The 'Firm' strikes back: inside Royal reaction to Meghan and Harry interview | 60 Minutes Australia

there's little doubt her majesty the queen was not amused watching her grandson and his hollywood wife embarrass the rest of the royal family in their recent tell-all interview the question is whether the senior royals needed to be shamed for them to fully understand what was being said in this private family squabble that's being played out so very very publicly there are clear battle lines on the one side harry and megan's supporters who lured the couple's every move to be inclusive and modern and on the other the firm belief there's no need at all to soften the royals stiff upper lips it was nuclear it was armageddon right now i could not feel lonelier she brought out her acting ability there that was very good there was very little that i was allowed to do and so yeah of course that breeds loneliness when you've come from freedom in the weeks since the duke and duchess of sussex took wrecking ball to the royal family my family literally cut me off financially we've all braced to watch it crumble tonight harry and megan unleash hell powerful and deeply personal the whole thing is utterly ridiculous two and a half million people have dying in a global pandemic in the last year and we've got to listen to these two the royal family hasn't necessarily responded to this interview they've always gone for the tactic of never explained never complained what i was seeing was history repeating itself prince harry despair declared his father and brother pierre's were stuck inside the institution they were all born to serve they are trapped they don't get to leave his wife megan admitted she had no idea what she was signing up for i grew up in la you see celebrities all the time this is not the same or how destructive it would become i just didn't want to be alive anymore perhaps most shocking were their allegations of racism in those months when i was pregnant concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born who is having that conversation with you have you ever experienced racism from the royal family no not not whatsoever the royal family is not racist uh certainly i'll tell you in our eastern culture in southeast asian culture it's quite normal for people to ask what color if the mother and father are slightly one fair one darker it's obvious it's quite a natural thing to say oh what color curiosity human curiosity dr masharaf hussein has devoted his life to his faith and sharing it with others but framed in his office is a sign of his service to another power his order of the british empire awarded by the queen you know the queen asked what have you been doing and i said you know i i've been busy creating positive relationships between the muslims and the wider society and she was she was very pleased with that for 10 years dr hussein has represented her majesty as a deputy lord lieutenant he even joined prince charles's tour of indonesia in 2008. life is not a bed of roses if anybody thinks of it like that they are fooled his decision to watch the oprah interview and now speak publicly about it won't be easily forgiven by some members of his islamic community i knew i was committing a huge sin actually listening to gossips is in itself sinful but but i had to do it otherwise i couldn't make comments later on to my community and teach them the lessons about it so i had to sadly commit that sin of watching that gossip you didn't have a drop-off in your congregation did you oh i did sadly i there were people who were very very annoyed yes really yes and one of my members actually left seriously yes very he said you shouldn't have spoken out so many people applauded harry and megan for being so brave for talking about these issues you don't see it that way the very opposite in fact when a family breaks up it's not a good thing there's no winners and losers here to be honest everybody's a loser we're poorer all of us are poorer that's not the only thing irritating people about megan's tell-all interview valentine lowe is a seasoned royal correspondent at the times newspaper in london he knows just how upset it's left those inside the royal household i've spoken to people within the palace who said actually we went out of our way to try and make it work their memories of megan's time as a working royal vary greatly from her own including when it came to her dealings with sister-in-law kate there's one is the flower girl instant and kate uh and you know who made who cry there was a fitting for the bridesmaids dresses there was some kind of route between megan and kate and as far as i know uh kate's left in tears and apparently the next day kate went round to nottingham cottage where megan lived with harry with flowers as a peace offering and megan shut the door in her face certainly all the accounts that i've heard involve cake crying maybe megan cried too who knows maybe they both cried but that smack to me of score settling and then came a claim that left every royalist feeling cheated megan confessed the wedding watched by hundreds of millions around the world was all for show you know three days before our wedding we got married just the two of us in our backyard with archbishop of canterbury is there any truth in that uh yes and no i mean if she says they did something at home with the archbishop of canterbury who would say that they didn't but they did not get married three days before the public wedding we that was very easy to establish they got the wedding certificate and the date of the wedding it was the day they got married public in the 19th may why would she say that it seems to be a bit of one upmanship look we've got a we managed to keep this secret they're quite keen on keeping secrets from the public eye they did look look we fooled you all i went to the institution and i said that i needed to go somewhere to get help another secret megan had been keeping from the public was one she did share within the palace about her mental health and i was told that i couldn't that it wouldn't be good for the institution she said she was feeling suicidal and you know from my own contacts i know that she was in a in a bad way for a period but the idea that she wanted help and was somehow prevented uh from getting help is an extraordinary allegation one i find quite hard to fathom it's not been tested we haven't really heard the other side and the palace has probably quite sensibly not gone for a sort of tit for tat she said this no that's not true tactic which is you know i think it's the right thing to do [Music] while megan was desperate for help to improve her own well-being valentine says she was far less concerned about how her staff were coping just days before the oprah interview was beamed to the world this the duchess of bully valentine obtained leaked emails from inside the palace claiming the duchess was able to bully two pas out of the household what is it that megan actually did that made her a bully you just have to know the effect of her behavior on people there was one situation when a member of her staff knew megan was displeased about something they knew they'd have to confront her and this member of staff said i'm shaking it's ridiculous i can't stop shaking and another occasion they said i feel sick and if they are still psychologically damaged by it two years later something bad has gone on why would someone inside the palace take the extraordinary step of leaking those bullying allegations to you they feel their story's not been told their voice they feel their voices have been silenced and megan has talked about you know giving voice to the voiceless before but a song in the past said to me what about the voiceless in your own team megan's team say your story was a smear campaign to discredit her ahead of the oprah interview was it like all i can say is we we really did fact check everything there we know that megan and harry are very litigious uh so we knew that if there was the slightest loophole in that story they'd come after us so we made it sure it was absolutely copper bottomed uh we stand by every single word and what about um harry what what hand do you think harry plays in all this he wasn't the saint either long before the duke and duchess of sussex declared war on their own family they were embedded in another conflict which harry says he's been fighting his whole life an endless battle with the press now the duke and duchess of sussex have come out fighting taking legal action against the mail on sunday a british tabloid if they truly wanted a quiet life they could have disappeared somewhere and led a very private life but that's not what they want to do they want to be friends with rich and famous they want to go on netflix they want to be on spotify they want to be public figures but on their own terms valentine lowe is a veteran of the royal press pack he insists the relationship between journalists and the palace is not as cozy as megan and harry would have you believe if you as a family member are willing to whine dine and give full access to these reporters then you will get better press is that true absolutely not megan referred in that interview to something called holiday parties for tabloids at the palace and i have literally no idea what she's talking about you've never been wined and died by the royals they once had a reception for the media in advance the queen's diamond jubilee and you know state rooms uh you're there for an hour and a half and you have a glass of fizz at the canape and exchange small talk with palace flunkies or if you're lucky and mine are royal um but does anyone ditch the dirt i couldn't possibly say but it's the idea that by sucking up to the tabloids uh the roles get better coverage i mean it's it's crazy idea that it's simply not true protection from the media isn't the only kind of cover prince harry craves for his wife and children he fears their personal security is now at greater risk than ever secured is not there to sort of give them an ease of passage at airports and through traffic lights in busy streets throughout the world it's there because there is a real danger to their life ken wharf knows what it takes to keep royals safe he was based here at kensington palace as a bodyguard for princess diana and her sons in the 1980s and 90s the scotland yard inspector was known simply as uncle ken to young prince harry you know i took him to school on many occasions and had driven him many many times down to highgrove and many other places so he knows how we work there has to be that that relationship that symbiotic relationship between the protector and the protectee it's not something you can just turn up and deliver it's more intelligent than that and and sadly the expertise that that he had and megan had and archie had up until the point that they left the united kingdom as gone and we're relying upon now a security um that that is based in in what i call la la land and comes with it the sort of the la la land protection what they don't have access to is the classified information of intelligence that we did it's not just the hollywood bodyguards that worry ken he also fears the sussex says californian mansion is an easy target you can google it i mean somebody's actually put a drone above the premises so you know exactly what the sort of the layout and the configuration so you know exactly where they are that's exactly what a would-be assassin would determine is there a real risk archie could be kidnapped yes the risk is incredibly great megan told oprah she struggled to accept her child would not be given a royal title and the scotland yard protection she expected would be tied to it they didn't want him to be a prince and he wasn't going to receive security but ken says that's not true no one single member of the royal family that sort of age gets individual protection because actually what happens they become part of their parents protection in the same way that william and harry did with diana and charles so actually archie would have been protected as a member of the royal family and with regards to the title you know already the queen had bestowed upon him the this title of the earl of dumbarton whatever that means but the whole point is i i just thought that was rather ill-conceived on megan's part because actually what she was saying wasn't correct if there's one thing you'd hope megan and harry got right [Music] it's their decision to walk away from the palace a choice that can't be undone easily if at all do you think harry and megan will ever return to the uk not a chance they've made their life over there their bridges are now ash they won't be coming back will they come back my own gut reaction is i think he will i hope it's with with her but i think that's doubtful so you think harry could return to the uk alone yeah he's living a lifestyle now which is so alien to him he isn't going to have the freedom that most people in early going to have and um i think he's going to find that difficult we just pray for him and and megan we just pray that they do come back perhaps a divine intervention is what it would take to bring harry back into the royal fold for dr musharraf hussein one of the queen's deputy lord lieutenants that's not out of the question you know there's a very beautiful story in the gospels about the prodigal son he does come back and and one hopes uh you know we see that union once more is harry the prodigal son here yes yes he is i think he is yes yes [Music] if this story has raised any issues and you need to speak with someone you can call lifeline on 13 11 14. hello i'm sarah arbo thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on ninenow.com.eu and the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 1,454,632

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Sarah Abo, 60Mins, #60Mins, royals, meghan and harry, meghan markle, meghan and harry interview, oprah interview, royal racism, racist royals, valentine low, piers morgan, queen, the firm, the firm control, the crown, prince harry, megxit, meghan and harry racism interview, prince charles, camilla, who is the royal racist, royal family, archie, meghan markle pregnant, Dr Musharraf Hussain, princess diana, princess diana interview

Id: 5AAv6w8Mjs4

Length: 16min 8sec (968 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021