Harry Says Diana Was 'Chased To Her Death While She Was In A Relationship With Someone That Wasn’t White' And Feared 'History Was Repeating Itself' With Meghan

Oct 12, 2022 by apost team

In cooperation with Oprah Winfrey, former working royals Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have released a multi-part documentary project for mental health awareness, which was released on May 21, 2021. The documentary special, "The Me You Can't See," is executive produced by Winfrey and Harry and featured the two discussing emotional well-being and mental health with a number of celebrity guests, including Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, and NBA players DeMar DeRozan and Langston Galloway. The series featured five episodes, which are each an hour long.

The show also featured Winfrey and Harry opening up about their own experiences with mental illness. Focusing on making sure viewers know they are not alone in the struggle that sometimes happens with mental health, the show's goal is to challenge stigmas and provide insight into how viewers can start the path to treatment.

The series is debuting not long after Meghan and Harry's tell-all interview with Winfrey, but the topic of mental health is one near and dear to Harry's heart. Harry's mother, the late Diana, was known for her outspokenness regarding mental health and was beloved by the public for her candid and honest conversations about mental well-being.

In one clip from the show, Harry speaks to the racism that his mother faced while dating the Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, the same man Diana died alongside after a 1997 car accident in Paris. In this excerpt, the prince makes a comparison between the racism Fayed and his mother experienced and the discrimination he and his wife Meghan, who is half Black, have faced.

Princess Diana was adored for her kindness and humanitarian work, and she was universally loved by not only the British public but by people the world over. She was always a trailblazer, from her stunning sense of style to her activism and the kind way she interacted with everyone she met. 

Diana used her influence to enact good, spending much of her time campaigning for humanitarian causes that improved the lives of others. She sat with people who were ill, helping to break the stigma of the then-new diseases HIV and AIDS. These are the reasons she became known as the "People's Princess" — she was a shining beacon of light in the royal family.

Born into the British nobility, she grew up close to the royal family and later married into it when she married King Charles III in 1981, thus making her the Princess of Wales. The general public had a fondness for the new princess and took to her liking pretty well. Together, Diana and Charles had two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. However, the couple’s marriage was full of problems, leading to a separation in 1992 and a divorce in 1996.

Sadly, on Aug. 31, 1997, Diana died from the injuries she sustained in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris, France, which caused widespread media attention and mourning from people all over the world. She was buried on Sept. 6, 1997. Her untimely death has been the topic of conversations for many years, as people have continued to do their part to help carry on the late princess’ legacy.

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Over the years since Diana’s passing, many royal family members have shared heartfelt words about missing the late princess. Her eldest son, William, opened up about the moments his mom missed out on. “I would like to have had her advice,” he told British GQ in 2017. “I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up. It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her.”

According to PEOPLE, William’s wife, Kate Middleton, was given Diana’s sapphire ring as her engagement ring, keeping it in the family line.

For their wedding in 2018, Harry and Meghan Markle hand-picked forget-me-nots, Diana's favorite flower, from the Kensington Palace garden to include in the “Suits” actress' bouquet for her marriage to the Duke of Sussex. In 2020, the couple planted forget-me-nots while visiting a preschool in Los Angeles, California, according to CBS News.

Harry and Meghan welcomed daughter Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor in June 2021. In a statement, the parents wrote, "Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales."

Even though Meghan was never able to meet her mother-in-law, many people have said that she shares similarities with the late princess. While Lilibet has already inherited Diana’s name, Meghan seems to have encountered some situations similar to Diana. This is something that Harry has spoken about more the longer he and Meghan have been together.

Prince Harry met US-born actress Meghan Markle in the summer of 2016 through mutual friends. In a cover story for Vanity Fair back in September 2017, she said: "We're in love."

When Meghan’s name first appeared in newspapers when the couple first started dating, not many British people knew who she was. The former actress was born in Los Angeles in 1981 and is best known for her portrayal of Rachel Zane on the television show “Suits.”

Not all media coverage of Prince Harry’s then-girlfriend was positive, however. In fact, in October 2016, the royal palace released a statement on behalf of the Duke, describing the media coverage as “harassment” and “abuse,” even having “racial undertones.”

Much of the initial criticism towards Meghan was rooted in her first marriage to film producer Trevor Engelson, to whom she was married for three years and divorced in 2013. She also had a blog, the Tig, which was closed down in 2017.

She had once written on her blog: "I've never wanted to be a lady who lunches — I've always wanted to be a woman who works."

Still, Harry and Meghan proved that their love was strong enough to last. The Duke and Duchess' wedding was in the media spotlight for months ahead of the event, which took place on May 19, 2018. The royal ceremony differed from others in the past, featuring elements of Meghan’s African American roots, such as a gospel choir. The ceremony was attended by many high-profile Hollywood personalities such as George and Amal Clooney.

Every so often, the public is treated to an inside view of the private life of Harry and Meghan. The royal couple stays relatively quiet outside of curated press releases and rare public appearances. Although the Duchess of Sussex was somewhat used to the spotlight as a former actress, being reintroduced as a member of the British royal family was extremely different and very difficult.

However, after Meghan and Harry announced their royal departure in 2020 and acted on that the following year, the family unit has stayed very strong and has even grown in size. Meghan and Harry are parents of two: Archie Mountbatten-Winsdor and Lilibet. They now reside in Montecito, California.

Mere days after giving birth to their daughter, the Duchess of Sussex released her very first children's book titled "The Bench." The story began as a poem that Meghan wrote to Harry one Father's Day before it was turned into a book with gorgeous illustrations by Christian Robinson. Released in June 2021, it didn't take long for "The Bench" to become a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, proving that Meghan’s talents lie in much more than just acting. After hitting the No. 1 New York Times bestseller list, Meghan personally thanked her fans via the couple's Archewell website.

And for Meghan’s big 40th birthday in 2021, Meghan revealed another project, as the mom was just refusing to slow down. Meghan filmed a home video with actress Melissa McCarthy, in which McCarthy came up with several outrageous ideas on how Meghan was celebrating her 40th birthday.

McCarthy jokingly suggested a "Suits" reunion, as well as a yacht party. After McCarthy’s antics, Meghan revealed that she was celebrating her 40th by launching the 40x40 project. In the video, Meghan said:

"In the past two years, and in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, TENS OF MILLIONS OF women around the world have left the workforce, including over two million women in the U.S. So many of these women are also SHOULDERING THE BRUNT OF THE CRISIS when it comes to unpaid labor, including schooling and caring for family members. And the latest research shows that FEWER WOMEN THAN MEN WILL REGAIN WORK as we recover from the pandemic." 

By teaming up with 40 "friends, activists, athletes, artists, and world leaders," Meghan wanted to kick off a global effort for people to offer 40 minutes of mentorship to women reentering the workforce.

Meghan said:

"With this time, I hope they each help someone advance a professional life on her own terms, and, I hope that they inspire countless others to give 40 minutes of their time as well. If you are able, please JOIN US and pledge 40 minutes today in service of others in the way that feels right to you. The time that you donate can contribute to a GLOBAL WAVE OF SERVICE and set in motion meaningful impact in our own communities, and across the world."

And while Meghan and Harry both have several accomplishments to be proud of, their former lives as working royals were not always as glamorous as people may have imagined.

Although Harry and his wife Meghan began distancing themselves from the royal family back in January 2020 when they announced that they would be stepping back as senior royals, it wasn’t until the two spoke with Winfrey during an exclusive interview in March 2021 that they began to criticize the way in which the media and the royal family have talked about and portrayed Archie and Meghan. In "The Me You Can't See," Harry made similar criticisms, speaking specifically to the mental toll of the discriminatory comments.

“Within the first eight days of our relationship being made public was when they said, ‘Harry’s girl almost straight outta Compton.’ And that her exotic DNA will be thickening the royal blood,” Harry said of the media’s treatment of Markle in the documentary series, according to The Independent. “We would get followed, photographed, chased, harassed.”

Harry then made a comparison between the hate Markle has faced and the racism that his mother and her Egyptian boyfriend experienced in the late 1990s, saying that “history was repeating itself.”

“My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn’t white,” Harry added. “And now look what’s happened. You wanna talk about history repeating itself, they’re not gonna stop until she dies.”

After both sides had admitted to infidelity, Princess Diana and her husband, then-Prince Charles, filed for divorce in 1996 after receiving pressure from Queen Elizabeth II to separate, according to the BBC. Around a year later, the paparazzi spotted the princess on vacation with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.

And, as Harry alluded to in his interview, the media wouldn’t let up. In fact, Diana and Fayed died following a car crash while trying to escape the paparazzi, who were following the couple in Paris.

Given that Harry said this history of harassment has repeated itself, the former working royal explained that he regretted not speaking out earlier about the racism his wife faced. According to The Independent, the prince said his biggest regret was “not making more of a stance earlier on in my relationship with my wife and calling out the racism when I did.”

Harry’s statements regarding race came after the controversial Mar. 7, 2021, interview with Winfrey, in which the prince and Meghan addressed the growing rift between themselves and the royal family. In the interview, the couple specifically criticized the royal family and the press, particularly for the way they talk about their son, Archie.

There were “concerns and conversations,” Meghan told Winfrey, ”about how dark (Archie’s) skin might be when he’s born.”

Meghan added that because of its culture and concerns like the one above, her mental health suffered after joining the royal family, describing her psychological state as “frightening.”

Following the tell-all special, which saw Meghan and Harry criticize members of the royal family directly for the first time, the late Queen Elizabeth released an official statement responding to claims of racism.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” she wrote in the statement, which was issued on Mar. 9, 2021.

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately,” she added. “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”

As of May 21, 2021, viewers can watch Harry’s "The Me You Can't See” multi-part documentary series on Apple TV+, which includes five episodes that are already available for subscribers. 

What do you think about Harry’s statement that “history was repeating itself” with Meghan? What do you think about his new documentary series? Let us know — and be sure to pass this on to friends and family members.