Meghan Markle spilled some royal tea on Sunday night when the interview between her and Oprah aired. Markle discussed her and Prince Harry’s exit from the royal family including detailing her own mental health battle. Although mental health has become more destigmatized than in the past, a lot of people seem to still shy away from the subject especially when it comes to the royal family. When Markle opened up about her battle with depression and suicidal ideation, it was really significant in normalizing mental health concerns and creating a more open environment for people to discuss their own battles.
A lot of the time it is hard to see the royal family as “normal” people who struggle with the same things as us regular civilians. Living in a royal palace and marrying a prince may seem great in fairytales, but Markle unveiled the truth; everything is not as great as it may seem in the media. There is so much stress and pressure on the royal family to be living this perfect life, that people are not truly aware of what goes on behind the scenes. Markle opened everyone’s eyes to what really was going on in the royal palace when it came to dealing with mental health issues. She talked about being denied more mental health support as it would look bad for the royal family. This was hard to hear, but also not that surprising. Even in the non-royal world, going to more intensive therapy like in-patient care for mental health is not as normalized as it should be yet. Getting more help is never a bad thing or something to be ashamed of and I hope by Meghan speaking out how she needed more help, more people see that everyone (even the royals) struggle and need support. No one should have to struggle alone.
I was also very struck by how Markle talked about telling Prince Harry about her suicidal thoughts and then having to get ready and go to a fancy event right after. Keeping up appearances is a part of the royal role, but is it really worth it if your own mental health is at stake? In the pictures, everyone was talking about how beautiful she looked, but no one knew how just before she was discussing with her husband that she wanted to kill herself. You never really know what someone is going through internally especially when your Meghan Markle; Things may look great on the outside, but inside someone can be hurting and dealing with things that you would never know about from a picture. It made me think of how a lot of people make their lives seem perfect on social media when they neglect to show the bad days, so people only see a false reality. We can’t believe everything we see.
When Markle brought up how she was actually feeling, it was so powerful in helping me recognize that everyone struggles and no one lives a “perfect” life. It is normal to hurt and it should not be something that people have to hide from others. Markle is so brave and it made me feel less alone and embarrassed in facing my own battles with mental health.