Meghan Markle opened up about family estrangement ― and her ability to tell all ― in a wide-ranging interview with The Cut for the magazine’s fall fashion issue.
“It’s interesting, I’ve never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking,” the Duchess of Sussex told interviewer Allison P. Davis in the piece, published on Monday. “I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to.”
When Davis asked why Meghan doesn’t do so, the duchess said she is “still healing.”
The former “Suits” actor also spoke to the magazine about forgiveness in relation to both the royal family ― and her own ― in another candid admission.
“I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive,” Meghan said. “But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.”
“I have a lot to say until I don’t. Do you like that?” the royal adds. “Sometimes, as they say, the silent part is still part of the song.”
While the duchess is estranged from her own father, Thomas Markle, she also discussed the potential fallout that her husband, Prince Harry, could face.
“Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process,’” Meghan said. “It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.”
The Duke of Sussex acknowledged his difficulties with Prince Charles at length in the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey last year.
Harry said that in the lead-up to the couple’s step back as working members of the royal family, his dad stopped taking his calls. He also said that he felt “let down” by his dad.
“He knows what pain feels like, and Archie’s his grandson,” the duke said in the interview at the time. “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.”
The Cut’s interview also gives readers a peek into Harry’s and Meghan’s lives as parents. In one vignette, Davis accompanies Meghan to pick up Archie from school. In another, Davis joins in on a song and dance with Mom and Dad as they attempt to make their baby daughter, Lilibet, smile.
Perhaps there are more candid family moments on the way, with the Duchess of Sussex teasing a possible return to Instagram.
“Do you want to know a secret? I’m getting back … on Instagram,” the royal says, though the interviewer was quick to note that this “could have been a troll” given the couple’s fraught relationship with social media.
Meghan and Harry once shared an Instagram account, called SussexRoyal, which is now dormant following their royal step-back.
With or without Instagram, Meghan is still reaching audiences. The duchess released the first episode of her long-awaited podcast, “Archetypes,” last week ― nearly two years after the couple first inked their deal with Spotify.
“I feel different,” Meghan told the magazine, speaking about her podcast. “I feel clearer. It’s like I’m finding — not finding my voice. I’ve had my voice for a long time, but being able to use it.”