In the summer of 2016, Prince Harry was introduced by a friend to Meghan Markle, an American actress best known for the legal drama Suits. They began dating quietly. Within months, the press found out.
The coverage was intense. Reporters tracked down Meghan’s family and former friends. Photographers waited outside her home in Toronto. Some newspaper articles and many social media posts about her carried what critics saw as clear racial undertones, focusing on her mixed-race heritage.
Harry was furious. For years, he had spoken about how press intrusion had affected his mother, Princess Diana. On 8 November 2016, he decided to act.
Kensington Palace issued a statement from his communications secretary. It confirmed that Harry and Meghan were in a relationship, which in itself was rare. But it went much further.
The statement said Meghan had been subjected to a wave of abuse and harassment. It criticised a smear on the front page of a national newspaper, the racial undertones of comment pieces, and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls. It described reporters trying to get into her home and her mother struggling past photographers to reach her front door.
It also said Harry was worried about Meghan’s safety and was deeply disappointed that he had not been able to protect her. And it asked the press to pause and reflect before any further damage was done.
Royal experts were astonished. The palace usually followed a strict rule of never complaining and never explaining. This statement broke that rule in the most public way possible.
Some praised Harry for standing up for the woman he loved. Others warned that attacking the press so openly could make things worse. The palace later made clear that Prince William supported his brother’s wish to protect those close to him.
The couple announced their engagement a year later, in November 2017, and married in May 2018. But the statement of 2016 marked the start of a long and bitter battle between Harry and parts of the British press, one that would shape every chapter of his life that followed.