'They won't stop until she dies': Harry compares treatment of Meghan to Diana's death

Watch: Harry accuses royal family of 'total neglect' in documentary series

Prince Harry has said he felt tabloids in the UK would not stop until his wife Meghan Markle was dead as he made a new series of explosive claims in a documentary series.

Harry, 36, worked with Oprah Winfrey on a five-part documentary series which explored mental health, and said his family did not want him to leave his position even when Meghan had been experiencing suicidal thoughts.

He also said history was repeating itself when it came to his relationship with the media.

Of announcing plans to step back in January 2020, he said: "That feeling of being trapped in the family...

"There was no option to leave.

"When I made that decision for my family I was still told 'you can’t do this’, I thought how bad does it have to get before I am allowed to do this?

"She was going to end her life. It shouldn’t have to get to that.

"Do I have any regrets?

"My biggest regret is not making more of a stance earlier on in my relationship with my wife and calling out the racism when I did.

"History was repeating itself."

Read more: How Prince Harry became a mental health champion

He added: "My mother was chased to her death while in a relationship with someone that wasn’t white.

"And now look what’s happened.

"You want to talk about history repeating itself.

"They won’t stop until she dies."

Meghan, 39, revealed in the couple's interview with Winfrey in March 2021 that she had suffered suicidal thoughts when she was about six months pregnant with their son Archie.

She claimed she had gone to "the firm" for help but had been told nothing could be done.

Diana died in August 1997 when she was being pursued by paparazzi while driving in Paris with Dodi Al-Fayed.

Watch: William and Harry condemn BBC’s handling Diana Interview

Read more: William and Harry: Diana was 'failed' by BBC and 'lost her life' because of Panorama interview

Speaking in The Me You Can't See, Harry's Apple TV series, he said it was "incredibly triggering" to "potentially lose another woman in my life".

He added: "It all comes back to the same people, the same business model, the same industry."

The five-part series was released the day after a report by Lord Dyson into the circumstances around the BBC's 1995 interview with Princess Diana, in which she said "there were three of us in this marriage" about Camilla and her husband Prince Charles.

Responding to the report's findings that the journalist who secured the interview was "devious" and used "deceitful behaviour", Harry said: "The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life."

He added: "Yet what deeply concerns me is that practices like these— and even worse—are still widespread today. Then, and now, it’s bigger than one outlet, one network, or one publication."

Read more: More young Britons now want elected head of state as support for monarchy drops

Diana lost her HRH status in the divorce that followed the interview, and the royal security that went with it.

Harry also opened up about how he used "drink and drugs" as a "mask" to cover up how he felt about losing his mother when he was 12 years old.

He credited Meghan with his decision to start therapy, revealing it was an argument with her in which he had "reverted" to his 12-year-old self that caused him to seek treatment.

He has previously said his brother encouraged him to talk to someone, and did explain he had spoken to therapists and GPs as well.

He said: "I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling."

The prince said he would drink a week's worth of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday "not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something".

The Me You Can't See is available now on Apple TV.

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