shocking statements from the duke and duchess of sussex, known by their earthly names as harry and meghan, in their interview with oprah winfrey, meghan revealing for the first time thoughts of suicide and stunning questions about racism within the royal family. >> in those months when i was pregnant, all around this same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, he's not going to 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. >> what? >> and -- >> who -- who is having that conversation? with you? what? >> so -- um -- >> 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 what that would look like. >> who. and you're not going to tell me who had the conversation? >> i think that would be very damaging to them. >> meghan also shared her feelings about being shunned, alone, and trapped. she says she wound up in a very low place. >> 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. >> this morning, we await word from the palace, or the institution, as she calls it. joining us now is cnn anchor and royal correspondent, max foster. he is live at windsor castle. so, max, tell us about the shock waves that this is sending through the palace, through the uk, what's the reaction so far? >> well, where to begin. there's revelation after revelation in this interview. we didn't get a preview. no one got a preview. no one in the palace got a preview. i imagine they are scrambling to try to come up with some sort of response. this -- for many people, was billed as meghan's diana interview. remember the 1995 interview princess diana gave to martin bashir of the bbc. it caused a chaos in the monarchy that lasted years. i think this could potentially do the same. it could be even worse. those comments about racism, you can't deny meghan's experience of that. how do they respond to that is incredibly difficult situation for them to be in. there's a duty of care issue as well. a suicidal member of the family who wasn't supported, even when to the hr department and they said they couldn't help. these are major allegations against the royal family and the palace. because they weren't just talking about the palace here, they were talking about family members, we need more detail pant who these conversations were, harry was having about the tone of his son's skin or unborn child's skin. it's extraordinary stuff. we'll wait to get a response, but can i imagine they're just trying to figure it out themselves. >> let's listen to harry talking about this. we heard meghan talking about the conversations about what archie's skin would look like, but harry talks about the conversations too, listen. >> here's the question, do you think you would have left or ever stepped back were it not for meghan? >> hmm. >> no. the answer to your question is no. >> you would not have. >> i wouldn't have been able to, because i, myself, was trapped, as well. i didn't -- >> she felt trapped. you were trapped? >> yeah, i didn't see a way out. >> we'll come back to what harry said about the skin tone in a second, max. but let's take on the questions an how the family responded to meghan's pleas about her mental health. there were questions about whether she was a threat to herself at a certain point. she begged for help and was told, more or less, no, you can't go for any kind of in-patient care. >> there just didn't seem to be any sort of setup for it. so the human resources department said, you're not a member of staff, there's not much we can do. but she spoke to someone senior in the palace, we don't know who that was. so it does appear that everyone was aware of what a vulnerable state she was in. she got so desperate one evening, there was an engagement the two of you were supposed to go to, and harry said, i don't think you should come, and she said, i can't be on each other e my own. i had heard reports over the years of how she would often be found crying in the palace. and aides would tell me this. they just assumed, i was told, that she was just struggling a bit with it. she would adapt. it's a pretty tough place in there. and what meghan speaks to quite profoundly is the freedom you give up. it's not really a fairy tale. you're not allowed to express yourself. you can't go out. she describes how she felt trapped in the palace. but it's much more than that. it's not what other people in the family suffered. this is where she takes it to another level, where she's accusing them of institutional racism. and that's, you know, it's a massive accusation. and it feels really real when you watch the two hours. >> yeah, max, before we get to that. >> it's a very powerful interview. >> absolutely. before we get to the institution thal al racism, i want to build on that. at her low, she felt if she were left alone, as you say, that she would harm herself. so he forces her to go to this engagement. first, let me play for you what she said and then we'll look at the picture, because it shows just the facade verse us the reality. here's what she told oprah. >> but 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? >> and we went. and -- >> i'm so sorry to hear that. >> -- and that picture, if you zoom in, what i see is how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine. you can see the whites of our knuckles, because we are smiling and doing our job, but we're both just trying to hold on. >> so, max, that was january 16th, 2019. and i mean, you can tell, she's not over it. i mean, this interview last night, it wasn't as though, okay, we're past it, we're free now, we've gotten all of this closure. they were like processing out loud what they have been through. >> yeah, and it's very multi-layered. you know, what you -- i spoke a lot to her team, recently. and what they often talk about is this lack of support. so lack of support, you know, in that example, we didn't know that was coming, but that was clearly what they were speaking to me about. but also the lack of support with these attacks in the tabloid media. so for a long time, her team were talking about the no-comment policy, and how that just left her vulnerable. but what she's done here is say, actually, they were spreading, allowing negative stories to spread about me. and they used the flower girl example, so there's a story about the -- you know, meghan making kate cry, which was sitting there in the tabloids, a huge story for a long time. the palace never denied it, when everyone knew it was actually kate that made meghan cry, at least, that's meghan's side of the story. we'll have to get a reply on all of these things as time goes on. but it doesn't really matter what happened in this situation. what meghan's saying, she wasn't spothed or protected by the system, and ultimately, they ended up working against her. there will be a counterargument within the palace. i've spoken to lots of people behind the scenes who said she just wasn't easy to work with and we couldn't give her what she wanted. but it feels like a very outdated institution today and they're meant to represent all their public. a monarch is meant to represent all of their subjects and a lot of those subjects today think their monarch doesn't represent them. >> and these questions about race and racism are an existential problem this morning, i would think, for the royal family. let's hear harry, if we can, talk about 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 live look like? >> yeah, what will the kids look like. >> as i said, i think this gets right to the core of what the royal family is about and what they represent, max. who are the universe of people who could even asked that question. i know they wouldn't tell us, but i have to believe people are wonder rg this morning. >> i think you have to assume that it is a member of the family. i don't think you would be speaking about a member of staff. he was a senior member of the royal family and if a member of staff said that to him, i'm sure he would take some sort of action. i think it was clearly a member of the family. you know, there were lot of discussions around at the time about the tone of any future babies' skin. you know, it's not appropriate in any circumstance to talk about that, let alone to the child's father. so this is what i mean about, they're going to struggle for a response today, because you can't deny their experience about what happened. but then they're going to want to, i presume, say that they're not racist. how do you negotiate that sort of language today? i think it's very difficult situation they're in. i don't think, necessarily, that meghan and harry wanted to put them in that situation. it feels to me as if they just wanted to get it all out after years of feeling repressed. >> so will the palace feel compelled to respond? i mean, can they just go silent with this? will we ever hear from prince charles? how will this work? >> we're going to have to get a sense from them about how profound they think this is. i mean, i see it as quite profound, but there's a different context here. i'm aware of what's going on in the u.s. media. i think there's a less of a sense of that here. they're more cynical about media in the british media. meghan took on the british tabloid, so they're broadly sympathetic to the palace view, i would say. let's see how impactful they feel this is. you've got to remember, it's not being shown in the uk until tonight, so i think the bigger response will be amongst brits tomorrow, frankly. but they're seeing the drip drab of information coming through right now. so i think they're beginning to form opinions. but the palace will have to respond in some kind of way, i think. they had a policy of not giving a running commentary on the oprah interview, but the allegations are huge and seismic, as john was saying. i don't know how they can avoid it. >> we learned, i think, a lot more about harry's relationship with his father, charles. some of the conversations were them haggling about the separation agreement between himself, harry, and the royal family. but more broadly speaking, when a guy, a kid going through a lot of pain, says that his father stopped talking to him, wouldn't take his calls anymore, that's extraordinary. and when he still says harry, that there's a lot of work that needs to be done in this relationship and expressed extreme disappointment about how charles, i think, has approached them as a couple, what are we to think about the status of this relationship and where it goes? >> reporter: well, it's a funny place, the palace and the royal family. it's two things, isn't it? it's a family, but also a firm. they work together, also, you have this situation where they've all got their own offices, households, and they become power bases. and when you're working with them, it does feel like an unusual relationship. you've got to make appointments to see your grandmother, for example. i don't think we can really imagine -- i think meghan alluded to this -- what it's really like to be in that family. they're not just celebrities, it's something else. head of state. but it is a sad story in terms of a father, but it's a really tough story as well, in terms of a senior member of the firm, negotiating with you about the terms of your exit and effectively hanging up on you. and you know, they do talk about putting duty first. and i think that's effectively what prince charles was doing in this situation. people will be sympathetic to the challenge that that presented to prince charles, i think, here in the uk. but to ordinary-thinking people around the world, it feels very -- it feels brutal. >> max, we'll let you get back to reporting here. obviously, you have a lot of questions you're trying to get answers to. we'll talk to you again, because we have so many more questions about this stunning interview. thanks so much for your reporting this morning. >> one of the things that harry and meghan have done is shined a light on mental health. if you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, there is help. call 1-800-273-8255. >> and i want to say, i think that's a really important angle of this, which is, they're in this rarefied royal world, but it's universal. the feeling of isolation, which everyone's had this year, and mental health challenges is universal. and that's what i think this is sending such resonance and shock waves. >> and their willingness to talk about it so openly is something that has tremendous advantages for people. the highest ranking democratic lawmaker in new york now calling on governor cuomo to resign. the attorney for one of his accusers joins us next. during photosynthesis, plants convert solar energy into chemical energy, cleaning the oxygen we breathe. plants clean the air. when applied to stained textiles, plant-based surfactants like the ones in seventh generation detergent trap stains at the molecular level and flush them away. plant-based detergents clean your clothes. it's just science! just... science. seventh generation. powered by plants. tackles stains. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? 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>> 25. >> what were you thinking as he's asking you these questions? >> i thought, he's trying to sleep with me. the governor is trying to sleep with me. >> governor cuomo says he has no plans to resign about all of this, despite calls from some fellow democrats. joining us now is debra katz, a civil rights attorney who is representing miss bennett. debra, great to see you. thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us. so this happened, i believe, over last spring and summer. so why did charlotte bennett want to come forward now to talk about it? >> what she said is what prompted her to cam forward is to support lindsey, who came forward in first a tweet and then an article in medium, because the governor's response to those very serious and well-documented allegations was to basically dismiss her with the back of his hand and say, this is not true. and charlotte knew these allegations were true. she had experienced similar misconduct from the governor and she felt -- she felt a civic responsibility to come forward to support these allegations. >> as we understand it, at the time it happened, charlotte bennett did everything right. she went to the chief of staff and reported it, went to i believe the special counsel and reported it. they immediately apologized for this and offered a transfer. in "the new york times," it was reported that she was happy about that transfer. she was happy in her new position and she decided not to insist on an investigation. and so now what? has she changed her mind about those things? >> well, alisyn, you're mostly right with that. she did do everything right. she did do exactly what the law asks people who have been subjected to sexual harassment to do. which is to report it to higher levels of supervisory authority. and when she did that, they then had a mandatory duty to investigate it. because most complaintants ask specifically not of an investigation, because they're afraid of retaliations. and when your boss is the governor, he's the boss of everybody in new york. so what representatives had a legal obligation to do was to assure her she would not be retaliated against, but make clear that they had a legal obligation to investigate. they should have said to her and failed to say to her is, we will protect you, we have a legal duty to run this to the ground. this is very important. these allegations involve the governor of the state of new york and we're sorry we cannot investigate. the other piece is, we saw a text that she sent her mother right after the transfer saying, you know, i feel like i was robbed of my career, my job. that is very common for victims of sexual harassment. rather than deal with the underlying behavior, they get transferred out. so this was not a good solution for charlotte. >> the governor said he never knew at the time that he was making anyone uncomfortable. do you think it's possible that his chief of staff never told him about this? >> i think that's absurd. so he shows up at work and charlotte bennett the no longer there and he says to people, where's charlotte bennett and he's not given an explanation? thad legal duty to ensure that the workplace is safe, that there's no sexual harassment, no sexually hostile work environment. and the governor by his own admission says, this is how i treat people, this kind of joking, this kind of banter. and the executive order that he signed in the law that he signed makes explicit that unwanted comments of the very type that he made constitutes sexual harassment. he said he didn't know he was making anybody uncomfortable. the onus is not on the victim of sexual harassment to put up his hand and say, these skeezy comments are making me uncomfortable. the onus is on the official not to engagement in this behavior. >> in terms of the investigation, is charlotte bennett or you calling for it to be expanded, to see what the chief of staff and special counsel did? >> of course. in any sexual harassment scenario, there are always enablers. there are people who allow the harassment to continue and simply transfer the women out. and we see that here. and we are hearing that there is a pattern with the governor that when people get sexually harassed, they exit from their jobs, whether they get transferred to different agencies or different areas within his administration. and the people who are doing that transfer are failing -- they're failing the individuals who come forward and failing all of new yorkers. they have a legal obligation