Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Discuss on their Relationship Getting Leaked and Press Harassment
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries devoted its first episode to exploring the beginning of their relationship, from their first two dates in London to the few months they spent long-distance dating. But the episode ended—and the second episode began—by detailing what happened when media outlets broke the news of their relationship, and the harassment of Meghan began.
“This is about duty and service, and I feel as though being part of this family, it is my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media,” Harry revealed at the beginning of the series.
Below, read what the couple revealed about their final night before their relationship broke; the first days of Meghan adjusting to paparazzi attention; and how the royal family allegedly offered little help when the couple sought it.
Harry and Meghan attempted to prepare for what would happen when their relationship broke.
Even when they were secretly dating, there was a risk that the public would find out. “Getting her through the police barrier and onto Kensington Palace was a risk in itself because people talk, right?” Harry recalled. “It’s not about who you trust. It’s about who they trust. That’s literally how it works.”
“We’d been so petrified of when it would break, H trying to prepare me for what that might be like, knowing what he had experienced in the past,” Meghan added.
Harry and Meghan went out to a Halloween party with Princess Eugenie and her now husband, Jack Brooksbank, the night before their relationship broke in the British tabloids.
“[On October 29, 2016], [Harry] and his brother’s Communications Secretary, Jason, called him to let him know that the story was scooped by a tabloid. He said, ‘Well, if it’s going to come out tomorrow, then let’s go and have fun tonight,’” Meghan recalled.
“We went to this Halloween party together where we completely dressed up and no one would know,” Harry said. “I had a bandana and googles.”
“You borrowed a great costume. And we were like, ‘Well, this may be our last shot to just go out and have fun out in the world,’” Meghan said.
“Pull the pin out of the fun grenade, which we did,” Harry added.
“His cousin, Eugenie, and her boyfriend at the time, Jack, and my friend Marcus were there, too. It was so great. Just silly fun,” Meghan said.
Some photos of their last night out as a secret couple appeared in the series:
Harry and Meghan were relieved the news came out—until they saw a darker side to the coverage.
“And then, the next morning, it was so overwhelming,” Meghan recalled of what transpired after their fun night out. “I said, ‘Okay, well then, I’ll just treat it like we’re in the bush [like when the couple camped in Botswana on their third date]. Because, like, it’s all foreign to me, but I trust that you’ll keep me safe, and you’ll get me through it.”
“Naively, I didn’t know what I was walking into in October of 2016, when suddenly, everything changed,” Harry said.
In the second episode, Meghan further detailed her experience. “Right when the news broke, I think we both felt tremendous relief,” she said. “And the people I hadn’t told I was dating H were just texting me, ‘Is it true? Oh my gosh! What?!’ And people were just overjoyed.”
“There was a frenzy happening,” she continued. “It almost felt like all the things we were nervous about, of it getting out, okay, don’t worry. It’s fine. And then that very quickly changed.”
Meghan and Harry were still in a long-distance relationship when the media surrounded her house in Toronto. It intensified their relationship.
“I was hearing all of this [Meghan’s house being surrounded] from thousands of miles away. And trying to do something about it but being completely helpless,” Harry said.
Meghan added, “Long-distance relationships are work, no matter what way you slice it. Then you add this layer? And look, bearing in mind you’re still discovering things about each other. And so it really accelerates the learning curve in a relationship.”
The royal family did not fully understand the cause for alarm.
Harry said his family maintained their hands-off, “never complain, never explain” approach because they saw it as what all partners, particularly female partners, of royals go through.
“What people need to understand is, as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that [Meghan] was being put through, they’d been put through as well,” Harry said. “So it was almost like a rite of passage. Some of the members of the family were like, ‘Right, but my wife had to go through that. So why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’ And I said, ‘The difference here is the race element.’”
Even after they got engaged, Meghan was hopeful paparazzi and tabloid treatment would get better, even though it ultimately didn’t.
Meghan maintained her optimism that she could get through the hand she was dealt, even after Harry proposed.
“At that point, I was still very much believing what I was being told,” she recalled. “Which was, ‘It will pass. It will get better. It’s just what they do right at the very beginning.’ This promise of, ‘Once you’re married, don’t worry, it will get better. Once they get used to you, it will get better. Of course it will get better.’ But, truth be told, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they were still gonna find a way to destroy me.”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.