Revealing that he felt “trapped” in the institution of the Royal Family during Sunday’s bombshell interview with Oprah, Prince Harry said he never would have stepped down without Meghan because “I was trapped but didn’t know I was trapped.”
He added that “My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that.”
The conversation happened during the two-hour interview airing on CBS last night, in which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared more details about their current relationship with the Royal Family.
Both spoke warmly of The Queen throughout the interview, with Meghan talking about how Her Majesty gifted her with a set of pearl earrings and a necklace on their first public outing together and even shared the blanket she often drapes across her lap for warmth. Meghan also said she called The Queen personally when they learned Prince Philip was in the hospital.
“My grandmother has been amazing throughout,” Harry said, later adding, “I’ve spoken more to my grandmother in the last year than I have done for many, many years.” He said they do Zoom calls for her to see Archie, and touched on the close relationship the two share.
“My grandmother and I have a really good relationship and an understanding and I have a deep respect for her. She’s my colonel in chief, right? She always will be.”
When asked by Oprah about the Prince of Wales, who Harry said at one point was not taking his calls, Harry paused for a moment before saying: “There’s a lot to work through there. I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. And this is … Archie’s his grandson … but at the same time, I will always love him. But there’s a lot of hurt that happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship. But they only know what they know. And that’s the thing.”
And while much has been said about the Duke of Sussex’s relationship with his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, Harry said he still loves his brother “to bits.”
“He’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together, I mean we have a shared experience. But we are on different paths,” Harry said. When Oprah later asked him to clarify exactly what their relationship was like now, he said, “the relationship is … space. At the moment. And time heals all things. Hopefully.”
