In October 2016, the story broke about Prince Harry and then-Meghan Markle’s relationship. They had been dating for months and they had gotten very serious right away, but still… it felt huge when the story first came out. After about 48 hours of horrible, racist headlines and stories from the Mail, Express, Mirror and other British tabloids, Harry issued an extraordinary statement defending Meghan from the racist abuse. The statement was Harry publicly claiming Meghan as his girlfriend, and it was Harry telling the world that he would protect her. He was also telling the tabloids to chill the f–k out. Now, more than five years after that 72-hour period in November 2016, the Sunday Times has a story about what was going on behind-the-scenes at Kensington Palace. Basically, Harry saw the wall-to-wall coverage of Meghan in the British tabloids and his first thought was “she’s going to dump me.”

Why Harry issued the statement defending Meghan: Now it has been claimed that Harry demanded that his office put out a statement condemning the excesses of the media while, crucially, confirming that Meghan was his girlfriend because he was afraid she would break up with him and he was panicking. Harry had already seen previous relationships founder because girlfriends such as Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas felt they could not handle the press attention that came with dating a member of the royal family.

Harry thought he’d never get another girlfriend again: A source said: “It did feel like that if the palace was not able to stand up and support his girlfriend, against some of that disgusting coverage . . . then who in their right mind would ever consider entering into a relationship [with him] in the future? He was very exercised about some of that coverage. He definitely felt that if nothing was done to support her, then she would be, ‘I’m not sure this is what I signed up for’.” Another said: “He was freaking out, saying, ‘She’s going to dump me’.”

Harry negotiated it with Jason Knauf: Harry, who had first met Meghan in July 2016, is said to have phoned Knauf demanding that he put out a statement confirming that Meghan was his girlfriend. That was not usual palace practice, but sources said Knauf told the prince that he did not feel bound by any protocol. If Harry wanted a statement, he could have one. By that point, Harry’s team are said to have felt that they had no choice other than to mount a full-on defence of Meghan.

All of the other royal courts were salty about it: Buckingham Palace and Clarence House were unhappy about the statement. A royal aide told the Daily Mail: “It would have been so much better had he simply instructed his office to confirm the relationship and left it at that.” However, a Kensington Palace source said that once there had been “honest conversations about the reasons [for] the decision, and the content, there was a greater understanding”.

Harry & Meghan deny this story: A spokeswoman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex described the sources’ claims as categorically false.

[From The Sunday Times]

Yeah, this is a situation where I actually believe most of the reporting? It was obvious even then, back in 2016, that Harry felt the need to issue that statement because he was worried that Meghan would nope out of there, given the torrent of racist abuse she was already being subjected to. I totally believe that Harry was panicking and worried about Meghan dumping him! As we also know now, the tabloids had already hired private investigators to go through all of Meghan’s financials, her background, her family, all of it. It must have been terrifying for Meghan at that moment, and… yeah, if it was me, I would have absolutely considered getting out. I also believe that Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace courtiers all thought Harry was ridiculous for caring. They were so used to throwing women to the press wolves, Harry’s act of love and chivalry was completely foreign to them.

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