Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry made international headlines following their explosive revelations to Oprah Winfrey over the weekend but the Duchess of Sussex still believes the couple should have a “basic right to privacy” moving forward.
Tuesday, in a new clip released from Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special, Winfrey inquires if Markle ever felt like she needed to accept the loss of privacy as “part of the deal” when she became a royal.
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In response, the expecting mother argued that “everyone has a basic right to privacy,” noting, “I think life is about being able to share stories you’re comfortable with.”
“Two things here. I think everyone has a basic right to privacy, basic. We’re not talking about anything that anybody else wouldn’t expect,” she continued in the previously unseen clip published by OprahMag.com.
“So if you’re at work and you have a photograph of your child on your desk and your co-worker says ‘oh my gosh, your kids so cute, that’s fantastic… can I see your phone so I can see all your pictures of your child?’. You go, ‘no, this is the picture I’m comfortable sharing with you.'”
“And then if they double down and say, ‘no but you already showed me that one so you’ve got to show me everything, so I’m going to hire someone to sit in front of your house or hide in the bushes and take pictures into your back yard because you’ve lost your right to privacy because you shared one image with me.'”
Markle continued to explain why that kind of thinking was flawed.
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“That’s sort of the flawed argument and operating mechanism that they’re confusing people to think,” she pointed out.
“There’s no one on Instagram and social media who would say that because they shared one picture you are entitled to my whole camera roll,” she concluded. “No one would want that, so it’s about boundaries and respect – they’ve created a false narrative, I’ve never talked about privacy, I think that’s just a basic understanding.”
An inconvenient truth
As we previously reported, Buckingham Palace issued a statement Tuesday, saying the family was “saddened” to learn of the struggles that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed this week, particularly the racism and callous treatment Markle allegedly faced during her time in the royal family.
“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning,” the palace said in a statement issued on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. “While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.’’
The statement also said that “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members.”
The palace often tries to stay above controversy by remaining silent and riding out the storm, but the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s charges were so damaging that the family had to respond.
Earlier, some observers had said that Buckingham Palace’s silence on the topic has only added to the furor surrounding the TV interview.
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