01x05 - Episode 5

[bunniefuu]

- [Harry] Find your way through.

- [Archie] Okay.

- [Meghan] We hear you! Where are you?!

- [man] Where are you?

- [Harry gasps]

- [man] I'm gonna find you!

[Harry] Dead end! This way.

Come this way. Go this way. This way.

[Meghan] You know, when I look back

at my own childhood, it was great.

But I just remember

feeling alone a lot.

[Harry] Which way are you gonna go?

[wistful music playing]

[Harry] Go, go, go! [chuckles]

I just wanted

all these cousins and these people.

I just wanted all of that.

And I didn't have that big family.

[Harry] Oh! He's down! [chuckles]

[Meghan] You got it!

[Meghan] So when I was

pregnant with Archie

[chuckles]

I was just so excited that we were

going to be able to create for him

that thing that I had always wanted

So I just did everything I could

to make them proud.

And to really be a part of the family.

And then the bubble burst.

- [woman] Duchess Difficult

- [man] No official word from the palace

It was already clear to the media

that the palace wasn't gonna protect her.

Once that happens, the floodgates open.

And I realized that I wasn't just

being thrown to the wolves,

I was being fed to the wolves.

[emotive theme music playing]

[emotive theme music finishes]

[interviewer] So you and your father

were close most of your life.

- Is that right?

- [Meghan] Yeah.

I mean, you know, family.

So it's never easy, never perfect.

But of course, I talked to my dad

several times a week and, you know

[interviewer] So when did things

start to go awry there?

When the media got involved.

[woman] Well, we are joined this morning

by Meghan Markle's father, Thomas.

Thank you so much

for being with us. I want to take you

[Meghan] After the wedding,

my dad started doing interviews,

mostly saying things about me.

[man 1] Meghan Markle's dad.

[man 2] Thomas Markle yesterday.

He was really upset

[man 3] does not stop apparently

It was incredibly painful.

And the world

is watching this drama play out.

[tense music playing]

[Meghan] And then he started

criticizing the royal family.

But it was very embarrassing

for the family.

It was a problem that needed to be solved,

and they wanted me to make it stop.

And 'Cause I'd reached out

to Her Majesty.

Like, "This is what's going on.

What do you want me to do?"

"I want to make"

Like, "Whatever advice you have."

But ultimately,

it was suggested

by the Queen, the Prince of Wales,

that I write my dad a letter.

And I had gone to great lengths

to get that letter to my dad discreetly.

Because I can't

put this letter in the mail

with the return address

being Kensington Palace,

and send it to Tom Markle

and assume it's gonna get there.

So I send it to my business manager in LA.

I was like, "He'll recognize that name."

Then I get the picture of the signature

confirmation that it's been delivered,

and it's not his signature.

That's not my dad's handwriting.

It just says "Thomas."

[tense music continues]

[reporter 1] A private letter from the

Duchess to her dad has been made public.

[reporter 2] Thomas has, uh,

we think, now released this letter,

and it's pretty damaging.

[reporter 3] New private moments between

Duchess Meghan and her estranged father.

[reporter 4] now a very public

and painful description of their rift.

[Meghan] It was

horrendous.

The Daily Mail said, "We have

the full and complete five-page letter."

I was like, "What would it look like

if you redacted the stuff

that they didn't put in?"

"What would it look like?"

So you could really see

They're telling the public

"Here's this whole letter."

And when you're literally

taking sentences out of paragraphs

and words out of sentences.

You want to print my letter,

which you know you can't do legally.

But you want to print it

and paint a completely different picture

of who I am

and my relationship with my dad.

And take out every single thing I said

about how the media has manipulated you.

[melancholic music playing]

People are scratching their heads, going,

"How would the Mail have the,

either the stupidity or the,

whatever you want to call it,

to print a letter

between a daughter and a father?"

Well, the answer is simple.

They knew the family

would encourage us not to sue.

[Meghan] We sat down

with the lawyer for the institution

and senior members of the palace.

And it was in those meetings that

I reminded them that I wrote that letter

at the guidance

of senior members of the family.

You know this is unlawful.

"So we have to draw the line.

We have to take legal action."

They said "Yes, of course."

And I would follow up

for weeks and weeks and weeks.

"Hey what's going on with this?" Nothing.

After months of saying,

"She needs to do something about this,"

we took separate legal advice.

I knew from the first meeting

that this was really serious,

in that it was having

a horrid impact on Meghan.

There's the narrative

that the royal family adopt

a "never complain, never explain"

approach to the media.

And I think Meghan went along with that

for a long period.

But there was

a real kind of w*r against Meghan.

And I've certainly seen evidence

that there was negative briefing

from the palace against Harry and Meghan

to suit other people's agendas.

[Lucy] Meg became

this scapegoat for the palace.

And so they would feed stories on her

whether they were true or not

to avoid other, less favorable stories

being printed.

You would just see it play out.

Like a story about someone in the family

would pop up for a minute, and they'd go,

"We gotta make that go away."

But there's real estate

on a website homepage.

There is real estate there

on a newspaper front cover.

And something has to be filled in there

about someone royal.

[Jenny] This barrage of negative articles

about the breakdown

of the relationship with her father

was the final straw in a campaign

of negative, nasty coverage about her.

Looking back,

it was one of the first acts, um,

of them breaking away

from the institution.

[tense music playing]

[woman] Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

are suing the Mail on Sunday.

The lawsuit claims

the Mail violated the law

by publishing a personal letter

she wrote to her father.

This is a massive error.

If you're royal, keep schtum, keep quiet.

Everything changed after that.

That litigation was the catalyst

probably for all of the unraveling.

[Meghan] This is snow!

This is snow!

What is it?

The media coverage of the lawsuit

was negative, which we always knew.

You don't go into these things

expecting anything but that.

Um, so it was really

a good opportunity for us to get away.

What is it?

You know, with Archie,

just to clear our heads.

[lively music playing]

- [Archie laughing]

- [Meghan laughing]

[man] Bucking tradition,

the Duke and Duchess of Sussex

will not be spending Christmas

with the Queen.

[Meghan] Good girl, Pula! Come on.

I just loved being there.

It was just so peaceful.

[Meghan] Good girl, Pula.

[Meghan laughing]

You could breathe for a minute.

[Meghan] Hi!

[Meghan gasps]

[Harry] It was absolutely amazing.

[Meghan squeals]

Because the main thing

that we needed was some space.

Some space to think and just

work out what on earth we're doing.

- Are you filming?

- [Meghan] Yeah.

- [Harry yelps]

- [Meghan laughs]

[Meghan] It was so cold.

Was that right in the New Year?

[Harry] Yeah, that was,

um, on 1st January.

I came out refreshed.

- And I was like, "Here we go, 2020."

- [Meghan] Yeah.

"What you got?"

- [ominous music playing]

- [camera shutters clicking]

[man] The DailyMail.com

has some exclusive details

about the new home

that he and Meghan are currently renting.

[Harry] There wasn't a single paparazzi

that lives on Vancouver Island.

That was the reason we chose it.

It's an island.

[man] There's another one there.

A paparazzi vehicle.

[Harry] No one in their right mind

would have to deal with this endlessly.

The toll was visible.

The emotional toll

that it was having on both of us,

but especially, um, especially my wife.

What are we gonna do?

We're gonna have to change this,

for our own sake.

Like, let's really think this through.

How are we gonna do this?

How are we gonna change

our relationship with the institution,

but in a way that protects us and our

mental health and our wellbeing as well?

[melancholic music playing]

[Harry] So, at the end of December,

the beginning of January,

I've been on the phone

to my father, saying, "We've got a plan."

What if we move to Canada?

[Harry] It would be good

to give ourselves some breathing space,

but also we were really passionate about

continuing our work throughout

the Commonwealth, to support the Queen.

Well, and also, I think what's important

is the pack of the royal rota

is based there in London.

So if we're not there,

they can't cover what we're doing.

You guys can be

on the front pages of all the papers.

You can have it

exactly the way you want it.

And we can just go about doing the work

in the name of the Queen.

- [wistful music playing]

- [crowd cheering]

[Harry] If you want us to go and do things

on behalf of the Queen,

we'll go and do it.

And we'll pay for it ourselves.

We don't want to be dependent

on any taxpayer funding. Guess what?

You get us, but you get us for free.

And this was years in the making.

We really wanted to remove

the supposed public interest argument

that the press had

over every element of our lives.

Their argument was, "If you have,

uh, even 1% of public funding,

any part of your life, then we can

basically claim public interest."

"We can inv*de your privacy on everything

because you have public funds

supporting you."

In 2018, we'd already talked

about perhaps moving to New Zealand.

And that never transpired.

And then beginning of 2019,

we discussed the whole concept

of us moving to South Africa,

supporting charities,

organizations in Africa.

[crowd cheering]

[Meghan] The job is

a lot of cause-driven work.

So I thought, "Well, this is great."

There's an asset

in having a woman of color

when you have 50 plus

Commonwealth countries,

the majority of which are people of color.

[Harry] And the palace signed off

on us moving to South Africa.

So my father's office knew about it,

my brother's office knew about it,

and my grandmother's office knew about it.

No one else knew.

It was very much an internal document.

Then it was leaked to The Times newspaper.

[wistful music playing]

[Harry] Then that whole plan

was then scrapped.

Because it's now become a public debate.

Once plans like that

become public debates,

nine times out of ten, it's gonna fail.

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 a minimum of two years.

Minimum.

"Okay, Canada."

I was speaking to my father.

- "This is the plan."

- He says, "Can you put that in writing?"

And I said "I'd rather not.

He says, "I can't do anything

unless you put it in writing."

Sent him emails

on 1st, 2nd and 3rd January.

And in one of those,

I'd mentioned that, you know,

if this wasn't gonna work out,

then we would be willing to relinquish

our Sussex titles, if need be.

- So that was

- [Meghan] That was the plan.

- That was the plan.

- Mm.

[Harry] Before we left,

I spoke to my grandmother as well,

and told her

that we're coming back on the 6th,

and I would love to come

and drive up and come and see you.

She knew that we were finding things hard.

I'd spoken to her many times about it.

She told me she had no plans for the week.

She said, "Well, why don't you come up?"

"You can have tea, but why don't you

stay the night, you and Meghan?"

[soft music playing]

[Meghan] So we were flying back

from Vancouver straight to Heathrow

and right as we're getting on the plane,

this urgent, urgent message

comes through to H saying,

"You are not allowed to see Her Majesty."

"Make sure that your principle is aware

he cannot go and see her."

"She's busy. She has plans all week."

I was like, "That's certainly

the opposite to what she had told me."

Once we were back in the UK, I rang her

and said, "I'm now told that you're busy."

She goes, "Yes, I didn't know I was busy.

I've been told that I'm busy."

"I've been told that I'm busy all week."

I was like, "Wow."

[Meghan] And I remember looking at H.

I mean, 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 really what they're doing is blocking

a grandson from seeing his grandmother.

Later that afternoon, we found out

that this story was coming out.

Somehow, the tabloids

knew about this proposal.

[poignant music playing]

[reporter] I think we've known for a while

that the couple have been very unhappy

and have been struggling with

their public role in the royal family.

His dad said, "Put it in writing."

And he did,

and it was just five days later

it was on the front page of a newspaper.

[reporter] There's a lot of speculation

that perhaps Canada,

which is where Meghan lived

before marrying into the royal family.

It became clear that the institution

leaked the fact that we were

going to be moving back to Canada.

And the key piece of that story

that made me aware

that the contents of the letter

between me and my father had been leaked

was that we were willing

to relinquish our Sussex titles.

That was the giveaway.

And I was like, "Wow."

Our story, our life,

literally got taken from underneath us.

[Meghan] You could feel the ticking clock

at that point.

So with our team,

we decided we would put out a statement

that we were going to sadly

be stepping back.

Not stepping down,

but to just have a reduced role.

- [poignant music continues]

- [keyboard clicking]

[Harry] For my whole life,

the purse strings

had been controlled by my father.

Within the family,

it's normal to have that financial control

over other members of the family.

[Meghan] So the hope was that,

it's right there in black and white.

You can see, here's our intention.

Here's how we wish to continue

to support the Commonwealth.

Here's how we value our roles

as president and vice-president

of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

[reporter 1] Big surprise

from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

[reporter 2] Reportedly

blindsiding the Queen

[reporter 3] Prince Charles

and Prince William were only sent a copy

of Harry and Meghan's statement

ten minutes before it was released.

The Queen got surprised as

Like all of us.

It was the fact that they announced it

officially on Instagram.

This idea that I supposedly

blindsided my grandmother.

This would never happen.

I have so much respect for her.

[Meghan] This has been ongoing

for months upon months.

I mean, I think in some people's minds,

it was like me going, "Post."

[scoffs] What?

I'd sent an email to the three most senior

private secretaries saying,

"Let's get together and have a meeting.

Let's talk about this."

Because what was happening,

what was playing out in public, was crazy.

That meeting was rejected.

[Meghan squeals]

[Meghan] After the announcement, I had

to get back, 'cause Archie was in Canada.

And it was only once Meg had left

and gone back to Canada

that it was then arranged

that there was going to be a meeting

at Sandringham on the following Monday.

[Meghan] Imagine a conversation,

a round-table discussion,

about the future of your life,

when the stakes are this high,

and you as the mom and the wife

and the target in many regards,

aren't invited

to have a seat at the table.

It was clear to me that they'd planned it

so that you weren't in the room.

But you know, Sandringham

I have such happy memories of Sandringham.

That was where we spent every Christmas.

And now I was back there

in very different circumstances.

[poignant music playing]

Well, it's an historic day

for the royal family.

The Queen has called this urgent meeting.

Prince Harry will be there,

of course, along with his brother,

Prince William, and Prince Charles.

- [man 1] Who was that?

- [man 2] The Duke.

[woman] They'll be trying to come up

with a blueprint for the way forward.

I went in with the same proposal

that we'd already,

you know, made publicly.

But once I got there,

I was given five options.

One being, all in, no change.

Five being, all out.

I chose option three in the meeting.

Half in, half out.

Have our own jobs,

but also work in support of the Queen.

It became very clear very quickly, that

goal was not up for discussion or debate.

It was terrifying to have my brother

scream and shout at me,

and my father say things

that just simply weren't true,

and my grandmother,

you know, quietly sit there,

and sort of take it all in.

But you have to understand that,

from the family's perspective,

especially from hers,

there are ways of doing things,

and her ultimate sort of mission, goal,

slash responsibility is the institution.

People around her are telling her,

"By the way, that proposal,

or these two doing X, Y, Z,

is going to be seen

as an att*ck on the institution."

Then she's gonna go

on the advice that she's given.

It was really hard.

That meeting finished

without any, like, solidified action plan.

I think, from their perspective,

they had to believe

that it was more about us,

and maybe the issues that we had,

as opposed to their partner,

the media, and themselves,

and that relationship

that was causing so much pain for us.

They saw what they wanted to see.

[bell tolls]

[young Harry] Fire! There's a fire!

[camera clicking]

[Harry] I mean, the saddest part of it

was this wedge created

between myself 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 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.

[wistful music playing]

[woman 1] An unbelievably sad

breakdown between the brothers.

[woman 2] They always used to be in step

and they're clearly out of step now.

[Harry] That day, a story came out

saying that part of the reason

why Meghan and I were leaving,

uh, was because

William had bullied us out.

And once I got in the car

after the meeting,

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.

[reporter] A sign of public unity

from the brothers,

who issued a joint statement,

calling the report "false, offensive,

and potentially harmful."

[poignant music tempo rises]

I couldn't believe it.

No one had asked me.

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.

[Meghan] Suddenly what clicked

in my head was, "It's never gonna stop."

Every rumor,

every negative thing, every lie,

everything that I knew wasn't true,

and that the palace knew wasn't true

and internally they knew wasn't true

that was just being allowed to fester.

[Harry] So there was no other option

at this point.

I said, "We need to get out of here."

[reporter 1] Breaking news,

this one out of London.

[reporter 2] Prince Harry and

Meghan Markle are officially moving on.

[reporter 3] Announcing they're taking

a step back from their royal duties.

Trying to do for Meghan

what he couldn't do for his mum.

Exactly.

Nobody could take the attacking

and the trolling that she has taken.

I know she has felt strongly. This is like

getting back some control of her life.

She feels she has no control.

[David] This was Harry's decision

to move away

from what he'd obviously imagined

was gonna be his future and his destiny.

There was always a sense

that Meghan had to prove herself.

Prove herself worthy of Britain,

prove herself worthy of her husband.

Prove herself worthy

of her position in the royal family.

It's a lot to ask of any individual.

[reporter] The British public opinion

is that it's all Meghan's fault.

[Harry] I've seen little cartoons

of me on all fours with her,

um, 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.

[female reporter] Some of the tabloids

are calling the two "the Rogue Royals"

and describing the move as "Megxit."

I felt the term "Megxit" was

just indicative of the frivolousness,

the unseriousness,

the flippant nature of the tabloid press.

It's what happens when you have

a press that is devoid of journalism,

that lives on outrage and monetizes anger.

[reporter 1] She thought

it would be tiaras and tea parties.

[reporter 2] You can see the manipulation.

All the way along the relationship

[reporter 3] Turning their backs

on the royal family.

They've received the wrath,

the full wrath of the media establishment.

[reporter 4] Almost like teenagers

stamping their foot and saying

[reporter 5] Meghan suddenly realized she

wasn't going to be the star of the show.

[reporter 6] She won't compromise.

Everything's got to be her way.

It took what felt like everything from me.

Your sense of self, your confidence.

[overlapping reporters' voices]

And the truth didn't matter.

The clickbait did.

[tense music playing]

[male voice] We're about two minutes

out from the top of the show, so

Good afternoon.

I want to welcome Renée DiResta,

Rashad Robinson,

and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Well, Harry, maybe you could

help humanize this for us.

Just a month ago,

a report by Bot Sentinel,

a company that analyzes tweets,

uh, found that a very small number

of anti-Meghan and Harry accounts

were responsible for a huge percentage

of the hateful content

about you on Twitter.

Misinformation is

a global humanitarian crisis.

Um, as you quite rightly pointed out,

I've felt it personally over the years.

We know that a small group of accounts

are allowed to create

a huge amount of chaos online,

and without any consequence whatsoever.

[man] Bot Sentinel has looked

at everything from QAnon to MAGA,

to COVID disinformation,

to climate change disinformation.

We've never seen anything quite like this.

What was interesting to me

about that report

is that it showed

that there were a handful of accounts,

that weren't just bots,

but they were people who were highly

coordinated and deeply networked

and responsible for the vast majority

of hate propaganda against the couple.

[Christopher] We looked at 114,000 tweets,

and we were able to then determine

that 70% of the hateful content

came from just 83 accounts.

And they had a reach of 17 million people.

So this is not your everyday trolling.

They were coordinating and talking about

what they would discuss

for that particular day or week,

what pictures they should disseminate.

They were actively recruiting people,

telling people

how to create multiple accounts.

How to use VPNs, you know,

virtual private networks,

to hide the IP,

so they don't get suspended.

It's insane.

What is it about Meghan Markle

that has driven Prince Harry to not only

In every scenario, who's the victim?

because she separated him

[Christopher] And it was done by people

who were just not

the typical quote-unquote trolls.

These are housewives.

These are middle-aged Caucasian women

creating just constant att*cks,

from "Go back to America," to basically,

you know, "Why don't you die?"

- [tense music]

- [tweet sound]

Samantha Markle was part of the group

that was putting out

a lot of this disinformation.

Samantha had her account suspended.

And then we actually sent Twitter a list

because she had,

like, 11 additional accounts.

And yeah, we were baffled by this.

How can the half-sister of Meghan

be part of a hate group?

[tense music continues]

Perhaps the most troubling part of this

is the number of British journalists

interacting with and amplifying

the hate and the lies.

When a lie spreads on social media,

it's dangerous. Of course it is.

But when that same lie is given, uh,

credibility by journalists or publishers,

it's unethical, and as far

as I'm concerned, an abuse of power.

[somber music playing]

[Christopher] For the main hate accounts,

their primary motive

is monetizing this stuff.

But the secondary accounts,

it's about hatred.

It's about, you know You know, race.

And the focus was predominantly on Meghan.

Comparing her to,

for example, you know, a monkey.

So then also,

there would be derogatory terms

where they would use the N-word on tweets.

[Harry] The seriousness of what has

happened to her and what happened,

what happened to us,

and what continues to happen to her,

that needs to be acknowledged.

Also I think for people

to really understand,

you know when you plant

a seed that is so hateful,

what it can grow into.

I mean, just a couple of days ago,

I was going through the manual

for our security team at home,

and on one of the pages

that I happened to flip to,

it was about online monitoring,

and they're like,

"If you see a tweet like this,

please report it

to the head of security immediately."

It just said, "Meghan just needs to die."

"Someone needs to k*ll her.

Maybe it should be me."

And I was just like

"Okay." That's, like,

what's actually out in the world

because of people creating hate.

And I'm a mom.

That's my real life.

You know? And that's the piece

when you see it and you go

[voice breaking]

"You are making people want to k*ll me."

It's not just a tabloid.

It's not just some story.

You are making me scared.

Right? And like that night, to be

up and down in the middle of the night,

looking down my hallway, like,

"Are we safe? Are the doors locked?"

"Is security on?

Is everything" That's real.

"Are my babies safe?"

And you've created it for what?

Because you're bored,

or because it sells your papers?

It makes you feel better

about your own life?

It's real what you're doing.

And that's the piece

I don't think people fully understand.

[Meghan] "It's wonderfully good of you,

snake, but no, I'm having a feast with a"

[Archie] Gruffalo!

[Meghan] "A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?"

[drumbeat]

[Archie] Was that a good song?

[Meghan] That was such a good song.

It was awesome.

Do you want me to play it again, Mama?

[Meghan] Yes, please, thank you. Okay.

[Safiya] Let's be clear

about what's actually at stake here.

It's like symbolic annihilation.

If you can destroy people

who are symbols of social justice,

then you can scare people

to not want to be public.

It is a way to signal

to the rest of us to stand down.

[soft music playing]

[Vicky] When you whip up enough people

into a fervent of hate,

it's not one of those cases

of sticks and stones may break my bones

but words can never hurt me.

They can k*ll you. The thr*at is real.

[melancholic music playing]

- [woman] Exhale.

- [loud exhaling]

[woman] Remember that what is transpiring

in the media,

what's being created, is an illusion.

When you try to prove that you're good

and that you're not the person

they say you are,

you're taking the bait,

you're feeding the beast.

It is an illusion.

Your work is not to prove your goodness.

You know who you are. Both of you.

And whenever you're ready,

you can open your eyes.

[Harry] As sad as it is,

in order for change to happen,

sometimes a lot of pain

has to come to the surface.

In order for us

to be able to move to the next chapter,

you've got to finish the first chapter.

We both came back in March from Canada.

[tranquil music playing]

And that was our sort of farewell week.

[Meghan] We were going

through so many boxes,

literally looking at everything going,

"Oh my gosh, this blanket I missed."

"That hat was so funny."

Just taking it all in.

And it really gave us a chance to just

To look back at our whole love story.

I just wanted you to know

That I loved you better ♪

Than your own kin did ♪

[Harry] We always saw Archie running

around the garden at Frogmore Cottage,

and maybe jumping in the Queen's Pond.

That was all part of our future, and

everything changed really, really quickly.

We knew we were gonna get

some breathing space from this

This very painful experience

that we'd been stuck in.

But also, at the same time,

it was really sad.

I often think about,

in any relationship, oftentimes,

when a guy falls in love with a girl,

his buddies are like,

"Oh my God, he changed."

"I don't see him anymore.

He's always with her."

And you blame the girl.

They're angry with her because

she's the thing that took him away.

And that's whether you're in a small town

or a big city or in the royal family.

He wouldn't have ever

been attracted to or interested in me

if he hadn't already been on his own path.

Come on back ♪

Most people need to find someone to blame.

Now ♪

To try to, like, reconcile how you're

feeling, 'cause something's changed,

and you don't like it,

and what's the thing that's different?

"This all changed when you got here.

So it's your fault."

But you need to blame me.

Also if you can blame me,

then you have no fault.

So that last week was

It was bittersweet.

And see me when you can ♪

Yeah ♪

[reporter] Meghan and Harry,

all smiles tonight.

The royal farewell tour in high gear.

Meghan back in the UK for the first time

since the couple's dramatic decision

to step down as senior working royals.

[Harry] That farewell week, we did

all these engagements back-to-back.

It was just like It was a real whirlwind.

[female reporter] Five engagements

in five days.

[Meghan] Until that last week in the UK,

I rarely wore color.

I never wanted to upstage

or ruffle any feathers.

So I just tried to blend in.

- But I wore a lot of color that week.

- Yeah.

I just felt like,

"Let's just look like a rainbow."

["She's A Rainbow"

by The Rolling Stones playing]

She comes in colors everywhere ♪

She combs her hair ♪

She's like a rainbow ♪

Coming, colors in the air ♪

Oh, everywhere ♪

She comes in colors ♪

We weren't with the family. It was

our opportunity to go out with a bang.

A lot of you tonight

have told me you have my back.

Well, I'm also here to tell you,

I've always got yours.

- [soft music playing]

- [camera shutters clicking]

[Harry] It never needed to be this way.

We talked about this over and over again.

Sitting up late in the kitchen after

these late night engagements, saying,

"We would have carried on doing this

for the rest of our lives."

She's like a rainbow ♪

[Meghan] I thought, "The public,

if they've been fed these lies

for two years,

what do they think of me?"

"They must hate us."

No.

[Meghan] The people

were just so embracing.

They were sad that we were leaving.

And we were sad that we were leaving.

I'm gonna miss the British public.

Not going to miss the British press, uh,

and their followers

and their trolls that they create.

I'm gonna miss this country. So is Meghan.

[bells ringing]

[regal music playing]

[male reporter] It's one of the great

royal family showpieces of the year.

A Westminster Abbey service featuring

the Queen along with Charles and Camilla,

William and Kate, even Edward and Sophie.

And last, Harry and Meghan,

in their last official role

before returning to North America.

[wistful music playing]

The first time that we saw

the other members of the family

was in public at Westminster Abbey.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] This is the last time

we'll see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex

with the Queen and the royal family

on an engagement. And it's significant.

[wistful music playing]

[Harry] We were nervous seeing the family,

because all the TV cameras

and everybody watching at home

and everybody watching in the audience,

it's like living through a soap opera,

where you everybody else

views you as entertainment.

[reporter] You really do have to wonder

what was going through their minds

as they were going

through the motions of this,

given what's going on in the background.

[Harry] I felt really distant

from my family,

which was interesting,

because so much of how they operate

is about what it looks like,

rather than what it feels like.

And it looked cold.

But it also felt cold.

[reporter 1] In the services we saw today,

they weren't even in the procession.

That also sort of showing where

things are automatically changing.

[reporter 2] When you see

how successful they have been

at their public engagements,

you see what an incredible loss this is

to the royal family.

But also, you really have

to wonder how it was possible

that something could not be worked out

to keep them within the fold.

We had left Westminster Abbey,

and then that was it.

I had to go to the airport.

We were racing to catch my flight.

We were cutting it so close,

but I wanted to get back home to Archie.

Yeah. Back to Buckingham Palace, changed.

Unpinned the hat.

Quickly took this green dress off.

Threw on some clothes for the plane.

I was saying goodbye.

[wistful music continues]

[Meghan] Of course it was emotional.

We get on the plane.

And it's not the pilot, but whoever

is sort of overseeing the crew,

and he came and he knelt next to my seat

and he took his hat off,

and I just remember looking at him,

and he goes,

"We appreciate everything

you did for our country."

And it was the first time

that I felt like someone

saw the sacrifice.

Not for my own country.

For this country, that's not mine.

We landed in Canada

and one of our security guards,

who had been with H for so long,

and these guys were so wonderful,

I just collapsed in his arms, crying.

I was like, "I tried so hard."

He goes, "I know you did.

I know you did, ma'am, I know you did."

Like, I tried so hard.

And that's the piece

that's so triggering, 'cause you go,

"And it still wasn't good enough.

And you still don't fit in."

[wistful music continues]

[David] It was impossible

not to feel emotional investment

as a Black British person

watching Meghan enter this institution,

uh, and become this icon,

this figure that we all had

these high hopes for.

Part of what made the inability

of the palace to defend Meghan

an even bigger disaster

is at the center

of the argument for the monarchy

in this country is the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is 2.5 billion,

mainly Black and brown people.

Here was a woman who just looked like

most of the people in the Commonwealth,

and they somehow, for some reason,

couldn't find the capacity to protect her,

to represent her, to stand by her,

to take on vested power in her name,

to fight for her.

[Afua] One of the big questions

facing modern Britain is

"What do we choose

our symbols and institutions to be?

And are they inclusive? Or are they

continuing that history of exclusion?"

And when a member of the royal family

visits one of these countries,

it creates an awkward

moment for the British government.

[man] Sending a shout out

to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

and the entire royal family

that reparation time comes now.

[suspenseful music playing]

There's a tipping point,

a generational change,

and a moment in which

events are sort of coalescing.

[Dame Sandra Mason]

from this day and forever,

declare Barbados a parliamentary republic.

[David] In 2021,

Barbados made the decision

to replace the Queen as the head of state.

That makes it more likely

that other nations will follow.

[woman] There are renewed calls

this evening for Jamaica to take steps

to remove the Queen as head of state.

Anyone inside that system,

whether it's my family,

whether it's staff,

whether it's PR, whoever it is,

have already missed

an enormous opportunity with my wife,

and how far that would go globally.

[crowd cheering]

[Afua] Their relationship presented

the idea that Britain can change,

that the most intractable, traditional

parts of Britain can reform and evolve.

Their departure felt

like the death of a dream.

Um, hi. So we're here on,

uh, Tues Wednesday.

Wednesday, the something of March.

These next few months is when

we're gonna be at our most vulnerable.

Uh, when the press will no doubt

create some sort of feeding frenzy.

[crowd indistinct clamoring]

[reporter 1] The Duke of Sussex stepping

off his plane as you can see there.

Clearly a number of questions

still to be answered.

[reporter 2] Will they still get

royal protection when they live overseas?

[Harry] By the time that I got back

from the UK after that March trip,

the whole place was completely surrounded.

Boats in the water, cars on the drive,

individuals trying to jump over the fence

and take photographs over the wall.

It was Yeah, it was

I'd never experienced that before.

[man] I've just been,

I've just seen this bloke.

He looked at me as I drove in.

[Harry] M asked me,

"Would they remove our security?"

I said, "They'll never do that."

Meghan's background, her heritage,

the well-documented

hate campaigns against us,

suspicious packages

being sent to the palaces,

specifically with her name on

or my name on.

She said, "Do you think they'll do it?"

I said, "No, they would never do that."

And they did it.

- [tense music playing]

- [camera shutters clicking]

They've decided our security

will be removed on 31st March,

thereby leaving me less than three weeks,

um, to find security for my family.

And I'm worried. I am genuinely concerned,

um, for the safety of my family.

And then, just like that,

this thing called COVID.

[reporter] Officials now say

more than 400 people have been sickened

And at that moment,

our location was exposed.

We knew our security was being pulled.

Everyone in the world knew where we were,

so we weren't gonna be safe there.

[reporter] The AP is now reporting

Canadian Prime Minister

Justin Trudeau's wife, Sophie,

has tested positive for Coronavirus.

[Meghan] They're gonna close the border.

Without question,

they're gonna close the border in no time.

[Harry] Stay, stay.

There comes a point

when you're worried about what,

what could happen next,

and therefore, you've got to do what

I guess any husband and father would do,

which is get the hell out of there.

["Everybody's Talking"

by Harry Nilsson playing]

Everybody's talking at me ♪

I don't hear a word they're saying ♪

Only the echoes of my mind ♪

People stopping, staring ♪

I can't see their faces ♪

Only the shadows of their eyes ♪

I'm going where the sun keeps shining

Through the pouring rain ♪

Going where the weather

Suits my clothes ♪

Banking off of the northeast winds ♪

Sailing on a summer breeze ♪

And skipping over the ocean

Like a stone ♪

Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

Oh ♪

I'm going where the sun keeps shining ♪