The Excuse Prince Harry Claims The Royals Gave Him In Response To Meghan Bullying Is Sparking Fury

Since her introduction into the royal family in 2017, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has faced a whole new level of scrutiny from the media, the general public, and even members of the royal family themselves. Though she has taken a stand against bullying time and time again, the drama doesn't appear to be dying down any time soon. Meghan has even been involved in a bullying controversy herself, having been accused of mistreatment toward royal staff members.

Both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have previously spoken about how disheartened they feel due to the lack of support from "The Firm" in the face of Meghan's experience. In Harry and Meghan's explosive 2021 interview with Oprah, Meghan stated that the institution was "willing to lie to protect other members of the family, but they weren't willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband."

Now, in the Netflix documentary he shares with his wife titled "Meghan & Harry," Prince Harry has gone into more detail on several touchy subjects. One of these topics is how the royal family actually responded to Meghan's bullying, and it could explain why the Sussexes are no longer close with the institution.

The rift between the royal family and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appears to be even deeper than anticipated. Just under 20 minutes into Episode 1 of "Harry & Meghan," Prince Harry introduces the topic of Meghan's poor treatment by claiming that his family had little sympathy for the bullying she experienced. Instead, they expected her and Harry to take it in their stride. This sheds much more light on the tension between the Sussexes and other royal family members and shows that they had very different perspectives on the issue.

"As far as my family was concerned, everything that she was being put through, they'd been put through as well," Harry recalled. "Some of the members of the family were like, 'My wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently?'"

According to Prince Harry, the royal family wasn't prepared to act in Meghan's defense but did give the couple one piece of advice: "Don't react, don't feed into it." This passive attitude contributed to much of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's discontent with the institution and was likely a catalyst for the pair deciding to take matters into their own hands. The Duke and Duchess have denied many rumors through controlled measures such as their interview with Oprah and their Netflix documentary, both of which have given them the opportunity to tell their side of the very public ongoing drama.