it was billed as a tell-all from a
couple
now outside the confines of the british
monarchy
i mean that's the sad irony of the last
four years as i've advocated for so long
for women to use their voice
and then i was silent
uh were you silent or were you silenced
the latter the two-hour interview comes
amid
mounting friction between buckingham
palace and the duke and duchess of
sussex
the couple made the decision to leave
the uk and their official
royal roles nearly two years ago in the
interview megan described what life was
like for her
in the royal family she said when she
was pregnant palace officials spoke to
the couple
about the upcoming birth of their son
archie the conversation of
he won't be given security he's not
going to be given a title
and also concerns and conversations
about how dark his skin might be when
he's born
she says tabloid scrutiny in life within
the royal family made her
miserable and lonely she says at her
lowest point
she thought about committing suicide
i just didn't want to be alive anymore
and that was a very
clear and real
and frightening
constant thought before this interview
megan accused the palace of
orchestrating a smear campaign
last week the british newspaper the
times ran a report
where sources claim she treated some of
her staff so badly that they quit
the palace which normally is silent on
anything published in the papers
said it was concerned about the
allegations and would investigate
which it notably did not do over prince
andrew's sexual abuse allegations
not only was i not being protected
but that they were willing to lie to
protect other members of the family
but they weren't willing to tell the
truth to protect me and my husband
cbs reportedly paid at least seven
million dollars to air the interview
which hit prime time in north america
just hours after the queen's own message
looking forward
relationships with others across the
commonwealth
will remain important in that broadcast
there was no hint of the rift
or some of the dark revelations made in
the interview
now megan admitted that she was very
naive when it came to marrying into the
royal family she didn't know just what
to expect but she said initially
everybody was very welcoming to her she
said that that really changed after the
tour that she and harry took to the
south pacific
after that the couple said that they
really felt trapped and felt they had no
other
option but to leave harry revealed ian
that last year he was basically cut off
financially from the family
he talked about how disappointed he was
in his father and the strained
relationship there
and while most of the interview did
focus on the couple's past they did talk
about the future
they're expecting their second child and
in that interview ian they revealed that
they're expecting a baby girl
all right briar thanks for this welcome
so royal watchers such as sarika bose
are keeping a close eye on the interview
tonight she's a lecturer
at ubc and joins us from here in
vancouver so lots of details in there
sarika what are your thoughts about what
you've just watched
well i think the first thing that really
i noticed was that
i was hearing a narrative of overcoming
injustice
and so i saw a lot of words and a lot of
concepts underlying the interview
words like entrapment marginalization
racism financial insecurity protection
all of these kinds of ideas ran
through the entire interview and two of
the most
important points that were mentioned
many times were
mental health and self-harm as well as
racism
and the idea was that there was a great
deal of
racist behavior once two things happened
one was the australian tour
and one was the announcement of the new
baby and there was discussion about
not giving the baby a title discussion
about the color of the baby's skin
and discussion really about racist
attitudes in the royal family and i
think that particular discussion
is probably the most damaging to the
royal family
and there's going to be a lot of
discussion to come we literally have 15
seconds
but let me just ask you are you
surprised at the the level of candor
in that interview i'm not very surprised
no
all right sarika thanks for joining me
okay
thank you