Her British friends had told her about the intense scrutiny she would be under if she married Prince Harry.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their decision to step back as senior royals from the family, it sent the world into a frenzy. There were so many opinions and views being tossed around. And a lot of those opinions placed the blame on Markle for taking Harry away from the life he'd always known. She may have made a name for herself as a rebel who chose to bend a few royal rules ever since they got married, much like her late mother-in-law, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they are one of the most adorable couples who have stuck by each other through thick and thin. However, not many know that they almost didn't get married. Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, had been warned about marrying into the British royal family by her friends, and if she had heeded their advice the couple wouldn't have ended up together.
When they started dating in 2015, she was told by friends that British tabloids would "destroy" her life if she was to marry into the royal family, she admitted in a documentary that aired on London's ITV. The mother-of-one said she was not ready for the amount of spotlight the British tabloids directed at her when she started dating Prince Harry.
"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.' And I very naively, I’m American, we don’t have that there, what are you talking about, that doesn’t make any sense. I’m not in tabloids, I didn’t get it. So, it’s been complicated," she said, according to CNBC.
'My British friend said to me 'I'm sure he's great but you shouldn't do it''
— ITV News (@itvnews) October 20, 2019
The Duchess of Sussex reveals she was warned not to marry Prince Harry because 'British tabloids will destroy your life' #HarryAndMeghan https://t.co/GWs5KfuovM pic.twitter.com/SmUl3ofSnd
Despite the warnings, she had been sure about her feelings about the prince and continued their relationship. Now, they are the happy parents of a son, Archie, who was born in May 2019. However, she has struggled with the scrutiny from the British media and has been vocal about it.
When she was asked by presenter Tom Bradby about how much the press has affected her mental and physical health, the Duchess said: "Any woman, especially when you’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, so that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn, and especially as a woman it’s really, it’s a lot. So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom, trying to be a newly-wed, and also thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I’m OK, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."
When she was asked by Bradby if it had been a struggle, she poured in her frustrations in one word, "Yes." The Duchess referred to the norm of maintaining a "stiff upper lip" by the British and said that she has tried to maintain that however, she feels that it has affected her personally. Eventually, she couldn't live with the pressures.
"I’ve said for a long time to H, that’s what I call him, that it’s not enough to just survive something, right, that’s not the point of life, you’ve got to thrive, you’ve got to feel happy and I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip, I really tried, but I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging and the biggest thing that I know is that I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair, and that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile," she said.
Prince Harry had criticized the media for putting Markle through the same difficulties that his mother went through. According to Today, in a rare statement, he said, "Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences — a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son."
"I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces," he added.
Harry has lived up to the faith she put in him and for the happiness, safety, and wellbeing of his family, he stepped back from being a royal. He has publicly defended his move and explained that they chose to do so because Meghan had been deeply affected by the negative press hounding their lives. While his choices shocked the world and his family, the couple seems to be having a much more peaceful time in Canada, where they are staying for now. He has been a knight in shining armor for his wife and made sacrifices to ensure that the woman he loves and their son stays safe.
References:
https://www.itv.com/news/2019-10-20/harry-and-meghan-an-african-journey/
https://www.today.com/news/prince-harry-makes-statement-about-meghan-markle-media-t163717
