Harry admits he ‘hates’ himself for how he handled Meghan’s suicidal thoughts
Prince Harry says he “hates” himself for the way he handled his wife Meghan Markle’s depression when they were part of the royal family.
“I was devastated. I knew she was struggling. We were both struggling, but i never thought it would get to that stage and the fact that it got to that stage, I felt angry and ashamed,” he said in the latest episodes of their Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan.”
The Duke of Sussex, 38, admitted he did not handle the situation the way that he should have.
“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 i was able to give.”
Markle, 41, began experiencing suicidal thoughts as negative press was swirling about her after the couple’s 2018 wedding.
“It was like, all of this will stop if I’m not here,” the Duchess of Sussex said in the doc, “and that was the scariest thing about it because it was such clear thinking.”
Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland, wiped away tears as she recalled her daughter admitting to having these thoughts.
“That’s not an easy one for a mom to hear,” she said, “and … I can’t protect her. H can’t protect her.”
Harry claimed in the doc that the royal family knew just how bad things were for Markle at the time.
“They thought, ‘Why couldn’t she just deal with it?’ As if to say, ‘Well everyone else has dealt with it, why can’t she deal with it?’ But it was different. This was different.
“But actually if you strip all that away and say, ‘OK, fine, it was exactly the same,’ so do we still believe we should have just sucked it up like other members of the family? Or does one think maybe it’s about time that we stopped?”
Meghan first revealed she contemplated suicide during her and Harry’s 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” she said at the time, adding that she asked if she could get help, but was turned down. She maintained in the doc that the institution refused to get her help when she asked for it.
Since the revelation, the former royal has been open about her experience, telling a crowd last month that she made the choice to reveal what happened because she doesn’t “want anyone to feel alone.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.