LONDON: The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has revealed British friends warned her not to marry Prince Harry as the tabloids in Britain would “destroy” her life.
Speaking candidly in a new documentary aired on the UK's ITV channel on Sunday night, Meghan said that her friends had warned her against marrying Prince Harry because of the harsh attacks expected from British tabloids.
During the hour-long programme, the 38-year-old former actress also spoke of her struggle as a new mother to baby Archie while being in the media spotlight as a member of the royal family.
"When I first met my now-husband my friends were really happy because I was so happy. But my British friends said to me, I'm sure he's great but you shouldn't do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life," said Markle.
The duchess added that as an American, she “very naively” thought the notion of her appearing in the tabloids didn’t make "any sense".
"And I very naively - I'm American, we don't have that there - said, 'What are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense. I'm not in tabloids."I didn't get it. So it's been complicated," she said.
However, she admitted this course of action was “probably really damaging”.
"In all honesty I have said for a long time to H – that’s what I call him – it’s not enough to just survive something, that’s not the point of life. You have got to thrive. You have got to feel happy," she said.
Her husband, Harry also opened up about the perceived rift with his brother Prince William, saying: "We are brothers. We will always be brothers. We are certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be there for him as I know he will always be there for me."
The Duke of Sussex was asked if he worried whether his wife may face the same pressures as his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in 1997 in a car crash in Paris.
The 35-year-old said: "I will always protect my family, and now I have a family to protect. So everything that she [Diana] went through, and what happened to her, is incredibly important every single day, and that is not me being paranoid, that is just me not wanting a repeat of the past. Part of this job is putting on a brave face but, for me and my wife, there is a lot of stuff that hurts, especially when the majority of it is untrue," he said.