More than once, Harry and Meghan made distinctions between the queen and the rest of the royal family. They told stories of how they interacted with her during her time in London and after moving away from her roles as members of senior royalty. There was a noticeable change in tone, however, when discussing others, particularly William; his wife, Kate Middleton; and Charles.
The royal family failed to correct the false narrative around it, Meghan said.
The tabloid stories came one after the other, Meghan said: About her diva behavior, about how she bullied her team, about her alleged feud with her sister-in-law, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.
Not only were they not true, Meghan said, but the royal family did nothing to correct them.
She understood, she said, that the royal family was “willing to lie to protect other family members, but they were not willing to tell the truth to protect my husband and me”.
In a particularly resonant example, she said, the tabloids reported, long after their wedding, that she had made Kate cry before the sumptuous event about the bridesmaid dress that Kate’s daughter was supposed to wear. In fact, said Meghan, it was Kate who made her cry.
Kate apologized and sent flowers, said Meghan. But when the tabloid news was published, no member of the royal family made any effort to correct the record.
“I’m talking about things that are super artificial and inconsequential,” said Meghan. “But the narrative about, you know, making Kate cry, I think it was the beginning of a real character murder. And they knew it wasn’t true. “
She added, “I thought, well, if they’re not going to kill things like that, then what are we going to do?”