- One year after their royal exit announcement, Prince Harry is still "heartbroken about the situation with his family," apparently.
- Journalist Tom Bradby, a friend of Harry's, opened up about the toll the royal exit has taken on the Duke of Sussex and his wife, Meghan Markle, in a new interview for ITV's Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, airing on Sunday.
- "The situation with the family clearly isn't ideal and it has been a very difficult year for them all," Bradby explained.
Prince Harry is doing better since his and Meghan Markle's royal exit, but he's still having a tough time dealing with the way the move has impacted his relationship with the rest of his family. In fact, according to someone close to the royal, he's "heartbroken" about the situation.
In a new interview for ITV's Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, airing on Sunday, journalist Tom Bradby opens up about how Harry and Meghan are doing a year after their big royal exit announcement. Bradby is close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and conducted Meghan's famously candid interview (you know, the one in which she admitted to not being okay in her publicly-scrutinized royal life) in the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. Here are some highlights from his interview, per People:
On his impressions of what planning the royal exit was like for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle:
"It was a very psychologically complex project because they were clearly in a difficult position and weren't feeling great and I realized the extent of that the more I was there."
On if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are happier since moving to California:
"I think they are feeling better, yes…So are they unhappy? No, I think they are content, the things they are doing they are quite excited by. I think he is heartbroken by the situation with his family, you don't necessarily need to have knowledge to know that, but I think it is true."
On Prince Harry's strained relationship with his brother, Prince William:
"The situation with the family clearly isn't ideal and it has been a very difficult year for them all. But are they unhappy out there? No, I don't think that's right, I think they are pretty happy actually, but I think they wrestle with their position in life, I think they all do. I think William does too, I don't think he finds it easy."
On what the royal exit has been like for the royal family:
"I think the whole thing has just been incredibly painful, that is obvious to everyone. It is painful all round, painful for everyone, difficult to manage. Effectively they have just decided to completely leave the royal family, that has never been done—I mean, you could go back to the Duke of Windsor but that was in very different circumstances‚it's never been done voluntarily before and no one still is absolutely clear how it is going to work.
There are still a lot of hurt feelings on all sides and it's very difficult…I think the public desperately wants them to be okay and everyone to be happy and clearly that hasn't been the situation over the past year. It is not a very easy or comfortable situation, I don't think it was ever going to be an easy or comfortable situation."
You have got to remember this isn't just a family, it's a firm. They are in the business of public service on a very elevated, exposed platform and to some extent, they are all locked in it together. And that creates lots of tensions that people perhaps do see relatively clearly from the outside, but at the same time they are trying to be a family and I am always acutely conscious of that and how complicated and frankly difficult it is."
