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.”
Campbell Addy/New York Magazine
While the duchess is estranged from her own father, Thomas Markle, she also discussed the fallout that her husband, Prince Harry, has faced within his own family.
“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.”