[laughing]
-[female interviewer] Alright. -[male voice] Good morning Sir.
[laughing]
[female interviewer] Your Royal Highness and Meghan Markle,
congratulations to you both.
Thank you.
[female interviewer] Can we start with the proposal
and the actual moment of your engagement.
When did it happen? How did it happen?
-It happened a few weeks ago. -[Meghan] Mm-hmm.
Um, earlier this month. Here at our cottage.
[female interviewer 2] In your engagement interview, er--
[laughs] Orchestrated reality show, yep.
[tense music playing]
[Meghan] It was, you know, rehearsed.
[camera shutters clicking]
So we did the thing out with the Press, then we went right inside,
took the coat off, sat down and did the interview.
So it's all in that same moment.
[camera shutters clicking, machine whirring]
[female presenter] Well hearts are broken worldwide this morning
certainly because he's probably the most popular member of the Royal Family…
[male voice] The official news
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in an engagement…
[town crier yells] Buckingham Palace proudly announces
the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
-God save the queen. -[bell jingling]
[interviewer 2] What like prepping you that they're gonna ask this, this, this?
Or how does that work?
Yeah. But also, "There'll ask to see the ring, so show the ring."
[Harry] So the main stone itself, I sourced from Botswana.
And the little diamonds on the side are from my mother's jewelry collection
to make sure she's with us on this crazy journey together.
[camera shutters clicking]
[female interviewer1] What do you think your mother would have thought of Meghan
or said about Meghan?
At least they'd be thick as thieves. [laughs]
Without question, I think she would be over the moon.
Jumping up and down and so excited for me.
And as I said, would have probably been best friends, best friends with Meghan.
-I know… I'm sure she's, er-- -[Meghan] She's with us.
I'm sure she's with us, jumping up and down somewhere else.
[woman] I think this is the happy ending
that people have wished for, for Prince Harry.
They were thrilled.
Absolutely thrilled.
Absolutely thrilled, it's such exciting news.
[Meghan] His family has been so welcoming.
-Katherine's been absolutely amazing. -She's been wonderful.
[Harry] Amazing, as has William, as well.
[female interviewer1] Have you met each other's families?
My mom, we've been spending a lot of time with. It was so much fun.
He's talked to my dad, few times. Hasn't been able to meet him just yet.
[female presenter] Not just a mention of an American bride
but also with a mixed race background.
-[male presenter1] First, of mixed race -[male presenter2] Many things about her,
-make her relevant to this generation… -[male presenter3] So much scrutiny…
[interviewer1] Do you have that sense that the combination of the two of you,
your different backgrounds, that you'll represent something new
for the Royal Family?
[parade music playing]
Em, you know, we're a fantastic team, we know we are. And
we hope to, over time, try and have as much impact
for other things that we care about as much as possible.
I am very excited about that, yeah.
But yes. We weren't, so my point is, we weren't allowed to tell
our story because they didn't want.
We are not allowed to tell our story.
[laughing] That's true.
[snickering] That's the consistency.
That is consistent. Yeah.
Until now.
[female interviewer2] I guess that's why we're here.
Yeah.
[emotive theme music playing]
[emotive theme music finishes]
-[camera shutters clicking] -[crowd clamoring] Meghan!
[David] Who dreamed that Britain would have a Black princess?
Who could have conceived that?
It was a conclusion to a history that was so improbable
as to be astonishing.
[tense music playing]
[David] It is hard to believe the role
that Britain played in modern history.
This little island off the coast of Europe was at the center of the biggest empire
that the world has ever seen.
But the question we have to ask is, "Who's paid the cost in all of this?"
[Afua] It's often said that Britain had a deep south
that was just as brutal, that actually enslaved more Africans
than the United states of America did.
But that deep south was the Caribbean.
[tense music continues]
[Afua] It was overseas. It was far away.
It was out of sight and out of minds.
[male presenter] Jamaica becomes this incredibly profitable center
of British slavery.
And then of course, there's the settlements in North America.
Tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, rice from the south.
Slavery is fueling this early British empire.
[Afua] The first ever commercial Slave Voyage conducted by Britain,
was personally financed by Queen Elizabeth I.
And it continued to be financed by kings and queens,
while up until its abolition.
When I was at school, the only aspect
of the whole story of British slavery
that I was ever told, was the abolition of slavery.
In 1807, Britain abolished its slave trade
and in the 1830s Britain abolished its slave empire.
But even when we tell that very selective slice of the history,
we miss out a critical aspect.
Slavery wasn't just abolished, the slave owners were compensated.
They were compensated enormously.
Twenty million pounds for their human property.
It's just another way in which our memory of British slavery
has been airbrushed out of Britain's story.
[crowd singing] ♪ God save our gracious Queen ♪
♪ Long live our noble King… ♪
Growing up in the UK, I was completely oblivious
to that history and that legacy.
And when I look back on it, I think a lot of the focus
was put on celebrating our colonial power
and just how important Britain used to be globally.
[David] I think one of the oddest things is,
it was only on the very last decades
that imperial epoch,
that Black and Brown people came to live in Britain in large numbers.
[wistful music playing]
[Afua] In the mid-twentieth century, Britain went to the Caribbean Islands
recruiting people to drive buses,
become nurses in the newly
created National Health Service,
teachers in newly expanded schools.
And these were, on the whole, low-paid jobs.
[David] And this city, London, began to look for the only time in its history,
like it actually was the center of an empire
that was mainly made up of non-White people.
I think what's happened over the past 50, 60 years,
is that there is a call to re-imagine the Commonwealth,
to re-imagine Britain. To re-imagine its institutions.
And so the moment when I thought, "Well, this is significant."
was when they got engaged.
Could this really be a moment in which, in essence,
the Royal family caught up with the rest of Britain?
[man] Nottingham, this morning,
center of attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
The crowds waiting to take their place
in the fairy-tale of the soldier Prince and the Hollywood actress.
-[instrumental music playing] -[crowd muttering indistinctly]
Harry's brought his bird to town so I brought mine.
[man] And why are you here?
Um, just to see Meghan. That's it. [laughing]
[man] This is the moment which will be played around the world.
The first Royal test for Meghan Markle.
I never saw pictures or videos of a walkabout.
Like, what's a walkabout?
-[instrumental music continues] -[crowd cheering]
[Harry] I could talk her through as much as I knew
from my own experience of what I'd seen.
The piece I really didn't know about was the style, right,
and what a woman needed to, how they needed to dress and all that.
No, you'd be there with the scissors like, "Guys, be ready. We have five minutes."
Okay. And I was like, "Should I wear these earrings?
Are these a British designer?
I just ordered these online. Is this good? Wait, my tag's on. Cut the tag."
And then the zip breaks, I'm just like…
And he's like, "Okay babes, safety pin. Just safety pin it."
[Harry] Well, the whole thing was just ridiculous.
"Ready?" "Yeah." "Okay."
We just sort of went with it.
[crowd cheering]
[female presenter] Just days since we found out they were engaged,
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were on their first ever Royal Walkabout.
[male presenter] As an actress, Meghan Markle is used to
the red carpet and all these crowds.
This however is something else.
-[woman] Hey, Meghan. -[Meghan laughing] Oh, thank you.
They looked perfect. And she was dressed just on point. Yeah.
-She looked amazing. -[woman] Yeah.
[voice1 in crowd] Meghan.
She was delightful. She was lovely.
[voice2 in crowd] Meghan, we love you! Ooh!
[voice3 in crowd] Meghan!
Everybody was just so excited and pleased and happy.
And I think people looked at it and went, "Wow, what a breath of fresh air."
[indistinct conversation]
[woman1] Good addition to the Royal family.
[woman2] Definitely.
-An American. -The mixed kids.
Yeah, mixed kids in the Royal Family now. [laughing]
[man1] What a day for Meghan Markle.
[man2] There was no doubt who sparkled the most today.
[Harry] I thought to myself, like, "What a dream."
I found a woman that not necessarily finds this easy
but is able to do it and make it look easy.
[Meghan] H, can you DJ?
[Harry] Mm.
[pop music beat]
-[Meghan] Elton. [laughs] -[Mandana] An Elton? I'll take it.
[Meghan] I mean, Archie loves Bennie and The Jets.
It is his favorite song. And to watch a two-year-old go "Bennie.
-Bennie." -[man laughing]
[Meghan] Daniel was with me on our wedding.
We've been together for the progression so much.
-How long has it been now? -Ten, I think.
-Almost ten years? Over ten years? -Easy.
[Daniel] Oh my goodness.
-It's so crazy! [laughing] -[Meghan] I know.
Nothing has changed, except for everything.
[both laughing]
[Mandana] Um, so maybe after this we can do a little bit of prep.
Just go through some of the journalists that post these accounts.
[Meghan] Mostly royal experts?
Is this one mine?
-[Mandana] I don't understand what that. -[Daniel] Yes.
Someone can just call themselves a royal expert?
[Meghan] That's a question for my husband.
People can just call themselves royal experts?
-[Harry] Well no, it's the same as… -[Mandana] It should mean something.
It's the same as Royal Correspondent.
Royal Correspondent is a title,
I suppose, that is given to a selected group of journalists,
so that those newspapers can use them and their stories
with Royal Correspondent as credible fact.
Just so that whatever the papers print can come with extra credibility.
I mean, anyone can be a royal expert.
The whole point of it is to try and lend legitimacy to media articles,
and they get paid for it.
And that press pack of royal correspondents is essentially just,
an extended PR arm of the Royal Family.
So there's been an agreement that's been there for over 30 years.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Tim] The tabloids in the UK have a very special relationship
with the Royal Family.
There's a sort of unwritten contract
between the Institution and the Press.
[instrumental music playing]
[Tim] The way it's presented in the media is, the taxpayer in the UK
pays for the Royal Family.
And in return for those payments…
[man in crowd] Can we just see the ring?
[Tim] …there's an expectation that the Royal Family
would be available to the media.
And this is a sense of, we pay, you pose.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Tim] And they feel that they have a duty to their readers
to bring private aspects of their lives
to light.
Not all of it always directly related to the facts on the ground.
If you're part of the royal rota,
you have priority over the story, over everybody else.
[Tim] The royal rota is a system
by which certain media are allocated slots
to cover the members of the family.
And however aggressive their previous coverage might have been,
they still get the right to be on the rota.
Like so, all royal news goes through the filter of all the newspapers
within the royal rota of which, apart from the Telegraph, happen to be tabloids.
It all comes out to control us. Like,
this family is ours to exploit.
That trauma is our story and our narrative to control.
-[thoughtful music playing] -[camera shutters clicking]
Cameras poking at you from every quarter,
recording every twitch.
If you don't try to work out in your own mind some kind of method for existing
and surviving this kind of thing, you would go mad I think.
[thoughtful music continues]
[Afua] Harry and William are the first generation
that I've seen grow up under that contract.
[camera shutters clicking sporadically]
[Afua] And I wish there was more introspection about the idea
that you could be born into a contractual relationship with the British media.
[camera shutters clicking]
[tense music playing]
-[lively music playing] -[indistinct conversation]
[man] Rota! A couple of steps back, please.
Sorry, keep moving.
[James] I remember doing an event with both the Duke and Duchess.
And one of the photographers, almost in jest, said to me,
"Oh, can't you get him to do something more. He doesn't perform for us anymore."
So I went to Harry and Meghan
and I actually, regret it wholeheartedly now,
I said to them, "Sometimes, we just gotta play the game."
And that ultimately, that game is the invisible contract.
Harry, Meghan and the rest of the family had an obligation to perform.
And if they didn't, you would fall out of favor,
and then any opportunity would be used
to write negative or highlight negative would be taken.
[camera shutters clicking]
[James] Imagine all of these people
that have published horrible things about you,
published horrible things about your family,
have published horrible things about your mother,
[camera shutters clicking]
you've got to perform for them.
It's a real cutthroat business. And with Meghan…
-[soft music playing] -[crowd hailing indistinctly]
[James] There was no limit. It was fair game on everyone.
You know, we knew that they would contact people that Meg was close to.
I didn't know the lengths that they would go.
There were journalists outside of my apartment building
There were people trailing us in London.
It was intense.
The Press was ruthless. They would go to my parents' home.
I remember a friend forwarded me this article where my mom
was quoted.
It was like, "Oh, Meghan's obsessed with Princess Diana."
Just things that never happened and weren't true at all.
[clicks tongue]
I felt unsafe a lot.
I can't just go walk with dogs. I can't just go to work.
You know, there was always someone there waiting for me,
following me to work.
I was being stalked by the paparazzi.
Once, I pulled over.
And so he pulled up next to me and said, "You know,
I just was trying to get a story.
You know you could get a lot of money for this."
And I just looked at him and said, "This is my child. Like…
I've nothing to say."
[Meghan] The UK media, I truly believe, wanted my mom's side of my family
to be the ones that all this drama could be stirred up with.
And suddenly, you just had my mom who's classy and quiet in there,
and you had the other side of my family that is just…
acting differently.
My half-sister who I haven't seen for over a decade, and that was only for a day,
suddenly, it felt like she was everywhere.
I don't know your middle name. I don't know your birthday.
You're telling these people you raised me, and you call me Princess Pushy?
Tom's kids were a good 17 years older than her.
And Meg and I left when she was two.
[Meghan] I don't remember seeing her when I was a kid
at my dad's house, if and when they would come around.
And then the last time that I saw her,
that I remember, is when I was in my early twenties.
I hadn't had a fallout with her. We didn't have a closeness to be able to have that.
And I wanted a sister.
[melancholic music playing]
My name's Ashleigh Hale. I'm an immigration attorney.
And I am Meg's niece.
[woman] How are you and Meg related?
So Meg is my aunt on the maternal side of my family.
So she is my biological mother's half-sister.
My biological mother's Samantha Markle.
And it was agreed by everyone, by myself and my brother
to be raised by our grandparents.
So they got custody of us when I was probably around two years old
And ultimately, um, they did adopt us.
So I was raised by my paternal grandparents.
You know, for me, they were my parents.
My biological mother, I've not seen her since I was six years old.
And then later in life, around 2007,
we reconnected.
I just remember my dad saying to me,
"Samantha found her daughter."
And I was like, "Oh! If you have her email address, I want to email her."
It started out with these long emails back and forth to each other.
And then texts and calls.
After a while, I think we were talking, on some level, several days a week.
[wistful music playing]
[Meghan] And we just hit it off.
And then she and I just started, like… I was on Suits at the time.
So I said, "Let's go on vacation."
[Asleigh] She took me to New Orleans.
We walked around. We listened to some good live music.
Ate way too much food. Had way too many drinks.
It was just the two of us, which I think was really special.
I think she takes on a lot of roles for me.
There's a sister element, there's something maternal.
She's a best friend. She's kind of all the things…
[Meghan] I think we both craved the same thing.
I wanted a sister, and she was like a little sister.
Ashleigh was put through quite a bit by the media, just by association.
And I didn't want…
I didn't want her life to be plagued with all that drama.
[Ashleigh] After the news first broke,
Samantha pretty quickly began expressing a lot of angry words
about Meg towards me.
What was communicated to me was maybe some resentment.
And it felt like no matter what I said,
you know, her perspective didn't change and seemed to get angrier and bigger.
And we stopped talking.
You know, some people you just can't reason with.
[soft instrumental music]
[female interviewer] It's your future wife's first Christmas with the in-laws.
All of us have to explain certain things about our family
to the person we're marrying.
Where there family traditions you had to explain to her?
Oh, plenty. I think we've got one of the biggest families I know of.
-[crowd muttering indistinctly] -[camera shutters clicking]
[Harry] And every family is complex as well so,
she's done an absolutely amazing job.
She's getting in there and, you know, it's…
it's the family that I suppose she never had.
[intriguing music plays]
[Meghan] I remember so vividly the first Christmas at Sandringham.
Calling my mom, and she's like, "How's it going?"
And I said, "Oh my gosh, it's amazing."
[Jazz piano music playing]
It's just like a big family like I always wanted.
And there was just this constant movement and energy and fun.
At dinner, I was sat next to H's grandfather.
And I just thought it was so wonderful.
And I was like, "Oh, we chatted and it was so great."
And I talked about this, and talked about this.
He was like, "You had his bad ear. He couldn't hear anything you were saying."
I was like, "Oh. Well, I thought it went really well."
[soft instrumental music playing]
[male presenter] Tonight, there is a new royal scandal.
The wife of one of the queen's cousin, Princess Michael of Kent,
wore what's called a blackamoor brooch to the Queen's annual Christmas Lunch.
The jewelry is widely viewed as racist.
And the decision to wear it quickly drew criticism on social media.
[upbeat instrumental music playing]
[Afua] When I heard about Meghan at an event where
a member of her soon-to-be family was wearing a blackamoor brooch,
I wasn't hugely surprised
because one of the realities of life in Britain
is that if you go into a palace, or a stately home,
or anywhere that represents tradition,
you are likely to be faced with racist imagery.
There are murals on the wall, carvings on the ceiling
that depict enslaved people
in a way that glorifies the institution of slavery.
You could say, "A small thing, a brooch. She probably didn't mean any harm by it."
If you magnify that thousands of times,
"It was just a painting, it was just a slave,
it was just a plantation…"
These are the skeletons in the closet that
frequently make an unwelcome appearance in daily life.
[eerie music playing]
[Harry] In this family, sometimes
you know, you're part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
And there is a huge level of unconscious bias.
The thing with unconscious bias is it's actually no one's fault.
But once it's been pointed out or identified within yourself,
you then need to make it right.
It's education. It's awareness.
And it's a constant work in progress
for everybody, including me, you know.
[woman1] British headline writers have been salivating today,
Prince Harry's choice to wear a Nazi uniform earlier this month
to a private party has caused outrage.
[woman2] Many are questioning the sensitivity of a 20-year old Prince
who chooses to party in a Nazi uniform.
[Harry] It was probably one of the biggest mistakes in my life.
I felt so ashamed afterwards.
[wistful music playing]
All I wanted to do was make it right.
We sat down and spoke to the chief rabbi in London,
which had a profound impact on me.
I went to Berlin and spoke to a Holocaust survivor.
I could've ignored it and probably made the same mistakes over again in my life.
But I learned from that.
Harry, he was not too dissimilar to a lot of boys I went to school with.
You know, they were in an echo chamber of absolute privilege
that afforded them to live a very particular life.
And once you step out of that,
you realize that there's a much bigger world.
[woman] Everyone, the Duke and Duchess.
[Meghan] Hi, how are you?
Okay, thank you.
-Hi. -[Meghan] How're you doing?
-[Harry] Hi, guys. -[Meghan] Hello.
[Harry] How long have you guys been sitting in here for?
In silence.
[Harry] Hello, hello.
[Harry] Probably having breakfast too.
[man] Yeah.
[Meghan] Hi every body. How are you doing?
[Harry] I'm never gonna remember these names so…
-[a few officers laughing] -[woman] Look, we don't know each other.
[Harry] It is just like speech.
[man] It's so weird.
[Meghan] Watching my husband over there,
you could see how much joy it brings him to be back on a base.
So he immediately goes back to military banter.
Everybody, it's amazing how long you all stay on. The pension's 20 years, right?
[woman] Once you get to a certain point,
it's like the point of no return.
You're like, "Oh, 12 years-ish? Well, may as well stay now."
[Harry] Well, I signed up with the three.
And then they kept dangling the carrot of different options in front of me.
And I ended up serving ten years.
[wistful music playing]
[Harry] My ten years in the army,
it gave me a lived experience that other members of my family wouldn't have had.
Two tours in Afghanistan, flying apache helicopters on a military base
means that you grow up pretty fast.
Jeez, I went to war twice.
[gunshots]
[Harry] The people that I met
and the lifelong friends made,
that was my second family.
Because that… for that point. Yeah, there's still scars left open from
from my mum's awesomeness… [laughs] to put it mildly.
Hopefully, she'll be proud. William sent me a letter
saying how proud he reckons she'll be.
You know, it's one thing that I don't necessarily think about the whole time
because I've got the guys to worry about.
We've been married ten years and done five moves since we've been married so…
[Harry] Three kids in ten years, and five moves.
-Yeah, so we've been busy. [laughs] -[others laughing]
-Well, not that way. [laughing] -[others laughing]
Well, in every way. That's good, that's cool. That's fine.
[all laughing]
Working and living with normal people…
and I fully appreciate that my life is not normal…
Has… certainly has an effect on you, right?
The bubble within the bubble that I was brought up in got burst.
Ultimately, I'm so grateful for it.
[somber music playing]
And that was all before I met Meghan.
What I'd like to say is, depression is a family secret that we all share.
And sharing our story allows others to tell theirs in return,
so on behalf of the Bulldogs,
and ur, those that help generate the airplanes
that deliver hope to others, I wanna give this to you.
-Thank you very much. -[male officer] I appreciate that.
[female officer] So this coin comes from the 108 maintenance squadron.
I'm the commander, that squadron's first female commander.
-Breaking barriers-- -[Meghan] They'll know.
[laughing]
But, uh, it means a lot to me to be able to give this to you
because of all the barriers that you've broken for the world.
-And that's very special. -[Meghan] Thank you.
Sir, no offense, but this is her…
-[Harry] If anyone that starts with that… -[others laughing]
[laughing]
[Meghan] Our life was, "Okay, we're gonna do this job together," and…
that felt great cause I'd been doing that on my own for so long.
I also think, what she was already doing, what I was already doing,
that sort of came together in this beautiful matrimony.
[crowd applause]
[female moderator] Welcome to the very first Royal Foundation forum.
Now, the principle of working together
is in the foundation's DNA. This is the only charity--
[James] The Royal Foundation was the charity that was originally set up
for William and Harry to launch their charitable endeavors.
[indistinct conversation]
[female presenter] Their Royal Foundation is a team effort,
but we also seem to get an insight
into how Meghan may want to do things her own way.
[male narrator] Most attention was on Meghan Markle and
what sort of issues she will take on.
Meghan, it's well known, you've championed the empowerment of women and young girls,
and promoting their self-worth.
How do you hope to continue that work with the Royal Foundation?
Um, women don't need to find a voice. They have a voice.
They need to feel empowered to use it.
And people need to be encouraged to listen.
And I think right now, in the climate that we're seeing,
with so many campaigns, I mean MeToo…
there is no better time than to really continue to shine a light on
women feeling empowered and people really helping to support them.
[female reporter] This is the first time that we've heard anyone
associated with the Royal Family talking about those campaigns.
Kate, for example, didn't wear black to the BAFTAs.
And Camilla, who also supports women's organizations
hasn't mentioned MeToo or or TimesUp. The Kensington Palace stressed…
[Tim] It's important to remember the Royal Family in the UK
and the causes that they champion
are deliberately non-controversial.
Meghan was more of an activist.
I didn't know that that…
would be taboo to talk about.
To me, it was just topical.
All the work you do together is great but working together as family,
do you ever have disagreements about things?
[laughing]
Oh yes.
[crowd laughing]
Healthy disagreements.
Okay, the last thing you disagreed on, how did you resolve it?
Uh, I can't remember… They come so thick and fast!
[crowd laughing]
-But is it resolved? We don't know. -We don't know.
Oh, you don't know?
Well, you're putting on a great show if it's not.
[male presenter] The younger Royals held first event as a foursome this morning.
We were looking at the future of the British monarchy.
[female presenter] This is the woman who's turning
Britain's most traditional brand on its head.
Meghan Markle isn't British, she's been married before,
she's mixed-race, and she doesn't shy away from politics.
That will have to stop now, of course, in public at least.
[Meghan] Joining this family,
I knew that there was a protocol for how things were done.
And, do you remember that old movie, Princess Diaries with Anne Hathaway?
-[classical film music plays] -Me?
A… a princess? Shut up!
I can teach you to walk, talk, sit, stand, eat, dress like a princess.
There's no class and some person who goes, "Sit like this.
Cross your legs like this. Use this fork. Don't do this.
Curtsy then. Wear this kind of hat."
-It doesn't happen. -[lively classical music playing]
[female presenter] Some people on Twitter are suggesting it looked a bit
like the Happy Poo emoji.
[poignant piano music playing]
So I needed to learn a lot.
Including the National Anthem. [laughs]
[female interviewer] How did you learn it?
Oh, I Googled it.
[keyboard clicking]
[British National anthem plays]
Well, girls, your last day at the Zermat school for young ladies.
Your final and most important lesson.
[Meghan I Googled it, and I'd sit there and I'd practice and I'd practice.
[female presenter1] She broke Royal protocol by the…
[female presenter1] …she and Harry are not yet married.
And then on top of that, with the press lots of invented protocols.
[Meghan] There was baptism by fire.
[crowd cheering, clamoring]
[female voice1 in crowd] Meghan! We love you, Meghan!
[female voice2 in crowd] Give us a wave!
[female voice 3 in crowd] Meghan!
[interviewer] I have to ask, did anyone have to teach you how to do the wave?
That's not a thing. You just sort of watch and go, "Okay, I guess that's what…"
I don't know. I guess you don't wanna wave
like an American. Like, "Hey!" [laughing]
Everything is just…
[comic music plays]
…smaller.
[telephone ringing]
-[Meghan] Hello? -[male voice] Hello?
-[Meghan exuberantly] Hi! -[woman 3] Hi, how are you?
[Meghan] Come on in.
-[man] Should we take our shoes off? -[woman1] Ah, yeah. I think it's fine.
It's fine. How are you?
-[man] I'm good. And you? -[woman1] Oh my gosh. Look at this.
[woman2] You too. Come in.
[Meghan] Wow. Look at this piece.
I mean, we really went from dress to dress.
-Yes? Okay. -[man] We go dress to dress.
[poignant piano music playing]
[woman] Does it feel tight?
No. Not at all. It feels great.
[Meghan] I step into this?
[man] Have you ever had four people helping you into a dress?
[Meghan] No! Never!
[woman] The safety pins.
Please tell me you're getting that.
[Harry laughs]
[Harry] There are now three people under your dress.
-[chuckling] -[Meghan] Do you have enough light?
[laughing]
-[man] You're offering me a flashlight? -This is called a rhetorical question.
[all laughing]
[Meghan] Good?
[Harry] The color is amazing.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Meghan] Most of the time that I was in the UK,
I rarely wore color.
-[instrumental music playing] -[camera shutters clicking]
[Meghan] There was thought in that. To my understanding,
you can't ever wear the same color as Her Majesty,
if there's a group event.
But then you also should never be wearing the same color
as one of the other more senior members of the family.
So I was like, "Well, what's a color that they'll probably never wear?"
Camel? Beige? White?
So I wore a lot of muted tones, but it also was so I could just blend in.
Like, I'm not trying to stand out here.
So there's no version of me joining this family
and trying to not do everything I could to fit in.
I don't want to embarrass the family.
[wistful music playing]
[female presenter1] Some of the bride's family don't know yet
if they'll be invited to Windsor Castle,
including Meghan's half-sister, Samantha Markle,
who's made plenty of her own headlines in the leadup to the Royal Wedding.
[female presenter2] Her half-sister is also writing a tell-all disparaging book.
Kensington Palace is not commenting.
But you guys, to be a fly on the wall when he gets to meet
Harry and the Royal Family for the first time.
We were playing whack-a-mole everyday.
It was like, "Wait, another one popped up. Wait, stop.
Another story popped." Constant.
They were going through the woodwork and pulling out people
to create and plant the most salacious stories that they could.
[tense music playing]
And then it started to get scary.
[female presenter] Police say a white powder letter
was sent to soon-to-be-Royal, Meghan Markle…
…package was since learnt to be some kind of white substance…
…Markle has been subjected to a wave of abuse and of harassment…
in National newspapers and…
This was on the heels of those terrorist attacks, right?
So there was so much concern about the wedding.
And it was just so scary and they were talking about getting snipers and…
It was a public event, right?
[Meghan] Behind the scenes of all that…
I was just turtling.
[Ashleigh] Communication with Meg became… less and less frequent.
My impression was that her relationships
were being managed on some level.
[instrumental music playing]
[James] For every duke and duchess, there is also a communication team.
Comms for the Royal Family is very similar to a press office,
Press spokesperson for politicians and businesses, celebrities.
[speaker id] There is a Communications team at Buckingham Palace,
at Clarence House, at Kensington Palace,
all of whom had a primary duty to their own principals.
These communications teams allow the Family
to be one step removed from dealing with the media.
Overall, there is an aspiration for a controlled narrative.
[Harry] Our comms team at that time was joined with my brother's office.
So in total, there was only one person really dedicated to us.
So it really was a huge undertaking.
[tense music playing]
[Meghan] I don't think anyone understands
what that very small comms team was dealing with.
They just couldn't wrap their heads around it. And I have compassion for it.
How do we explain that this half-sister isn't invited to the wedding,
but that the half-sister's daughter is?
And so with Ashleigh,
the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding.
I was in the car with H. I had her on speaker phone and we talked her through
what guidance we were being given and why this assessment was made and…
And that's painful.
I think I said I was hurt on some level but I…
understood where it was coming from.
[melancholic music playing]
To know that it was because of my biological mother that
this relationship that's so important to me
was impacted in that way…
To feel like because of her, it was taken away…
it's been hard.
[male presenter1] Across the pond tonight, a save-the-date notice of sorts,
as the Palace has released new details…
[male presenter1] In the run up to the wedding…
[poignant music playing]
the sense of excitement for the country was incredible.
It's wonderful. She's different, she's the 21st century.
That's what we need now.
[man] Yeah man, it's just a good, happy feeling.
You gotta like a good old wedding.
First and foremost, I was pretty surprised Harry could actually bag a girl like that.
[crowd clamoring]
They were just so evidently really in love.
And I think it radiated out.
Everyone's happy.
[Meghan] Nice. [laughing]
I'm looking at it through the lens of my friend, not a Princess.
They as a couple are so tight.
And rely on each other so much, and are each other's
best, best friends.
[Serena] I was just super excited.
[female presenter] This is a big day for Meghan Markle.
Just minutes ago, the Royal Family arrived.
at Westminster Abbey in central London for a service marking Commonwealth Day…
[male presenter] The many-colored flags were carried
by young nationals of the countries joining in the celebrations.
It remains a great pleasure and honor to serve you as Head of the Commonwealth.
Here at Buckingham Palace, in 1949,
my father met the Heads of Government
when they ratified the London Declaration,
which created the Commonwealth as we know it today.
[man] God save the King.
-[crowd cheering] -[instrumental music playing]
[Afua] When you study the transition
from colonialism to independence in those countries,
you see that Britain played a very strategic role.
Britain calculated that it needed to grant these countries independence
in a way that protected its commercial and capitalist interest.
So it created this privileged club of formally colonized nations
called the Commonwealth.
[male presenter] Excitement in Accra, capital of the Gold Coast,
reached its first climax
with the preparations for welcoming the royal visitor.
[Robert] The British Monarchy
is different from the other monarchies in Western Europe
in being an international monarchy,
with the Queen being Head of State to over a dozen other countries around the world.
[Queen Elizabeth] On my 21st birthday,
I am 6000 miles from the country where I was born.
But I am certainly not 6000 miles from home.
At the center of the argument for the monarchy in this country,
is the Commonwealth.
The Queen made it her life mission to fight for this institution.
She's famous for it.
She's deeply respected for having kept this institution together.
[Queen Elizabeth] I declare before you all that my whole life,
whether it be long or short,
shall be devoted to the service of our great Imperial family,
to which we all belong.
If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith,
the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability
and continuity for future generations.
[Afua] The Commonwealth is still described as that, you know,
a club of friends who share common values.
I find that language really problematic.
I sometimes call the Commonwealth "Empire two point zero"
because that is what it is.
Well, it's not changed a thing, they've just got better PR.
If you look at the Black people in the Commonwealth,
well their conditions are almost just as bad as they were 50 or 100 years ago.
[Afua] And the roots of that poverty
are based on the extraction of their wealth elsewhere.
Those in Britain who extracted that wealth continue in inter-generational wealth.
Those from whom it was extracted continue to be inter-generationally poor.
It's a very clear economic relationship.
[indistinct conversation]
[Afua] And yet, the current narrative in Britain is that it's old history,
there's no point looking back.
It's incredibly painful for the very many millions of British people
who have a different memory of empire in their personal background.
[indistinct clamoring]
[David] And yet, here was a woman
who just looked like most of the people in the Commonwealth.
Meghan represented something.
There was a hope,
"Well, maybe this is a way of having these difficult conversations
that had been pushed away so many times.
[female presenter] Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will attend
a small special memorial later
to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Stephen Lawrence.
[female presenter] An 18-year-old boy has been stabbed to death
as he waited for a bus with a friend in Southeast London.
[male presenter] Not far away, he and a friend
were approached by a gang of up to half a dozen…
[female presenter] …stabbed by a group of white thugs in an unprovoked attack.
This was a story of two tragedies.
The murder of Stephen Lawrence, and then the inability
of the legal system and of the police to provide justice.
[male presenter1] No one has ever been convicted over the death of Stephen.
[male presenter2] Local feeling about racist attacks
in this area has been running high for over two years now.
[woman] I'm absolutely shocked. I didn't expect this to happen again.
How much is it? How much is a Black life worth?
[male presenter1] Pandemonium outside the Stephen Lawrence enquiry
as the five suspects…
[male presenter2] Fighting broke out at the Stephen Lawrence enquiry today
as the five young white men fought with an angry crowd.
[crowd clamoring]
[David] It was such an egregious, such an appalling, such a disturbing case
-that it became too difficult to ignore. -[crowd chanting]
And it made the complaints, the observations,
the experiences of Black people difficult to deny.
[male presenter] Hanging over this memorial, the terrible fact
that only two of Stephen's killers have been brought to justice.
[melancholic music playing]
[Afua] I think that it was really significant
that Meghan and Harry visited this memorial
because it represented a direct attempt to speak to the pain
that many people still feel as a result of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
A quarter of a century later,
we could only imagine the man who Stephen would have become.
And that was really welcomed by many Black communities in Britain.
[crowd applause]
[Afua] I always perceived Prince Harry as
just another senior royal who's a little bit racist,
very ignorant…
But I have watched him on this journey and seen that he has really embraced
the education that is required for someone like him,
to transform themselves into an anti-racist.
[parade music playing]
The excitement here in Windsor… [crowd cheering] it's building.
[lively instrumental music playing]
[female presenter] We've reached the final 12 days.
[male presenter1] I cannot believe it's this close.
[male presenter2] A hundred thousand people will be trying
to squeeze onto these pavements on Saturday…
She's going to make history on the 19th of May.
And we're ever so proud of Meghan.
Is it going to be a wild one?
[woman] Aw, definitely!
[lively instrumental music ends]
[man] Meghan Markle's route to the chapel on the morning of 19th May
will start off unconventionally
because it will be her mother who will be in the car with her
as she drives here along the long walk up to the castle.
Meghan will meet her father, Thomas Markle at the West Steps to St. George's Chapel
before he walks her down the aisle.
But when Meghan's father flies in on the week before the wedding,
he will be meeting his daughter's soon- to-be husband for the very first time.
[Lucy] There was excitement leading up to the wedding
but she also had to contend with everybody else.
[tense music playing]
[Harry] It's amazing what people would do
when offered a huge amount of money.
Fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, to hand over photographs,
to create a story…
And thank God most of them said no.
[tense music continues]
[Meghan] The week before our wedding,
We got a call from our joint communications secretary.
He said, "This story is going to come out tomorrow
saying your father has been staging pictures and taking money from the press."
And I was like, "What kind of pictures?"
[camera shutters clicking sporadically]
[James] They were relatively innocuous enough.
You know, there was… one of him looking at a book
of the UK.
I remember I naively went into the office
and I said, "Isn't that sweet?"
As I genuinely was in this, sort of,
matrimony love-fest bubble.
And a colleague sort of brought me down to earth fairly quickly
and said, "That's a setup."
[Meghan] That was the first I was hearing of it.
[soft music playing]
And I remember Jason said, "You just need to call him and find out if this is true
or not because it could be really damaging."
H and I called my dad.
I said, "They're saying you're taking money from the tabloids to stage photos.
Is this true?" He says, "No."
And on that call, I'd said to him, "Look. If they can't stop it this story,
then it's going to come out tomorrow
so whey don't we send someone right now to your house to get you out of there now
because if that's the case, your house'll be swarmed by media. We'll get you out."
I was like, "We'll just come and get you a day early and take you out of Mexico."
And he said, "No. I have things I need to do."
And it felt really cagey.
[in a lowered voice] I was like, "It doesn't make sense."
And when we hung up,
I looked at H.
I was like, "I don't know why but I don't believe him."
[female presenter] The buzz, this morning, centers around Meghan Markle's father.
[tense music plays]
[male presenter] Mr. Markle allegedly staged photos of himself for paparazzi,
selling them for a reported 100,000 dollars.
This is tabloid fodder. They're going crazy with this story this morning.
[James] Everyone was so frantic with preparing for the wedding itself.
And then all of a sudden, it just exploded.
I was absolutely stunned
that Tom would become part of this circus.
As the photo scandal swirls around…
[Doria] I felt sad that the media would run with this.
[male presenter] Do you have any reaction to your ex-husband's
apparently staging photos for the paparazzi?
[Doria] That he would capitalize…
Certainly as a parent. It's not… No. That's not what you do.
That's not parenting.
Paps and journalists immediately were following him all day everyday.
The unraveling happened that week when he wouldn't pick up my call.
And instead you're talking to TMZ.
[tense music continues]
We just broke a big bad story on our website.
Meghan Markle was supposed to be walked down the aisle by her father.
And we found out from her father, not only would he not do that,
he's not gonna attend the wedding at all.
And I'm finding out that you're not coming to our wedding…
through a tabloid.
[male presenter] Meghan's father, 73 years old Thomas Markle,
reportedly suffering a heart attack,
after enduring a scandal these past three days
with staged paparazzi photos that went viral.
[Meghan] And then suddenly they were saying he was in the hospital.
[tense music continues]
I said, "What's going on? Please just pick up the phone.
Like, We're not mad. Just please pick up the phone."
He told me he had a heart attack six days ago.
-We need to know what's going on. -[Meghan] Calling and calling.
[male presenter1] This is not him saying, "I will… I don't wanna be there."
[male presenter2] No, I get it. I'm not saying…
The world is watching this drama play out.
[male presenter] For everybody, Thomas Markle
[speaker id]
Once it was said in the media, he just stopped calling
We need to know what's going on. I don't understand what's going on.
"Are you okay? What hospital are you at?"
We were just trying to understand what's going on.
[male presenter] How do you not have your daddy at your wedding?
[soft music playing]
And then, someone texted back on his phone.
It was really weird. You know how people text, right?
Like, you know, my dad used a lot of emojis
and a lot of like, ellipses and dot-dot-dot and…
And this was just the opposite.
And it called me Meghan.
I was like, "He's never called me Meghan in my… any day I've lived on this planet.
Meg. All my friends call me Meg and my parents call me Meg.
And I was like, "That's not my dad."
So then, we knew that his phone had been compromised.
And we said, "Pick up the phone. We need to know it's you."
Never spoke to him.
Of course, it's incredibly sad what happened. She had a father before this.
And now she doesn't have a father.
And I shouldered that.
Because if Meg wasn't with me,
then her dad would still be her dad.
Okay, great too.
-Hi, Daddy. I got the English award. -[Thomas] I know.
Okay. Alright. Am I there? I wonder.
Okay. See you later. Bye-bye. Where's the little button?
[wistful music playing]
[young Meghan] Woah. I gotta zoom back on you.
Gotta push that button in the back.
[female presenter1] We're about 24 hours away from the Royal Wedding and excited…
[female presenter2] More than two billion people worldwide
are expected to watch the wedding on TV.
[speaking Romania]
[speaking Arabic]
[female presenter] There is so much excitement in the air.
[male presenter] In so many ways, this is a Royal Wedding unlike any other.
The big reveal in just 24 hours.
[camera shutters clicking]
["Stand By Me" by Otis Redding playing]
♪ When the night has come ♪
♪ And the land is dark and the moon ♪
♪ Is the only, only light we see ♪
♪ No, I won't be afraid ♪
♪ No no no no no I won't be afraid ♪
♪ Just as long, just as long Just as long as you stand by me ♪
♪ Now darling, darling ♪
♪ Whenever I'm in trouble Darling, won't you stand ♪
♪ I need just a little Helping hand right now now ♪
♪ And darling, darling Won't you stand by me ♪
♪ If the sky we look upon now, now ♪
♪ Should tumble and fall All of the mountains ♪
♪ May crumble, may crumble to the sea ♪
♪ I won't cry, I won't cry… ♪
Subtitle translation by: Regina Njoku