Meghan Markle’s Plea for Protection Goes Viral

Meghan Markle describing how Buckingham Palace rebuffed her pleas for help dealing with the media has gone viral on TikTok.

The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey she had been willing to do “anything they told me to” after being promised “we’ll protect you.” However, she said that after a wave of negative stories her mental health was at breaking point and she asked for help from the monarchy.

A clip of the March 2021 interview went newly viral on TikTok, where it was liked 8,000 times and viewed 395,000 times after it was posted with the message: “Meghan describes not getting help from the institution for her mental crisis while pregnant due to ‘not being a paid member of the institution.’ She did all this for free.”

In the footage, Meghan said: “I did anything they told me to do—of course I did, because it was also through the lens of, ‘And we’ll protect you.’

“So, even as things started to roll out in the media that I didn’t see—but my friends would call me and say, ‘Meg, this is really bad’—because I didn’t see it, I’d go, ‘Don’t worry. I’m being protected’.”

Meghan added that: “It was all happening just because I was breathing,” and said: “I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help.

“I said that, ‘I’ve never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere’. And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.”

After speaking to “one of the most senior people just to get help,” they said: “My heart goes out to you, because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do to protect you because you’re not a paid employee of the institution.”

“This wasn’t a choice,” she added. “This was emails and begging for help, saying very specifically, ‘I am concerned for my mental welfare’.”

Prince Harry’s Account of Meeting Palace Aide

Prince Harry’s book Spare described two meetings about the media with separate courtiers he nicknamed “The Bee” and “The Wasp.”

The duke wrote: “Meg and I had consulted with the Wasp about the press, and he’d agreed that the situation was abominable, that it needed to be stopped before someone got hurt.

“‘Yes! You’ll get no argument from us on that!’ He suggested the Palace convene a
summit of all the major editors, make our case to them.

“Finally, I said to Meg, someone gets it. We never heard from him again.”

The Wasp is widely believed to be King Charles III’s most senior aide at the time, while The Bee was Queen Elizabeth II’s.

“Meg and I welcomed the Bee into Frogmore, made him comfortable in our new sitting room, offered him a glass of rosé, gave a detailed presentation.

“He took meticulous notes, frequently putting a hand over his mouth and shaking his head. He’d seen the headlines, he said, but he’d not appreciated the full impact this might have on a young couple.

“This deluge of hate and lies was unprecedented in British history, he said. ‘Disproportionate to anything I’ve ever seen.’

“Thank you, we said. Thank you for seeing it. He promised to discuss the matter with all the necessary parties and get back to us soon with an action plan, a set of concrete solutions. We never heard from him again.”

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about Charles and Queen Camilla, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.