Meghan Markle got candid about her time as a member of the royal family describing it as ‘hard’. She also confessed that her friends warned her not to marry Harry because of the tabloid culture in the UK.
The Duchess of Sussex said she tried to cope with the pressures of marrying the Duke of Sussex but was not prepared for the intense tabloid attention. In the ITV documentary, Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, she said, ‘It’s hard. 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’.’
The former US actor said that as an American she didn’t take this seriously. ‘I’m not in tabloids. I didn’t get it, so it’s been complicated.’
The couple has been under scrutiny after reportedly taking four private jet journeys in 11 days this summer despite speaking out on environmental issues.
Meghan and Harry have both had their share of troubles with the media. Markle has sued the Mail over a breach of privacy while Harry has also begun legal action for the alleged illegal interception of voicemail messages by Sun, News of the World and Daily Mirror journalists.
When asked by journalist Tom Brady if she could continue to cope with the pressure, she was frank in her response, ‘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.’
Meghan explained that it was unfair that the UK tabloids’ ran false stories about her. ‘When people are saying things that are just untrue, and they are being told they are untrue but they are allowed to still say them, I don’t know anybody in the world who would feel that’s OK and that is different from just scrutiny. ‘I think the grass is always greener. You have no idea. It is really hard to understand what it’s like. ‘The good thing is that I have got my baby and I have got my husband and they are the best.’
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