‘Harry & Meghan’: Harry Slams Daily Mail, Says It Played a Part in Meghan’s Miscarriage

In part two of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix docuseries, which premiered Thursday, the Duke of Sussex is claiming that media harassment caused a miscarriage Markle suffered in 2020. At the start of episode 6, the last episode in Harry & Meghan, Harry and Markle discuss The Daily Mail‘s reporting of a private letter Markle had written to her estranged father, Thomas Markle; a subsequent legal battle ensued after the tabloid published the letter. The couple reveal that Meghan was pregnant at the time and claim that the stress of the situation had a direct effect on her physical health.

“I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what The Mail did. I watched the whole thing,” Harry said. “Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was caused by that? Of 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.”

In February 2019, The Daily Mail published excerpts from a five-page handwritten letter to Thomas Markle from Meghan Markle after their relationship collapsed during the lead-up to Meghan and Harry’s wedding in May 2018, which Thomas did not attend. Meghan later sued Associated Newspapers, the publisher of The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday – and won. Thomas gave the newspaper the letter, saying he wanted to address what he thought were unfair media accounts.

Harry later added that The Daily Mail‘s decision to publish the private letter was informed by the publication’s knowledge that the Royal Family would tell Harry and Meghan not to take legal action. “How would The Mail have the stupidity to print a letter between a father and a daughter?’ Well, the answer’s simple: they knew the family would encourage us not to sue,” he said.

Harry and Meghan said in the Netflix documentary that royal lawyers initially started legal proceedings against the newspaper but later decided not to act. Eventually, the pair took matters into their own hands and started their own lawsuit. “Everything changed after that. That litigation was the catalyst, probably, for all of the unraveling,” Meghan said.