Lent 2021, Day 17: All that glitters.

I just finished watching Oprah’s big interview with Prince Harry and Meghan. It is… sad. From CBS News:

Conversations about “how dark” their baby’s skin tone would be. A rift between Prince Harry and his father so deep that Harry said his father at one point “stopped taking my calls.” And Meghan, Duchess of Sussex saying she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore.”

These were some of the shocking details described by Harry and Meghan in an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the first they have given since they stepped away from official royal duties last year. They said they would have stayed had they gotten support from the royal family. 

In one of the only lighthearted moments, the couple revealed their second child, expected this summer, will be a girl. 

My takeaway: thank God they left. And congrats on Baby Girl! Seriously, though, their account, especially as Meghan share it, was harrowing. When they got married, they, and everything around them, looked so storybook. Don’t get me wrong, I had no illusion that everything actually was perfect.

The last time one of the heirs to the throne married an American divorcé, things didn’t go well; even with the passage of time, those two lovebirds were looking at drama. As a Black woman, I also was on the look out for racism due to Meghan’s mixed race heritage. I didn’t look have to look far. More from the CBS story:

Meghan said that “in the months when I was pregnant… we have in tandem the conversation of he won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.” Harry said it was not a conversation he ever wanted to discuss. 

But it’s another part of the interview that really hit home for me:

Meghan said she had a “clear and real and frightening thought” about suicide while she was a working member of the royal family. Harry said she did not receive any support from the royal family over her mental health, saying, “it was not a conversation to be had.”

Horrible. She reminded me of Harry’s late mom, Princess Diana, in some of her most open interviews, discussing her periods of depression after marrying Harry’s father, Prince Charles.

More, from CNN:

She told Harry about the ordeal because “I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it — and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” Meghan said. She revealed her thoughts to her husband as they sat on the steps of their cottage. Hours later, the pair had to attend an event in London. “I can’t be left alone,” she remembered telling Harry, after he suggested she stay home.

“I wasn’t prepared for that,” Harry said during the interview. “I went into a very dark place as well. I wanted to be there for her.” He said that every day he came home from work after Archie was born, he would arrive to see Meghan crying while breastfeeding their child.

Depression can be deadly, and CNN’s article helpfully passes on links to anyone who may need help:

In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also provide contact information for crisis centers around the world.

Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, “All that glisters [glitters] is not gold.” We, on the outside, don’t know what anyone, no matter how rich, beautiful, famous, or popular is going through. Don’t judge.

• Read Jesus words on judgement in John 7:15-24 here.