MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry were not in great shape mentally during a documentary about their Africa trip, says its host Tom Bradby
Harry & Meghan: An African Journey followed the The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their son Archie on their travels to the continent in 2019.
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Bradby followed the couple, and five-month-old Archie, throughout their African tour which saw Prince Harry undertake solo engagements.
At one point he asked her directly if it is fair to say that it had been a struggle being a new mum and a royal, to which a clearly emotional Meghan replied: “Yes.”
Speaking to The Times about his own mental health issues, Bradby said it made him aware of the royal couple’s state of mind during their Africa tour.
He said that he “was clearly influenced by my own experience and I didn’t think they were in great shape, and so I altered the way I was planning to do the documentary”.
“I don’t regret doing that. There may be other times in the future in a whole range of subjects that I will alter my approach if I sense something similar.”
He said that he could not do his job without “a reasonable degree of empathy” and in the case of Meghan “I felt like there was an untold story there”.
“And I decided to try to bring that side out,” said the ITN journalist.
Bradby also said princes are “my least favourite subject in the world” and if you had to build society from scratch you wouldn’t include a monarchy though “monarchy plays quite a valuable part”.
“It champions public service ideals, which is what we most admire about ourselves as a society,” he said.
In the documentary Bradby spoke to Meghan about the toll royal life has taken on her.
Fighting back tears she said: “Look, any woman especially when they are pregnant you’re really vulnerable and so that was made really challenging, and then when you have a newborn – you know…
“And especially as a woman, it’s a lot. So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed it’s, well…
“And, also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK. But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”
In the programme, Prince Harry revealed he felt the “festering wounds” left by his mother’s death.
He was able to follow in her footsteps during the tour, as he worked with the charity HALO clearing landmines.
The Prince opened up about how important Africa has been to him as he came to terms with the death of Princess Diana.
