When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Tell-All with Oprah Winfrey was first announced in February, people immediately began making comparisons with Princess Diana’s famous interview with Martin Bashir in November 1995 after she broke up with Prince Charles. But the similarities became even more noticeable when it finally aired on March 7th. In addition to matching bold eyeliner looks and Meghan wearing one of Diana’s bracelets, both Meghan and Diana had similar revelations about their time as royals and how intense pressure from the Palace and British press was affecting their sanity. Although it has been almost 26 years since Diana’s interview, it is alarming to see that not much has changed since then. Hopefully Harry and Meghan’s Tell-All will serve as a wake-up call for both the palace and the UK media.
When joining the royal family
Diana: “At the age of 19 you always think you are prepared for anything and you have the knowledge of what lies ahead of you. But although I was discouraged by the prospect at the time, I felt I had my husband’s support -being . “
Meghan: “I’ll say I was naive about it because I didn’t know much about the royal family. It wasn’t part of the conversation at home, it wasn’t something we followed,” she said. “I haven’t looked what that would mean. I never looked up my husband online. I just didn’t feel the need to because he shared everything I needed to know with me.”
If you don’t get support during your royal transitions
Diana: “Nobody sat me down with a piece of paper and said, ‘This is what is expected of you.’ But here, too, I’m lucky enough to have found my role, and I’m very aware of that, and I love being with people, “said Diana. “It was isolating, but it was also a situation in which you couldn’t feel sorry for yourself: you either had to sink or swim. And you had to learn that very quickly.”
Meghan: “Contrary to what you see in the movies, there is no class on how to talk, how to cross your legs, how to be regal,” Meghan said as she recalled the UK national anthem on the night Googling before a royal engagement.
About battling unwanted media attention
Diana: “The most disheartening aspect was the media attention because my husband and I were told when we got engaged that the media would be quiet and it didn’t. When we were married they said it would be quiet and so.” not, and then it started to focus very much on me and I seemed to be on the front of a newspaper every day which is an isolating experience and the higher the media you put, the bigger the drop the bigger the drop. And I was very aware of that. “
Meghan: “I would get up at night and I was just – I don’t understand how this is all stirred up – and again I haven’t seen it – but it’s almost worse if you feel it by the expression my mother said, or my friends, or her, calling me and crying: “Meg, they don’t protect you.” And I realized that everything happened just because I was breathing. “
How the royal family let them down in their time of need
Diana: “Maybe I was the first person in this family who ever had depression or was openly weepy. And that was obviously disheartening because if you’ve never seen it, how do you support it?” Said Diana. “Well, it gave everyone a wonderful new label – Diana is unstable and Diana is mentally unbalanced. And unfortunately that seems to have stayed back and forth over the years.”
She continued: “When nobody listens to you or you feel that nobody listens to you, all kinds of things happen. For example, you have so much pain inside you that you try to hurt yourself from the outside because you want help, but it’s the wrong help you’re asking for. People see it as a crying wolf or seeking attention and they think because you’re in the media all the time, you’ve got enough attention, quotes. But it actually was me screaming because I wanted to get better, to continue my duty and role as a woman, mother, Princess of Wales. So yeah, I did something to myself. I didn’t like myself, I was ashamed because I couldn’t handle the pressure getting ready. “
Meghan: “Look, I was really ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it, especially Harry, because I know how much loss he has suffered. But I knew if I didn’t say it, I would do – and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and scary constant thought, “she admitted. “I went to one of the oldest people for help. I share this because there are so many people who … are afraid to speak that they need help and I personally know how difficult it is Don’t just say it. ” but when you say it you say no. [Going to a hospital] is what i asked for. You can’t just do that, I couldn’t call Uber into the palace, you couldn’t just leave. “
Why they decided to resign from the royal family
Diana: “The pressure was unbearable back then and my job, my work was affected. I wanted to give 110% for my work and I could only give 50. I was constantly tired, exhausted because the pressure was easy, it was like I thought , the only way to do this would be to get up and give a speech and extract myself before I started disappointing and not doing my job, it was my decision to give this speech because I owed it to the public to do so to say that, you know, “Thank you. I’m going away for a while, but I’ll be back.” “
Meghan: “We never left the family. We said, ‘OK, if this doesn’t work for everyone, we are in a lot of pain. They can’t give us the help we need. We can just take one.” Step back. We can do it in a commonwealth country. ‘We proposed New Zealand, South Africa. ”
Why they finally decided to speak up
Diana: “Maybe people have a better understanding, maybe there are many women out there who suffer on the same level, but in a different environment, who are unable to stand up for themselves because their self-esteem is divided in two . “
Meghan: “As an adult who has lived a really independent life and then goes into this construct that is different from what I think people expect, it is really liberating to have the right and the privilege to be able to say in a certain way Yes, I am ready to talk. “
Image source: Getty / Handout / John Shelley Collection / Avalon
