WATCH: Not many people ask if I’m okay, says emotional Meghan Markle

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will, for the first time, open up, in a documentary, about the challenges they have faced since they tied the knot in a lavish and much-publicised wedding in May 2018.

Meghan Markle has been hogging British media headlines since, with nothing good being said about her, but it seems the couple is now letting people in on the effect the media has had on their lives.

Clips of an iTV documentary, to be aired on Sunday, shows the couple separately talking about the pain they have had to endure at the hands of British media.

An emotional Prince Harry says: “It is a wound that festers. I think being part of this family, in this role and this job, every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back. So in that respect, it’s the worst reminder of her (his late mother, Princess Diana) life as opposed to the best. Being here now, 22 years later, trying to finish what she started, will be incredibly emotional. But everything I do reminds me of her. But as I said, with the role, with the job and the sort of the pressures that come with that, I get reminded of the bad stuff, unfortunately.”

Markle, who also shows a lot of emotion in her interview, talks about the challenges she has had to face with being a newlywed and new mom.

She says: “Any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, so that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn 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 … thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I’m okay, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”

Watch videos shared on social media by Omid Scobie:

Duchess Meghan also opens up in the documentary about dealing with negative press during her pregnancy:pic.twitter.com/lVCSfw05SZ

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) October 18, 2019

Earlier this month Markle filed a claim against Associated Newspapers over the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018, relating to the unlawful publication of a private letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle.

The proceedings in the Chancery Division of the High Court relate to the unlawful publication of a private letter.

Her legal spokesperson said at the time: “We have initiated legal proceedings against the Mail on Sunday, and its parent company Associated Newspapers, over the intrusive and unlawful publication of a private letter written by the Duchess of Sussex, which is part of a campaign by this media group to publish false and deliberately derogatory stories about her, as well as her husband. Given the refusal of Associated Newspapers to resolve this issue satisfactorily, we have issued proceedings to redress this breach of privacy, infringement of copyright and the aforementioned media agenda.”

The announcement was accompanied by Prince Harry’s emotional statement in which he said, though he believed in media freedom, some publications had crossed the line.

He said: “Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences – a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son. There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been. Because in today’s digital age, press fabrications are repurposed as truth across the globe. One day’s coverage is no longer tomorrow’s chip-paper.

“It is for this reason we are taking legal action, a process that has been many months in the making.”

(Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde)

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