they are controlling the narrative for once. they can put their story forward. they can also say which stories weren't true. >> and i'm comfortable in knowing that we did everything that we could to make it work. >> oh, my god, we just did everything we could to protect them. president joe biden says the american rescue plan will help the u.s. rebound from the covid-19 pandemic. >> everything in this package is designed to meet the most urgent needs of the nation. >> this was never about getting people back to work or kids back to school or the disease behind us. >> there is an incredibly transformational, frankly progressive piece of legislation. >> announcer: this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john be berman. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is "new day," monday, march 8th, 6:00 here in new york. and the stunning new claims this morning about the royal family by prince harry and meghan markle. in a bombshell two-hour interview with oprah winfrey, the duke and duchess of sussex paint a picture of racism and emotional abuse. meghan describes being ostracized by the palace and the concern within the royal family about her baby's skin color. >> in those months when i was pregnant, all around the same time, so 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. >> there is a conversation -- hold up! >> there are several conversations. >> there's a conversation with you -- >> with harry. >> about how dark your baby is going to be? >> potentially, and what that would mean or look like. >> the duchess describes feeling so isolated at one point that she had suicidal thoughts. >> i mean, there was one wow after another in this interview. two hours full of wows there. it's the first time that the duke and duchess have been interviewed since stepping back from their senior roles in the british royal family. harry talks about feeling trapped in the family, like his brother and father, and at one point, his father stopped taking harry's calls. harry is also acknowledging respect for his grandmother, the queen. there was an epic royal gender reveal for their second child and this morning, we are awaiting response from the palace. so let's begin there. cnn anchor and royal correspondent max foster, live at windsor castle. no reaction yet, max, but honestly, a long list of things that beg a reaction. >> i think we can assume they're scrambling to find a response. we didn't get a preview of this, john. this was hyped around the world as this bombshell interview and i think, ultimately, they underplayed it. revelation after revelation. and some of them were more difficult to watch than others. >> i just didn't want to be alive anymore. and that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. >> reporter: driven to despair by the family she married into and the institution behind it. >> we had to go to this event and i remember him saying, i don't think you can go. and i said, i can't be left alone. >> because you were afraid of what you might do to yourself? >> reporter: meghan, duchess of sussex, opening up to oprah winfrey about being singled out. she believes forced out of the royal family for her race. concerns even raised by unnamed royals about the color of her child's skin. >> and also, concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born. >> what?! >> and -- >> who -- who is having that conversation? with you? what? >> so -- >> there is a conversation -- hold up! hold up -- >> there are several conversations -- >> there's a conversation with you -- >> with harry. >> reporter: an even more shocking allegation that she was told that her child couldn't be a prince for unstated reasons, not even afforded a security detail. >> the idea of our son not being safe and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be. >> reporter: a barrage of negative press damaging meghan's mental health. she says the palace did nothing to help her. instead, refusing to combat media rumors, including allegations she made her sister-in-law, the duchess of cambridge, cry, when meghan says it was the other way around. harry comparing their experience to his mother's. >> what i was seeing was history repeating himself. but perhaps definitely far more dangerous, because then you add race in. >> reporter: the couple deny claims they blindsided the queen when they announced their departure, another rumor they believe was peddled by the palace. >> when we were in canada, i had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father, before he stopped taking my calls. and then said, can you put this all in writing, what your plan is. >> reporter: harry says he has a deep respect for his grandmother, the queen, and has spoken to her more in the last year than he has for many years. as for his father -- >> i feel really let down. because he's been through something similar. he knows what pain feels like. and archie's his grandson. >> reporter: it's incredibly powerful stuff. everyone in the uk, of course, affected by this. the newspapers put out extra editions at 3:00 in the morning because there were so many revelations. have a look at the front of the daily mail. i think this pretty much says it all in terms of what the palace has got to deal with today. >> oh, my gosh. max, stay with us, if you would. also joining us now, cnn royal commentator, kate williams. so, max, to me -- there were so many headlines, so many bombshells, as you point out. and such vulnerability by meghan to reveal this mental health crisis that she and harry, it sounds like, were going through. they sound desperate. so here's just another moment of her actually having suicidal tho thou thoughts. >> but i knew that if i didn't say it, that i would do it. and i just didn't -- i just didn't want to be alive anymore. and that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. and i remember, i remember how he just cradled me and i was -- i went to the institution, and i said that i needed to go somewhere to get help. i said, 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. >> max, what about that? what about that? if she had gone to the royal family or the institution, as she says, and says, i need some mental health help. >> it's a huge problem, because, they failed in their duty of care of a vulnerable woman. and they basically, according to meghan, just turned her away, and said, there's nothing we can do to help. you're not a member of staff. the other big question here is, you know, the race issue. so people are comparing this interview now to diana's bombshell interview back in the 1990s. that caused a crisis in the monarchy, which lasted five to ten years. this could potentially be more of a crisis for the monarchy, because i think the questions they have to answer here are so much harder to answer. you could answer diana's questions. how do they answer this question about race, duty of care? i think they're in a really difficult position. normally i get briefings and texts after a thing like this from the palace. there's nothing at all. i think they're literally scrambling to have some sort of response. >> as max says, kate, it's one thing if this were a story of broken people pip mean, we're all flawed human beings in our own way. but this is a story about more than just broken people. it's a story about potentially a broken institution that wasn't there for a young couple in need. wasn't there for a woman who was feeling the pressures of racism. i mean, it's a real issue. >> yes, john, that's it. oprah said to harry, would you still be in the royal family if you had support? and harry said, without question. and that's the picture we got in this interview. it was revelation after revelation. harry and meghan told their story. we haven't heard it before. it's like nothing we've heard before. and i absolutely agree, it's on par with diana's interview to what kind effect it could have on the monarchy. this is an institution in which there's a young woman, a young pregnant woman who is desperate and is desperate for help, wants to go to hospital, and she is told she can't because the optics wouldn't look good. and we remember how diana herself, as a young pregnant woman, she, too, had suicidal thoughts and no one was there to help her. and it's striking because william and kate and harry too, there have been campaigns about mental health and talking and meghan was talking about her mental health, but there was no help for her. so we have -- really, harry and meghan said they weren't supported, there was no individual support for meghan with her mental health, but also with the stories, the racist coverage, the onslaught of racist coverage there already was in this country, that they were over and over again told, there's nothing you can do about it, you'll just have to deal with it. and actually, meghan said that actually the palace was willing to lie about her to protect other royals. and on top of this, we have these questions of race, the fact is these questions about archie's skin tone, very upsetting and both distressing, racist questions. and all of it, i think, does create this image of the institution, which was one we thought was very different to this, of distant and supportive, and one of which younger royals are completely and utterly, like harry and meghan, absolutely desperate and saw no hope but to flee. it has to reform and change if we are -- if it has to have a future, particularly for those who aren't in line to the throne. they can't be backup singers like harry forever. it has to change. but we, at the moment, we await to hear how. >> max, can you explain that part of the interview for us? so at the same time the questions were being asked by someone in the royal family, they never said who it was, about what color baby archie's skin would likely be, they found out -- meghan and harry found out -- that he wouldn't receive a title, their son, and that he, therefore, wouldn't receive security. why not?! i mean, doesn't -- why would the royal family want a security problem on their hands? why wouldn't that baby receive security? >> reporter: i think there is a gray area here, but i'll defer to prince harry, he knows more about the british royal protocols than i do. but back when prince george was born, he wasn't automatically going to be a prince. it's only grandchildren of the monarch who are a prince or princess. so that was made a special -- he was made an exception to be made prince, and go on to be king, and william insisted that his siblings should be prince and princess as well, because that wouldn't appear to be fair. i think probably when we hear from the palace later on, they will say that it wasn't an automatic thing, but archie would be made a prince or princess. there's going to be some debate about the language there. i'm not entirely sure as well that security is linked with title. so we're trying to clarify that, as well. but probably what meghan is looking to is the duke of york's children, who do have titles, they're not senior royals and they also get protection. there is a discrepancy there. there are other cousins that don't get these things. but i think that meghan feels that she went into this, she gave everything to the system, and made her child vulnerable. the least they can do is offer protection. maybe we shouldn't be looking at the protocols and rules and traditions here and just look at fairness. archie wasn't getting what his cousins were getting. and i don't think meghan thought that was acceptable. >> i want to play one more bit of sound here, because wasn't just meghan markle talking about the racism and the questions about the baby's skin color. harry talked to oprah about it, also. and this is s-22, where she tries to get more information about what that conversation was like. listen to that. >> what was that conversation? >> that conversation, i am never going to share. but at the time -- at the time it was awkward. i was a bit shocked. >> can you tell us what the question was? >> no. i'm not comfortable with sharing that. >> okay. but that was right at the beginning, right? >> like, what will the baby look like? >> yeah, what will the kids like? >> there you have it. i just think that's remarkable to hear him open up like that, even while he's not telling us exactly who the conversation was or the exact wording of the question, he's telling us a lot there. >> he's telling us a lot. he's telling us how distressed he was, how shocked he was, and how inappropriate that conversation was and how really he felt it all reflected into people who they weren't protecting his wife, they didn't understand the racist abuse that she was getting was different and intensified than the sexist abuse that all women get when they marry into the royal family, meghan had it worse. and they didn't understand race, so they weren't going to protect his son there. and it's really, i think, incredibly, incredibly striking how he's talking about that he hadn't really understood race before, and now with meghan, he was walking in her shoes, and now with a child of color as well, he was really feeling so protective towards his child. and i think the security issue, of course, harry feels very strongly that his mother lost her security after the divorce and that did contribute to her very early death. and so it's very important to him that this child is protected. we know that even if he wasn't a prince, he would have been a target, he was at risk. and mary ope harry talking abou this and protecting his wife, and he was not getting backup. and it was made very clear that it was harry's motivation to leave the royal family and he felt there was no other choice and no other way of protecting his wife and son than to step back and to leave. >> and there are still more headlines from this interview. max, kate, please stick around. we have more questions for you. and we want to give all of you watching this note. if you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, there is help. you can call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. for our viewers around the world, the international association for suicide prevention and befrienders worldwide also provides resources. we have much more from this explosive interview including rare insight from prince harry and other members of his family, including william and kate. and a shocking claim about his relationship with his father. ybs the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 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