have decided to step away from the royal family.
00:47:04CNN has learned they did not insult other royals
00:47:07before making this announcement.
00:47:09They didn't even tell the Queen.
00:47:12They caught the royal family on the hop.
00:47:14The family didn't know it was coming,
00:47:16and it was clear that a split was inevitable.
00:47:19It was incredibly sad to hear that there was going to be this departure
00:47:24because what it did was it smashed the snow globe.
00:47:31It smashed the fairy tale.
00:47:34It was a big deal because suddenly you're thinking,
00:47:37wow, what does this mean? What's going to happen?
00:47:41So what will that normal life look like?
00:47:44The decision raises some fundamental questions
00:47:46about their role as royals, their titles,
00:47:49and more importantly, perhaps, their finances.
00:47:52Where will they live, and will the taxpayer continue to foot the bill?
00:47:57As courtiers and aides at Buckingham Palace
00:48:00scramble to deal with this royal crisis,
00:48:03the public are left wondering, how has it come to this?
00:48:09I never personally thought they would pull the plug,
00:48:12but when they did, it was shocking,
00:48:15and in this great soap opera that is the royal family,
00:48:18it was one of the most remarkable episodes of all time.
00:48:21In retrospect, the clues were always there.
00:48:35It's September 2019,
00:48:37four months before the couple's shock announcement.
00:48:40Harry and Meghan are in South Africa
00:48:43on their first foreign tour with a new baby.
00:48:46On the surface, everything appears to be going well.
00:48:50On the tour was royal photographer Zak Hussein.
00:48:54They visited a tan ship outside Cape Town,
00:48:57and it was so colourful, and it was such a great start to the tour,
00:49:01and Meghan made this huge speech about empowerment for women
00:49:05and started dancing with all the locals.
00:49:09And it was just a great, positive start to the tour
00:49:13that showed them in a really positive light.
00:49:19In Cape Town, four-month-old baby Archie
00:49:23is taken on his first official engagement,
00:49:26a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
00:49:40But behind the scenes, the couple are far from happy.
00:49:45It's announced they're beginning legal proceedings
00:49:48against three different newspapers,
00:49:51while Harry attacks the press for vilifying his wife.
00:49:55And this week, Harry described the treatment of his wife as bullying,
00:49:59driven by relentless propaganda and lie after lie.
00:50:03We will firmly stand up for what we believe.
00:50:06We will always seek to challenge injustice
00:50:08and to speak out for those who may feel unheard.
00:50:12It's during the tour, in an interview for an ITV documentary,
00:50:17that Meghan's unhappiness is laid bare.
00:50:20I don't know what the impact on your physical and mental health,
00:50:24all the pressure that you clearly feel under.
00:50:29Um...
00:50:31Um...
00:50:33I would say...
00:50:35Look, any woman, especially when they're pregnant,
00:50:38you're really vulnerable.
00:50:40You add this on top of just trying to be a new mom
00:50:44or trying to be a newlywed, it's, um...
00:50:49Yeah, well, I guess, and also thank you for asking,
00:50:51because not many people have asked if I'm OK.
00:50:54But it's, um...
00:50:57It's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.
00:51:00And the answer is, would it be fair to say not really OK?
00:51:05It's really been a struggle. Yes.
00:51:09I remember thinking,
00:51:11oh, my God, you know, there's something seriously wrong here.
00:51:15We don't expect emotional vulnerability from a royal.
00:51:21And there's Meghan, tearful, expressive,
00:51:24saying she's not happy, saying,
00:51:26no-one's asked me how I'm feeling.
00:51:29People question the appropriateness of sort of talking about
00:51:32how hard life is in the royal family
00:51:34when you've just visited a township
00:51:36with profoundly poor and disadvantaged young people living in it.
00:51:41But clearly that was their way of making a public statement
00:51:44that all wasn't well.
00:51:46It's not enough to just survive something, right?
00:51:49Like, that's not the point of life.
00:51:51You've got to thrive, you've got to feel happy.
00:51:54And I think I really tried to adopt this British sensibility
00:51:58of a stiff upper lip.
00:52:00It has its, you know, it has its advantages, I guess.
00:52:03I tried, I really tried.
00:52:05But I think that...
00:52:08..what that does internally is probably really damaging.
00:52:15So, privately, it's sad, it happens in lots of families, of course.
00:52:19Publicly, though, it may be bad for the monarchy in the long term.
00:52:24Are you surprised, given what you've heard tonight?
00:52:27I think, in many ways, to me,
00:52:29it feels a bit like what we might call medical leave.
00:52:42Harry and Meghan go on a six-week break from royal duties.
00:52:47They spend their time on Vancouver Island in Canada,
00:52:51deciding their future.
00:52:54The royal rule for donkey's years has been
00:52:57never complain, never explain.
00:52:59It's been their unofficial motto.
00:53:01And you could see that trouble was brewing.
00:53:05Well, it's been dubbed the Sondringham Summit.
00:53:09The Queen called a family crisis meeting to discuss how to proceed
00:53:13after Harry and Meghan dropped that bombshell
00:53:15that they intended to step back as senior royals.
00:53:18Some of the things they'll be discussing,
00:53:20how exactly do you resign from the firm,
00:53:22can you go part-time and become half a royal highness,
00:53:25and how do you get back on the throne?
00:53:27And, of course, how do you get back on the throne?
00:53:30How do you resign from the firm?
00:53:32Can you go part-time and become half a royal highness?
00:53:35And in a very modern way, we're told that Meghan may be
00:53:38dialling into the meeting from Canada.
00:53:40We had this famous Sondringham Summit in January 2020
00:53:45where the Prince of Wales, the Queen, Prince William and Harry
00:53:50and various courtiers were sort of sitting around a table
00:53:54in the long library at Sondringham
00:53:56trying to sort of thrash out an agreement
00:53:59that wasn't much common ground.
00:54:01I mean, you know, a few years ago,
00:54:03Meghan Markle was working on a show called Deal or No Deal,
00:54:06and today she's doing Deal or No Deal
00:54:08with the Queen of England on a speakerphone.
00:54:10Most people have been saying on social media tonight,
00:54:13oh, to be a fly on the wall at that meeting.
00:54:15I think the real problem for the royal family then
00:54:18was what was this new arrangement going to look like?
00:54:21Can you be half in and half out?
00:54:24Can you be a member of the royal family and have your HRH,
00:54:27but can you also go to America and earn money?
00:54:30The Queen, Charles and William clearly want to make this work
00:54:33if they possibly can,
00:54:35and this will be sorted out in days, not weeks.
00:54:39What's not good is the optic of a family in crisis
00:54:43and a kind of a family splitting apart.
00:54:47They are the nation's figurehead,
00:54:49and I think that it was a big wobble for the royal family.
00:54:54Is there a feeling in Britain that this is actually Harry's idea
00:54:58or that Meghan has done something?
00:55:00Well, the press reporting has gone bonkers.
00:55:03You know, even Mexie, I mean, it's pretty gendered.
00:55:06It's Harry that's leaving the royal family.
00:55:08He's the blooming prince.
00:55:11Lots of people were just blaming Meghan, and I said, well, no.
00:55:14The feelings were there already.
00:55:16Meghan did give them a degree of rocket fuel.
00:55:18Like, together they were stronger in their endeavour of breaking away.
00:55:22This was... Harry had been unhappy for some time.
00:55:26I think it was incredibly damaging for Harry
00:55:29that the optics were that he was letting down the Queen.
00:55:34It doesn't look good.
00:55:36The monarchy just kept on keeping on
00:55:40and decided there was going to be no halfway house,
00:55:43that you're either in or you're out,
00:55:46and I think Harry thought, what have I got to stay for, really,
00:55:49if his wife wasn't happy?
00:55:51And therefore Meghan and Harry left.
00:56:05Ten days after Harry and Meghan's Instagram post is published,
00:56:09a decision is announced on their future.
00:56:13In what is being seen as the biggest split in the royal family in decades,
00:56:18the full details of Prince Harry and Meghan's separation from the royals
00:56:22have been released.
00:56:24Well, the Prime Minister has wished Prince Harry and Meghan
00:56:27well in their new roles, which will have no royal tours and no titles,
00:56:31but also no taxpayers' money.
00:56:34I was very sad to see Harry leave the royal family.
00:56:37I was very sad to see Meghan leave the royal family.
00:56:40I was very sad to see Meghan leave the royal family.
00:56:43They were a power force.
00:56:45There was so much potential there,
00:56:48but they just couldn't settle within the system.
00:56:53The relationship, in particular, between William and Harry
00:56:57had deteriorated, I mean, far beyond what the public at that time knew,
00:57:02or indeed the media knew.
00:57:06And that sort of went to the heart of the issue, really,
00:57:09because these two brothers had been so much part of the royal story,
00:57:15and yet now they had been driven apart by circumstances.
00:57:27Nothing really typified that more than the Commonwealth service
00:57:32at Westminster Abbey,
00:57:34and the way that William and Kate
00:57:37almost studiously ignored Harry and Meghan.
00:57:43They were separated by only a few feet,
00:57:45but they could have been 1,000 miles apart.
00:57:48It was suffused with sadness, really.
00:57:51That, of course, was their very last public engagement.
00:58:05Almost immediately when the news broke that they were leaving,
00:58:10the thought was, Meghan's going back to Hollywood.
00:58:14Southern California is Meghan's home.
00:58:17It's where she's from, it's where her mother still lives,
00:58:20it's where her friends are, really,
00:58:22that she developed those relationships with over the years as an actress.
00:58:26From everything I've heard, Meghan and Harry have been
00:58:29When they left the UK,
00:58:31started to have plans to come to California pretty quickly,
00:58:36even though they didn't get there right away.
00:58:39Amid the global coronavirus crisis,
00:58:42Harry and Meghan stay at the Beverly Hills home
00:58:45owned by celebrity friend Tyler Perry.
00:58:50In one of the world's most exclusive hotels,
00:58:53the Royal Family Hotel,
00:58:56in one of the world's most exclusive property markets,
00:59:00the question then is,
00:59:02where would they buy their first home together?
00:59:15In the end, Harry and Meghan
00:59:18pay over $14.5 million for their new family home.
00:59:23Suddenly, the public want to know more about a place called Montecito.
00:59:29Montecito's most famous couple came here to build a new life together.
00:59:33This place affords them and many other celebrities discreet privacy.
00:59:37They're in a part of Southern California called Montecito.
00:59:41It's more in the Santa Barbara area, about two hours north of Los Angeles.
00:59:46There are a lot of other celebrities who live there,
00:59:49so in a sense it's been vetted.
00:59:51You have Ellen DeGeneres in the neighborhood.
00:59:53Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are their neighbors.
00:59:57It is considered to be an enclave,
01:00:00a certain posh enclave for celebrities.
01:00:04You have to think about, well, what is their career going to be
01:00:08now that they're not senior working royals?
01:00:10How can they earn money?
01:00:13You can take the prince out of the palace,
01:00:15but you can't take the palace and all the princely expectations
01:00:18out of the prince.
01:00:20That's far harder, because if Harry's going to do good works,
01:00:23like the Invictus Games, he has to also live like a prince
01:00:27and earn money like a prince.
01:00:29But then I think when money gets involved, it's like,
01:00:32well, OK, we could understand if you wanted to leave,
01:00:36but you go into exile.
01:00:37You're not seen, you're not heard.
01:00:39You live your life quietly, elegantly, in your mansion abroad,
01:00:44and you don't ruffle feathers here.
01:00:46What's untenable is to want to use your royal position
01:00:50to then make money off that,
01:00:53and I can completely understand why people would say,
01:00:56that is appalling that you would earn all this money
01:00:59to diss your family.
01:01:01Harry chose to do it his way.
01:01:03They didn't want to be told what to do.
01:01:06They wanted to escape.
01:01:10After one of the biggest royal crises in decades,
01:01:13Harry and Meghan have set up a new life away from the royal family.
01:01:19Voices at the palace saying how unhappy they were about this,
01:01:22the word shoddy has been bandied around, disappointed, hurt, dismayed.
01:01:27Now living in California and cut off from royal funding,
01:01:31there is a lot of speculation about how they will earn money.
01:01:36They have to make money for themselves.
01:01:38That's what being financially independent means.
01:01:41And the problem with that is that they also need an incredible amount of money
01:01:45because the circle they move in are people like George Clooney,
01:01:48whose net worth is half a billion dollars.
01:01:53When are they going to actually have a car
01:01:55that can be put into a movie or TV show?
01:01:57They have one available.
01:01:59Stacey Jones is the founder of a branding company in Los Angeles.
01:02:04She helps celebrities maximise their earning potential.
01:02:07So how can someone who is a royal and an actress actually come in and make money?
01:02:11They can do something that consumers are going to pay for.
01:02:14So that's going to be content.
01:02:16They were taking meetings left and right.
01:02:19They were trying to determine what is the best pathway for them forward.
01:02:22So to have Netflix come forward and offer them a hundred million dollars
01:02:27to produce and to be part of content is an unbelievable opportunity.
01:02:34And then all of a sudden we heard Harry and Meghan signed a partnership with Spotify
01:02:38for 20 million dollars.
01:02:40Even after leaving the royal family, Harry and Meghan remain
01:02:43one of the most talked about couples in the world.
01:02:46They needed a big deal and they got one.
01:02:50He might not like the institution of monarchy, but he's a prince.
01:02:55And he's going to own that and hold on to that and make money from that.
01:03:00They know their money comes in, not because they're skilled engineers
01:03:05or rocket scientists, but because they're public figures.
01:03:08So of course they always knew that they needed the oxygen of publicity.
01:03:13The problem for the royal family was that Harry and Meghan were gone,
01:03:18but they were far from forgotten.
01:03:20They were a huge global story.
01:03:22And then suddenly the Oprah Winfrey interview happened.
01:03:27In a move that stuns the world, a trailer for an interview
01:03:31Harry and Meghan have given to Oprah Winfrey is released.
01:03:35Were you silent or were you silenced?
01:03:39I just want to make it clear to everybody there is no subject that's off limits.
01:03:45Shown six days before it is due to air, it begins a week of intense speculation.
01:03:52Because she can now, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex,
01:03:56says that's why she agreed to sit down for a much-awaited interview
01:03:59with Oprah Winfrey.
01:04:01Well, the gloves are off in this royal rift.
01:04:06But as the world waits to hear what they will say,
01:04:09Meghan faces accusations that she bullied some of her staff.
01:04:15Team Sussex is very clear today,
01:04:17calling the allegation a misleading smear.
01:04:20Once Harry and Meghan have said their bit on Oprah, that's it,
01:04:23that's what the world will listen to.
01:04:25And these people I spoke to, they just want to get a voice out there
01:04:28saying, actually, there's another story.
01:04:31Reports suggest a complaint about Meghan's behaviour
01:04:35was initially made in October 2018.
01:04:38It was around this time she was on her first interview
01:04:42and around this time she was on her first royal tour in Australia.
01:04:46Despite being seen as a success,
01:04:49it appears behind the scenes all was not well.
01:04:53A few things had happened on the tours
01:04:56where one aide was seen in tears and then on another occasion
01:05:00Meghan had to leave an engagement early and there was a big kerfuffle.
01:05:04So I think there was this kind of perception of some tension.
01:05:08Reports have suggested one assistant quit
01:05:11after emails were sent as early as 5am.
01:05:15But the suggestion of bullying takes it to a new level.
01:05:19There are several people who I'm aware of
01:05:22who are still in a fragile and an emotionally fraught state
01:05:26because of what happened more than a year ago.
01:05:29This is getting really ugly, this back and forth just escalating.
01:05:34I would say that the timing of this story is obviously pretty noticeable.
01:05:42Meghan denies all allegations.
01:05:45But there's another issue.
01:05:51With the Duke of Edinburgh still in hospital,
01:05:54the timing of the Oprah interview in the US and here on ITV
01:05:58has been the subject of debate.
01:06:00I think what upset a lot of people here was at that time
01:06:04Prince Philip was nearing the end of his life.
01:06:07The Queen was extremely elderly
01:06:10and yet she was being confronted by the heartbreak, if you like,
01:06:15of listening to her grandson's litany of complaints.
01:06:22When the interview eventually airs,
01:06:24the world is watching and waiting to see what will be revealed.
01:06:29When the Oprah Winfrey interview came out, they said too much.
01:06:33This, you couldn't take your eyes off it.
01:06:35Every minute of it, it was just public muckraking.
01:06:40Next time...
01:06:42What was the tipping point that made you decide you had to leave?
01:06:47As a moment of high theatre, it was super dramatic.
01:06:52The explosive revelations continue.
01:06:55They've shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile up until this point.
01:07:00Deals break down.
01:07:02They were famously called out for being quote-unquote grifters.
01:07:07And is the royal family broken forever?
01:07:11The drawbridge is up and Harry is shut out.
01:07:18And don't miss the concluding part of Meghan and Harry,
01:07:21The Rise and Fall, brand new at nine tomorrow.
01:07:25What's life really like in the Royal Navy?
01:07:28With unprecedented access,
01:07:29join JJ Chalmers and Julia Bradbury on board a warship,
01:07:33brand new Tuesday at nine.
01:07:35Next, when TV guests go horribly wrong.