Yahoo News Prince Harry: I believe Meghan had a miscarriage because of the Mail
Watch: Harry blames Meghan's miscarriage on Mail in Netflix docuseries
Prince Harry has escalated his war with the media by blaming the publication of a private letter from Meghan to her father in the Mail on Sunday on his wife's miscarriage during the subsequent legal battle.
The final part of the Sussexes’ controversial Netflix documentary was released on Thursday and the sixth episode reflects on Meghan’s victory in her long-running case against Associated Newspapers – publisher of the Mail On Sunday, Daily Mail and Mail Online.
Meghan sued them over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private letter” to her father.
Recounting the effect of the legal action, Meghan said: “I was pregnant, I really wasn’t sleeping and the first morning that we woke up in our new home is when I miscarried.”
Harry went on to say: “I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what the Mail did. I watched the whole thing. Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was caused by that – course we don’t.
“But bearing in mind the stress that caused, the lack of sleep and the timing of the pregnancy – how many weeks in she was – I can say from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.”
Read more: Harry and Meghan joke about royal cottage being 'so small' in Netflix documentary
Meghan continued with criticism of the press as a whole, claiming negative stories resulted in her receiving death threats online.
She said: “I mean, just a couple of days ago. I was going through the manual for our security team at home.
“And one of the pages that I happened to flip to, it was about online monitoring, and they were like, “if you see a tweet like this, please report it to head of security immediately” and (the tweet) just said, “Megan just needs to die, someone needs to kill her, maybe it should be me.”
“I was just like, okay, that’s like what’s actually out in the world? Because of people creating hate – and I’m a mum, it’s my real life you know – and that’s the piece when you see it and you go, ‘you’re making people want to kill me’.
“It’s not just a tabloid. It’s not just some story. You are making me scared, right? And like that night, to be up and down in the middle the night, looking down the hallway, like ‘are we safe, are our doors locked? Is security on?’ – that’s real. ‘Are my babies safe?’
“And you’ve created it for what? Because you’re bored or because it sells your papers, or because it makes you feel better about your own life. It’s real, what you’re doing. And that’s because I don’t think people fully understand.”
In 2020 Meghan revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage in The New York Times, describing how she experienced an “almost unbearable grief” after losing her second child.
In a deeply personal article for the New York Times, Meghan wrote how she lost her unborn baby in July 2020 in California – during a busy period in her legal battle with Associated Newspapers.
In the article, Meghan wrote: “After changing [son Archie’s] diaper, I felt a sharp cramp.
“I dropped to the floor with him in my arms, humming a lullaby to keep us both calm, the cheerful tune a stark contrast to my sense that something was not right.
“I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
Meghan added: “Sitting in a hospital bed, watching my husband’s heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine, I realised that the only way to begin to heal is to first ask, ‘Are you okay?'”
Meghan sued Associated Newspapers over an article which reproduced parts of the handwritten letter sent to her estranged father Thomas Markle in August 2018.
The duchess won her case last year, when a High Court judge ruled in her favour without a full trial, and Court of Appeal judges subsequently dismissed an appeal by Associated Newspapers.
Associated Newspapers agreed to pay Meghan £1 nominal damages for misuse of private information plus an undisclosed sum for copyright infringement, which Meghan said would be donated to charity.
Yahoo News UK has contacted Associated Newspapers for a response.
Yahoo News UK understands that neither Buckingham nor Kensington Palace will comment on the documentary.
