Holly Willoughby defends Meghan Markle

Holly Willoughby defended Meghan Markle on This Morning on Monday ahead of her and Prince Harry’s Oprah interview, which will be aired on ITV that evening. 

Holly, 40, hit back Julia Hartley-Brewer, a critic of the Duchess of Sussex, who said: ‘I do think multi-millionaires sitting with a billionaire in their multi-million pound mansion complaining about how terrible their life is is tone deaf.

‘In this day and age when so many people are struggling!’

But Holly insisted that even the wealthy can struggle with their mental health. 

In a teaser shown from the interview, Meghan, 39, breaks down in tears as she admits to having suicidal feelings over her treatment in the UK.

She revealed she told her husband she ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’ when feeling at an all-time low.  

Holly said: ‘Mental health doesn’t discriminate on how wealthy you are. Haven’t we got past that thought process by now?’

Harrowing interview: Meghan has told Oprah Winfrey that she was suicidal when she was part of the Royal Family living in the UK and told her husband: ‘I don’t want to be alive anymore’

Julia then said: ‘I do have every sympathy for a mum-to-be feeling that way.’ 

Fellow guest Matthew Wright praised Holly for her comments, saying: ‘I’m very glad that Holly’s pointed out that the wealthy can be affected by negative mental health. 

‘History books are filled with the rich and famous killing themselves, either deliberately through suicide, or by default through drugs and alcohol abuse.’

Meghan tearfully revealed that the stress of royal life made her suicidal when she was five months pregnant, claimed Archie was denied the title of prince because he is mixed-race and said Kate Middleton made her cry before she married Harry in her  bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey which has already aired in the US.  

The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah she ‘couldn’t be left alone’ and told her husband she ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’ before claiming the Buckingham Palace HR department ignored her plea for help because she wasn’t a ‘paid employee’.

Describing how she considered ending her life believing it ‘was better for everyone’, Meghan said: ‘I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. 

‘And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. I remember how he just cradled me. I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help. 

‘I said that “I’ve never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere”. And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution’.

She said that after confiding in her husband, she was forced to go to the Royal Albert Hall for a charity event in January 2019, claiming photos from that night ‘haunt me’. 

She told Oprah she later reached out to one of the best friends of Diana, Princess of Wales, because she felt unsupported by the palace.

She said: ‘When I joined that family, that was the last time I saw my passport, my driving licence, my keys – all of that gets turned over’. Meghan said Harry had ‘saved my life’ by agreeing to move to Los Angeles. 

Harry also laid into his own family, claiming their ‘lack of support and understanding’, the couple’s mental health problems and fears ‘history repeating itself’ with Meghan like his mother Diana, who died in 1997.