Prince Harry States 'Lack Of Support & Lack Of Understanding' Was What Pushed Him & Meghan Markle To Leave Royal Family
Prince Harry gave more insight as to why he and Meghan Markle stepped down from their senior roles in the royal family.
When Oprah Winfrey asked him what the "tipping point was," he replied, "I was desperate. I went to all the places that I thought I should go to to ask for help. We both did, separately and together."
Oprah then asked, "So, you left because you were asking for help and couldn't get it?"
"Yea, basically. But we never left," he stated.
"We never left the family and we only wanted to have the same type of role that exists. There's senior members and there's non-senior. We said specifically, senior roles," noted Meghan. "[There are people] who earn a living, live on palace grounds, can support the Queen if and when called upon. We weren't reinventing the wheel."
Meghan explained she and Harry "were in a lot of pain" and the Palace wouldn't provide them "with the help that they needed." She says they then suggested to the Palace, "We can take a step back … we can do it in a commonwealth country."
Harry says they needed "to take a breath ... from this constant barrage. My biggest concern was history repeating itself. And what I was seeing was history repeating itself. But far more dangerous because you add race in, you add social media in … I'm talking about my mother. When you can see something happening in the same kind of way, anybody would ask for help. Ask the system of which you are part of."
"So to receive no help at all and be continuously told, 'This is how it is. We've all been through this,'" is what led to their departure, Harry explained.
He said "the biggest turning point" for him was right when the world found out he had a "girlfriend." He admitted he wasn't aware of unconscious bias until he met Meghan, "But my god it doesn't take very long to become aware of it."
"It takes living in her shoes in this instance for a day to see where it was going to go and how far they were going to take it and get away with it," he added.
Overall, Harry stated that a "lack of support and lack of understanding" was what led to his decision to step down. He also noted that they left the U.K. because of the British tabloids.
Finally, Harry declared he did no blindside the Queen with their announcement, because "I have too much respect for her."
