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The New York Times article - Towards the end of 2020, Meghan Markle had an opinion piece published in the New York Times. Many were shocked by the raw honesty with which she talked about her experience with miscarriage.

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The New York Times article -

It was a beautifully written piece, but difficult to read without developing a lump in your throat. It made us all the more aware that Meghan Markle has a lot to say.

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'Harry & Meghan: An African Journey' -

In the article, Markle focused on the importance of asking the question “are you okay?” She was surprised to be asked this by a reporter during the making of the 2019 documentary 'Harry & Meghan: An African Journey.' She admitted that no, she was not okay, and that she wasn’t often asked.

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'Harry & Meghan: An African Journey' -

This was one of the first times Markle opened up about how she had been suffering through her battle with the British tabloids, as a new mother, and as a new royal. She had previously kept her feelings quite private, which seems like a reasonable act of self-protection given her relationship with the media.

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Prince Harry's statement -

Prince Harry also spoke out in support of his wife, in a statement sharing the pain he felt at watching his wife suffering through the same media abuse as his late mother.

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The young Prince Harry - Harry himself has always been one of the more open members of the British royal family. His supposed “wild child” behavior was well documented in the press, and his youthful inability to fall in line with the strict code of conduct set out by the royal family made him somewhat of a black sheep in the eyes of the media.

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Prince Harry's trauma -

In the same documentary that saw Markle speak out for the first time, Prince Harry also spoke candidly about the unresolved trauma he suffers from the loss of his mother. He explained how the clicks and flashes of cameras take him back to the dark times when his mother was hounded by paparazzi, which acts as the worst possible reminder of her life.

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Prince Harry shares his experience - In 2017, he revealed on a podcast that he had struggled with his grief for 20 years before finally seeking help through therapy. He explained that he had been at the point of a breakdown on several occasions, before his brother, Prince William, convinced him to see a counselor only a few years earlier.

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Suppressing his grief - Prince Harry spoke about how he had tried to bury his grief for decades and avoided thinking about his mother. He also spoke specifically about how being a member of the royal family had contributed to his struggles.

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Overwhelmed and silenced -

He spoke about being overwhelmed by the lies and misconceptions that were coming at him from every angle, and his inability to speak up for himself because of his royal responsibilities. “One of the hardest things, I suppose, is not being able to have that voice and stand up for yourself, and to let it wash over you.”

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Future problems to come -

This podcast episode was released before Harry and Meghan had even made their first public appearance as a couple, but foreshadowed the difficulties they would experience in the years to come.

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Heads Together - Although Prince William is the more reserved of the two brothers, aligning with a more traditional royal persona, he has also opened up about his mental health in recent years. Prince William, his wife the Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry all teamed up for the campaign Heads Together, which aimed at destigmatizing mental health, and chipped in a few personal admissions of their own to that end.

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Prince William's grief -

Prince William took part in the 2019 documentary ‘A Royal Team Talk: Tackling Mental Health.’ He described suffering “a pain like no other” after the death of his mother, Princess Diana. He expressed the need to relax the stoic, stiff upper lip mentality that causes people to hide their feelings and suffer in silence.

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Struggling to cope -

Prior to that in 2018, Prince William also shared that he was dealing with constant sadness while working as an ambulance pilot. He believed that he was impacted by what he saw on the job even more than he realized, and brought the despair he saw home with him each day.

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King Charles' isolation experience - In a 2020 interview, Prince William told the BBC that his father, then-Prince Charles, had struggled with his mental health during his recovery from COVID-19. King Charles is known for his love of the outdoors and found his isolation extremely difficult.

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Prince Harry calls out the royal family -

Despite these admissions, Prince Harry told Oprah that both his father and his brother are trapped within the royal system. They are both heirs to the throne and he sympathizes with them because they don’t have his freedom to speak out and step away.

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Meghan admits to having suicidal thoughts -

One of the biggest revelations from the Oprah interview was that Meghan Markle had actually become suicidal at the height of the media nightmare, and was refused adequate support by the royal institution (the institution refers to the team of people close to the royal family who manage their affairs and run the palace).

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Overwhelmed by the vitriol in the press -

Markle told Oprah that the media attacks became severe and the royal family did nothing to protect her. It got to the point where she felt like it was all coming at her just for breathing, and she felt that she didn’t want to be alive anymore.

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Feeling shame -

Markle explained how difficult it was to tell her husband how she was feeling: “I was really ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it, to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he's suffered. But I knew that if I didn't say it that I would do it—and I just didn't want to be alive anymore.”

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The Palace rejects Markle's request for help -

After speaking to Prince Harry, Markle decided to go to the royal institution to tell them that she needed to go somewhere to get help. She felt that she needed an inpatient stay at a hospital or somewhere she could be treated for serious depression. Markle says she was told that this wouldn’t be possible, because it wouldn’t look good for the royal family.

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Meghan Markle wants others to be freed - Markle said that one of her main reasons for sharing the details of her mental health issues is that so many people are afraid to speak about it and ask for help.

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Prince Harry's disappointment -

Prince Harry shared that this sent him to a very dark place himself and that he didn’t know how to deal with it. He was particularly disappointed in the lack of support he received from his father, who had experienced something similar with his mother, Princess Diana.

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Princess Diana -

The difficulties Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are having are particularly painful because, in many ways, history is repeating itself. Princess Diana was also hounded by the media while struggling with her mental health as an outsider within the royal family.

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Princess Diana and postnatal depression -

Towards the end of her marriage to Prince Charles, Diana revealed her own story through a series of interviews and a biography written by Andrew Morton. She revealed that she suffered from postnatal depression after giving birth to Prince William, and that the royal family didn’t know what to do with her. She was labeled as unstable.

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Princess Diana reveals that she self-harmed -

Princess Diana admitted to self-harming during this period as a way to cope with the pain she was feeling. She said this helped her to understand people she met through her charity work who were going through similar struggles.

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Princess Diana's bulimia - It’s also well known that Diana struggled with bulimia for most of her adult life. She describes how the people around her misunderstood her illness: “I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals, and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger: they decided that was the problem–Diana was unstable.”

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Stigmatization within the royal family -

Whether it’s 1991 or 2021, it seems that the British crown struggles to support family members who are struggling with their mental health.

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Going it alone -

Being a royal is a full-time job that comes with unbelievable pressure and public scrutiny. It seems like it would take a lot of preparation and support to adjust to public life as a royal, but those who grow up in the family just learn to maintain a stiff upper lip. New family members are thrown in at the deep end, while everyone waits to see if they’ll sink or swim.

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Princess Diana's influence -

There is immeasurable value in influential public figures speaking out about their mental health. In the years after Diana told the story of her bulimia, the number of people who sought treatment doubled. This goes to show how much her openness helped to destigmatize the illness and encourage people to ask for help.

Sources: (The New York Times) (The New York Times) (Insider) (Los Angeles Times) (Elle) (BBC) 

See also: How Princess Diana’s sons continue her legacy today

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