The Duchess of Sussex has given insight into her life as a royal, describing her last one year as ‘hard’ she recalled being warned by friends not to marry Prince Harry.
Meghan Markle said she had tried to cope with the pressures of her new life since her wedding in May 2018, by putting on a “stiff upper lip” but she was not prepared for the intensity of tabloid interest.
“I don’t think anybody could understand that, but in all fairness I had no idea, which probably sounds difficult to understand … but when I first met my now-husband my friends were really happy because I was so happy, but my British friends said to me, ‘I’m sure he’s great but you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life’.”
Meghan, 38, said that, as an American, she “very naively” thought this did not make any sense, adding: “I’m not in tabloids. I didn’t get it, so it’s been complicated.”
The couple have faced mounting criticism after reportedly taking four private jet journeys in 11 days this summer, rather than opting for commercial flights, despite speaking out on environmental issues.
Singer Sir Elton John said he provided the couple and their baby son Archie with a private flight to “maintain a high level of much-needed protection”.
He also hit back at what he called “these relentless and untrue assassinations on their character”.
During the couple’s recent southern Africa tour, journalist Tom Brady also asked Meghan if she could continue to cope with the pressure and what would happen if she could not.
She told him: “In all honesty I have said for a long time to H – that is what I call him – it’s not enough to just survive something, that’s not the point of life. You have got to thrive. You have got to feel happy, and I think I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip.
“I tried, I really tried, but I think what that does internally is probably really damaging, and the biggest thing that I know is that I never thought this would be easy but I thought it would be fair, and that is the part that is hard to reconcile but (I) just take each day as it comes.”
