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The warning Meghan’s British friends gave to her about dating Prince Harry

In a new royal documentary called Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, it appears that the Duchess of Sussex was warned that the British tabloids would “destroy” her life if she continued her relationship with Prince Harry.

The documentary aired on Sunday night in the UK and the Duchess of Sussex gets incredibly candid about the toll that the media spotlight has taken on her.

She spoke to ITV reporter Tom Bradby about the British press and how her British friends warned her about the red-headed prince.

 "When I first met my now-husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy," she recalls.

"But my British friend said to me, 'I'm sure he's great, but you shouldn't do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life.'

"I very naively - I'm American, we don't have that there - [said] 'What are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense, I'm not in tabloids.' I didn't get it."

She now admits that things have been “complicated” as she comes to terms with being in the harsh spotlight.

"I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair, and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile," the Duchess explains.

She also admits trying to keep to the British sensibility of a “stiff upper lip”.

"I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip ... but I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging," she tells Bradby.

"I've said for a long time to H, that's what I call him, it's not enough to just survive something. That's not the point of life, you've got to thrive, you've got to feel happy."

The Duchess of Sussex also gets incredibly candid about how vulnerable she felt while being pregnant and trying to cope with the negative press surrounding her.

"Any woman, especially when they're pregnant, you're really vulnerable, and so that was made really challenging," she tells Bradby, visibly close to tears.

"And then when you have a newborn, you know. Especially as a woman, it's a lot. You add this on top of just trying to be a new mum or trying to be a newlywed..."

She then thanked Bradby for asking whether or not she was okay.

"Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I'm okay, but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes," she says.

Tags:
prince harry, Duchess of Sussex, Duke of Sussex, archie, pregnancy, royal family