Harry claims royals dismissed Meghan's harassment despite his concerns

‘My wife had to go through that so why should Meghan be treated differently?’ Harry claims royals dismissed ‘harassment’ of Duchess as ‘rite of passage’ despite his pleas for special treatment because of ‘race element’

• Prince Harry claims that he was told Meghan’s ‘harassment’ was ‘rite of passage’ 
• He said he spoke to the Royal Family after news first broke of their relationship 
• He claims his family questioned why Meghan should be treated differently 
• The Netflix series Harry & Meghan second volume will be released on Dec 15 
• Follow all the developments around the show on the MailOnline live blog here 

Prince Harry has accused the Royal Family of telling him ‘harassment’ of the Duchess was a ‘rite of passage’ when his relationship with Meghan Markle went public.

The Duke of Sussex, 38, made the claim during the second episode of the couple’s multi-million pound Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, which aired yesterday.

Harry said he raised concerns with the Royal Family after Meghan, 41, received ‘harassment’ from the paparazzi and media scrutiny when their relationship went public in 2016.

He claimed that the family said, in response to his worries, that others who had married into the Royal Family had experienced ‘everything’ Meghan was being ‘put through’ and that the couple should not comment on the situation.  

Speaking in the second episode his multi-million pound Netflix documentary, Prince Harry accused the Royal Family of telling him harassment was a ‘rite of passage’ when his relationship with Meghan Markle went public

The Duke, however, argued the situations differed because of the ‘race element’.

He said: ‘The direction of the palace was don’t say anything but what people need to understand is as far as a lot of the family was concerned everything she was being put through; they had been put through as well.

‘So it was almost like a rite of passage. Some of the members of the Royal Family were like well my wife had to go through that so why should my girlfriend be treated any differently. Why should she get special treatment. Why should she be protected?

‘And I said the difference here is the race element’.

During the discussion, clips for Kate Middleton, Sarah Ferguson and the late Princess Diana walking down the street being followed by paparazzi were shown. 

The Duke claimed that members of the Royal Family questioned why Meghan should receive ‘special treatment’ when their partners were also put under scrutiny and ‘harassed’ by paparazzi 

The documentary did not disclose which members of the Royal Family had questioned whether Meghan should be given more protection than others.

Meghan said she did not think race would be part of the narrative when news broke about their relationship.

She said: ‘At the time I wasn’t thinking about how race played a part in any of this. I genuinely didn’t think about it.’

Throughout the episode, Prince Harry compared the online harassment his wife has received to the paparazzi following Diana.

He said his wife had continuously been targeted by online social media trolls, describing the relationship between the duchess and her online critics as ‘basically the hunter versus prey’.

Episode two opens in New York in November 2021, with Harry and Meghan getting into a car as their bodyguard discusses how to avoid photographers ‘camped out’ along the road

As the couple become stuck in a traffic jam, they realise they are being followed by a photographer on a scooter

He said: ‘Back in my mum’s days, it was physical harassment, cameras in your face, people chasing you. Paparazzi still harass people, but the harassment exists more online now.

‘Once the photographs are out and the story is next to it, then comes the social media harassment. To see another woman in my life who I love go through this feeding frenzy, that’s hard. It’s basically the hunter versus the prey.’

The series, which Netflix reportedly paid £88 million for, has caused a wave of anger from royal fans since its release yesterday.

This morning, Princess Diana’s former chef, Darren McGrady, criticised Meghan for appearing to ‘mock the Queen’ with an exaggerated curtsey. 

He also dismissed the Prince’s claim that Meghan was like his beloved late mother, declaring: ‘Your wife will never be like or similar to your mother. I knew Princess Diana for 15 years. Not even close.’

The documentary did not disclose which members of the Royal Family had questioned whether Meghan should be given more protection than others.

The documentary did not disclose which members of the Royal Family had questioned whether Meghan should be given more protection than others. 

It follows accusations last night that the Duke and Duchess were wanting to ‘bring down the monarchy’ with the show. 

Those close to the Royal Family were particularly upset by the criticism of the late Queen Elizabeth and her Commonwealth legacy which was dismissed as ‘Empire 2.0’. 

Politicians such as Employment Minister Guy Opperman have waded in on the discussion. The Tory MP for Sussex declared the couple were ‘utterly irrelevant’ to Britain and urged the country to ‘boycott Netflix’

The next three episodes of the programme – dubbed ‘Megflix’ by critics – will be released next Thursday, which one Royal source told The Times ‘next week will be poison’.

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