1. Meghan didn’t research the royal family before she married Prince Harry.

The Suits actress admitted she didn’t know much about his famous family because she grew up in America, and didn’t do any background research before they married.

“I’d say I went into it naively, because I didn’t grow up knowing much about the Royal Family. It wasn’t something that was part of conversation at home, it wasn’t something that we followed.

“I didn't do any research. I've never looked up my husband online. I just didn’t feel the need to, because everything I needed to know he was sharing with me. Or everything that we thought I needed to know, he was telling me.”

Meghan also explained she “didn’t really understand” what it would mean to be a working royal, but knew she was “aligned” with Harry’s beliefs when it came to their charitable causes.

She added: “I didn’t really understand what the job was. What does it mean to be a working royal, what do you do? I knew that he and I were aligned on all of our cause driven work because that was part of our connection and what we talked about in the beginning of our courtship.”

She then insisted the “reality” of the royal family is different from the public perception. “I didn’t romanticise any part of it, but I think that’s ... as Americans especially, what do you know about the royals?,” she said.

“It’s what you read in fairy tales. So it’s easy to have an image of it that is so far from reality. And that’s what's been tricky over the past four years. When the perception and the reality are two very different things and you’re being judged on the perception, but you’re living the reality. There’s a complete misalignment and there's no way to explain that to people.”

2. Prince Harry and Meghan got married three days before the royal wedding

Meghan revealed the couple actually married in private just days before the ceremony that millions tuned in to see.

She explained: “Three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that. We called the Archbishop and we said ‘Look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us’. So the vows that we have in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Meghan also reflected on her wedding day, where she said she felt as though she was having an “out of body experience”.

She added: “I’ve thought about this a lot because it was like having an out-of-body experience I was very present for. That’s the only way I can describe it because the night before I slept through the night entirely, which in and of itself is a bit of a miracle. And then woke up and started listening to that song ‘Going to the Chapel’. And just tried to make it fun and light and remind ourselves that this was our day — but I think we were both really aware, even in advance of that just, this wasn’t our day. This was the day that was planned for the world.”

3. The royal family had issues with Archie's race

When Meghan was pregnant with her son Archie, she was shocked to be told by the royal institution that he wouldn’t be made a prince and thus wouldn’t receive security.

She said, “This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy, where I’m going, hold on a second ... he needs to be safe.

“We have created this monster machine [of clickbait and tabloids], you’ve allowed this to happen, which means we need to be safe."

She didn’t have much of an attachment to titles — but it's different if those titles might affect Archie's safety, she said.

“While I was pregnant, they wanted to change the convention, for Archie. Why?” she said. “There's no explanation.”

But Meghan reckoned that it had something to with Archie’s race.

There were several “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born,” she said.

The family had had those conversations with Harry, which were then related back to her, Meghan said. She declined to reveal who was involved with those conversations.

“That would be very damaging to them,” she said.

Harry later confirmed these conversations but added that he would never share details about them.

“That conversation, I am never going to share,” Harry said. “At the time, it was awkward, I was a bit shocked.”

He added, “But it was right at the beginning. What will the kids look like? That was at the beginning when she wasn’t going to get security, when my family suggested that she might continue acting [because there wasn't going to be money for her]."

Winfrey then asked: If you had had more support, would you still be there? “Without question,” Harry responded. But “I know and I’m comfortable in knowing that we did everything we could to make it work.”

4. Archie is going to have a sister

The couple also revealed that they are expecting a baby girl. Harry said: “It’s a girl.”

He added: “It’s amazing. I’m just so grateful. To have any child, anyone or any two would be amazing, but to have a boy and then a girl, what more can you ask for? Now we’ve got our family. We’ve got the four of us and our two dogs, and it’s great.”

The couple also confirmed they aren’t planning on having any other children after their second child is born.

When asked if they’re stopping at two children, Harry said: “Done.” Meghan added: “Two is it.”

She said the baby is due “this summertime”.

5. The truth about the rumoured feud between Meghan and Kate

The first "turning point" for Meghan and her relationship with the royal family happened six months after her wedding when she read a report that she had made her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, cry during the wedding preparations. 

“The reverse of that happened,” Meghan said, revealing that she and Kate didn’t have a “confrontation”, as reported by the tabloids, and Kate apologised and brought her flowers after their disagreement, “A few days before the wedding she was upset about flower girl dresses and it made me cry. It really hurt my feelings."

 Kate is “a good person,” said Meghan.

“I don't think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that, because she’s apologised,” she said — but the hard part was being publicly and relentlessly “blamed for something I didn’t do, but happened to me.”

Meghan said such stories about her making Kate cry were “the beginning of a real character assassination” and the royal family didn't go to challenge these falsehoods.

“They would go on the record and negate for the most ridiculous story for anyone,” she said. “But the narrative about making Kate cry was the beginning of a real character assassination and they knew it wasn’t true. If they're not going to kill things like that, then what are we going to do?"  

Meghan also discussed how she and Kate were treated differently by the media.

For instance, when Kate was photographed cradling her baby bump, she was praised as a doting expectant mother, but when Meghan was pictured doing the same, British media accused her of “pride or vanity”.

The coverage of Meghan and Kate eating avocados during their pregnancies were also staggeringly different. For Kate, it was said to be helping with morning sickness. However, for Meghan, avocados became a fruit linked to water shortages and “environmental devastation”

“You have to laugh at a certain point because it's just ridiculous,” Meghan said. “That's a loaded piece of toast," she added.

6. Tyler Perry paid for Harry and Meghan's security after Megxit

Harry said the Madea actor and film mogul stepped in to support them and give them somewhere safe to live with his own security when their UK security was pulled after the couple stepped down as senior royals last year.

Harry said: "While we were in Canada, in someone else’s house, I then got told, short notice, that security was going to be removed. At this point, everyone knew, thanks to the Daily Mail, our exact location. So suddenly it dawned on me, 'Hang on, the borders could be closed, we’re going to have our security removed, who knows how long lockdown is going to be, the world knows where we are, it’s not safe, it’s not secure, we probably need to get out of here.'"

And Meghan was grateful for Tyler's support as it allowed them a chance to "breathe" and work out what to do next now they had moved to Canada with their son Archie.

7. Meghan considered suicide amid public scrutiny of her relationship with Prince Harry and her part in the Royal Family.

Meghan admitted that public scrutiny of her life got so intense, she told her husband — who lost his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by the paparazzi. — she was considering suicide.

She explained: “I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially because I know how much loss he’s suffered, but I knew that if I didn’t say it, I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.”

Meghan insisted she spoke to an employee of the royal family to see if she could “go somewhere to get help”, and was told it “wouldn’t be good for The Institution”.

She continued: “I went to The Institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help. I said I’ve never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere, and I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for The Institution.

“I share this because there’s so many people who are afraid to voice that they need help, and I know personally how hard it is to not just voice it, but when you voice it to be told, ‘No’.”

Meghan also went to “human resources”, and was still told they couldn’t help her.

She added: “I went to human resources, and I was told, ‘My heart goes out for you, because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do because you’re not a paid employee.’”

Oprah responded, “The way you're describing this, you’re trapped and couldn’t get help, even though you’re on the verge of suicide. That’s what you are describing, that’s what I'm hearing.”

“Yes,” Meghan replied. “That's the truth.”

She continued, “I share this because there's so many people who are afraid to voice that they need help, and I know how hard it is not just to voice it but to be told no.”

8. Meghan was isolated from the rest of the world when she joined the royal family

Until she and Harry stepped away from their royal duties, Meghan said she felt trapped and didn’t have her passport, driver's license or keys.

“When I joined that family, that was the last time — until we came here [in the US] — that I saw my passport, my driver's license, my keys. All that gets turned over. I didn’t see any of that anymore,” she said.

She also wasn’t allowed to meet her friends for lunch because The Firm — the common reference to the royal family in the UK — advised against it. She was told her by them that she was “everywhere” and it was best she kept a low profile. Meghan noted, “I said, ‘I’ve left the house twice in four months.’”

9. Prince Harry has a “really good relationship” with his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.

Contrary to reports that Prince Harry had a falling out with Queen Elizabeth, following his and Meghan's decision to step down as senior members of the royal family, Harry maintained that he and his grandmother are still on good terms.

He said: “I’ve spoken more to grandmother in the past year than I have done in many, many years. We’ve done a couple of Zoom calls with Archie. My grandmother and I have a really good relationship and an understanding, and I have a deep respect for her.”

Harry also opened up on his relationship with his father, Prince Charles, and said he feels “really let down” by the 72-year-old royal.

Harry said he wanted more support from his father when Meghan was subjected to public scrutiny because Charles’ late ex-wife Princess Diana went through “something similar”, and felt “hurt” when the support wasn’t there.

He explained: “There’s a lot to work through there. I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like, and Archie is his grandson. But at the same time, of course I will always love him. But there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened, and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship. But they only know what they know, and I’ve tried to educate them through the process that I’ve been educated.”

And Harry said he still “loves” his older brother, Prince William, but admitted the pair are on “different paths” in their lives.

He said: “As I’ve said before, I love William to bits. He’s my brother and we’ve been through hell together and we have a shared experience, but we’re on different paths.”

10. The royal family cut Harry and Meghan off financially in early 2020

Prince Harry revealed that the royal family cut him off after he and Meghan announced that they would be stepping back from official royal duties.

He said their recent multi-million dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify were “never part of the plan” when they split from the family. However, it happened after they were cut off from the family financially.

They initially relied on what Princess Diana had left for Harry.

“I’ve got all my mum left me. And without that, we would not have been able to do this,” he said.  

And speaking of Princess Diana, Harry said his mother would have been “very sad” about the couple's decision to step back from the royal family.

“I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out, and very sad. But ultimately, all she'd ever want is for us to be happy,” he explained.

“I think she saw it coming. I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process. I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side,” he said. “Because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her, going through this process by herself all those years ago.”

“It has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other,” he said.

11. Meghan regretted believing the royal family will protect her interest 

After stepping back from their royal duties, Prince Harry said he was able to spend more time with Archie.

“This year has been crazy for everybody, but to have outdoor space where I can go on walks with Archie, and we can go for walks as a family, and the dogs, we can go for hikes or down to the beach, which is so close,” he said.

Meghan added that Archie’s current favourite word has been “hydrate”. She said whenever anyone leaves the house, Archie will say, “Drive safe!”

So no regrets?

“No,” Harry responded. “I'm really proud of us. I’m so proud of my wife. She safely delivered Archie during a period of time that was so cruel and so mean. Every day I was coming home to Meghan crying and breastfeeding Archie ... We did what we had to do."

Meghan had one regret, though. “Believing them when they said I would be protected,” she said.

“I regret believing that because I think, had I really seen that that wasn’t happening, I would have been able to do more. But I think I wasn't supposed to see it,” she continued. “I wasn't supposed to know. And now, because we're actually on the other side, we’ve actually, not just survived but are thriving.”

12. Meghan had to quickly learn to curtsy before her first meeting with the Queen

Before she met the Queen for the first time, Meghan said she was taught to curtsy.

“I thought genuinely that that was what happens outside, I thought that was part of the fanfare,” she said. “I didn’t think that's what happens inside. And I said, ‘But it’s your grandmother.’ [Harry] goes, ‘It's the Queen,’”.

“That was really the first moment that the penny dropped,” she added.

With a little help from Harry and Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, Meghan learnt to curtsy in the parking lot before she went inside to meet Queen Elizabeth and did “a very deep curtsy” in front of her.

“We just sat there and we chatted. And it was lovely and easy,” she said of their first meeting.

On her relationship with the Queen, Meghan said, “The Queen has always been wonderful to me.” On their first joint engagement, the Queen gifted her a pair pearl earrings and a matching necklace.

Meghan also recalled an encounter in a car where the Queen had a blanket across her knees for warmth and “she said, ‘Meghan, come on,’ and put it across my knees as well. It made me think of my grandma as well.”

13. Meghan called Queen Elizabeth as soon as she heard that Prince Philip had been hospitalised

When Prince Philip, 99, was taken to hospitalised last month for a pre-existing heart condition, Meghan said she immediately phoned Queen Elizabeth to ask how she was doing.

She said: “This morning I woke up earlier than H and saw that there was a note from someone in our team in the UK saying the Duke of Edinburgh had gone to the hospital. I just picked up the phone and I called the Queen just to check in. I just called, that’s what we do.”

Harry then added that while most of his family have a “level of control” in the things they do, he and Meghan prefer to just “be authentic”.

He said: “For so many of my family what they do, there’s a level of control in it. Because they’re fearful of what the papers are going to say about them. Whereas with us, it’s just like, be yourself. Be authentic, be genuine, just go and do what’s best for you. If you get it wrong you get it wrong, if you get it right you get it right.”

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos