10 of the Most Jaw-Dropping Revelations From Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Oprah Winfrey Interview

In 2021, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry shocked the world by sitting down with Oprah Winfrey to discuss why they fled the U.K. The explosive CBS special painted the British royal family as cold and prejudiced, and the couple depicted their royal duties as mentally exhausting.

Scroll to read the 10 most shocking revelations from the interview.

Daunted by bad press and the rigors of royal life, the divorced, biracial American Meghan said she experienced suicidal thoughts while she and Prince Harry resided in the U.K.

"I just didn't want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought," she recalled. When she asked the palace for help, however, she was rebuffed. "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."

Perhaps the duo's most shocking claim was that, while the biracial Meghan was pregnant with Prince Archie, now 4, an unnamed member of the royal family fretted about the color of the unborn baby's skin.

Meghan (pregnant with Princess Lilibet during the TV appearance) mentioned hearing "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."

Prince Harry was more blunt: "What will the kids look like?"

Clearing up newspaper reports that Meghan had made Kate Middleton cry in the run-up to her wedding, the former Suits star admitted the two had had a tiff "about the flower girl dresses" — but it was Kate who made Meghan shed tears.

"It really hurt my feelings," Meghan admitted, adding that the mom to flower girl Princess Charlotte, now 8, had apologized and sent her flowers.

In a stunning admission, Harry said his father, King Charles, had stopped taking his phone calls after he and Meghan announced they were stepping back from royal duties. Eventually, the two resumed contact, but the hurt lingered.

Harry said, "I feel really let down. He's been through something similar; he knows what pain feels like."

The duke and duchess excused their pursuit of deals with Netflix and other moneymaking schemes, alleging that he had received no money from the royal family since the beginning of 2020. The pair, he revealed, were living off his estimated $13.8 million inheritance from his late mother, Princess Diana.

Meghan revealed that she and Harry had a civil ceremony in their backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury three days before their extravagant May 2018 wedding.

The archbishop later refuted the claim, leading the pair to backpedal and call the garden vows "personal" rather than legally binding.

Crediting Meghan with helping him see how "trapped" he was within the royal family, Harry didn't hide his opinion of his big brother and father.

He said he was "trapped within the system like the rest of my family are. My father, my brother, they are trapped."

"When I joined that family, that was the last time, until we came [to the U.S.], that I saw my passport, my driver's license, my keys. All that gets turned over," Meghan said, adding that she was rarely able to leave her home because The Firm was worried about "how things might look."

She griped, "Has anyone thought about how it feels?"

Claiming to be ignorant of all things royal, Meghan insisted she didn't check out Harry online before or after their first blind date.

"I just didn't feel the need to because everything I needed to know, he was sharing with me — or everything we thought I needed to know, he was telling me."

Accused of secretly planning "Megxit" behind the queen's back, Harry insisted he had three conversations with his grandmother before the pair announced they were stepping back from royal duties.