The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
(Picture: Getty Images)Meghan has revealed that Prince Harry helped her get mental health support when she was at her “lowest point”.
The Duchess of Sussex said her husband helped her reach a mental health professional as she opened up about her struggles in the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast on Spotify.
The former Suits star was joined by actress Constance Wu, writer Jelly Slate and Bollywood star Deepika Padukone in an episode titled “The Decoding of Crazy”.
Meghan spoke of her own mental health struggles and the negative effect being labelled “crazy” has on women.
In the intro, she said: “I feel pretty strongly about this word … this label, crazy … the way that it’s thrown around so casually and the damage it’s wrought on society and women, frankly, everywhere—from relationships to families being shattered, reputations destroyed, and careers ruined.”
She said the stigma surrounding the word has a debilitating effect on women and makes them “get scared” and “stay quiet”.
She later spoke of her own struggles and said her husband found her a referral to a mental health professional when she was at her “lowest point”.
"I mean, I think at my worst point, being finally connected to someone that, you know, my husband had found a referral for me to call. And I called this woman," Meghan said.
"She didn’t know I was even calling her. And she was checking out at the grocery store. I could hear the little beep, beep, and I was like, ‘Hi,’ and I’m introducing myself and can literally hear her going, ‘Wait, sorry.
“I’m just. Who is this?’ Um, and saying I need help. And she could hear the dire state that I was in.”
Meghan continued: “But I think it’s for all of us to be really honest about what it is that you need and to not be afraid to make peace with that, to ask for it.”
It is not the first time Meghan has opened up about her battles with mental health.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Meghan revealed that her experience in the royal family got so bad that she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore”.
Winfrey said: “You’d said in a podcast that it became almost unsurvivable, and that struck me because it sounds like you were in some kind of mental trouble. What was actually going on? Almost unsurvivable sounds like there was a breaking point.”
Meghan said: “Yeah, there was. I just didn’t see a solution. I would sit up at night, and I was just like I don’t understand how all of this is being churned out and again I wasn’t seeing it, but it’s almost worse when you feel it through the expression of my mum or my friends or them calling me crying just like ‘Meg, they’re not protecting you’.
“And I realised that it was all happening just because I was breathing. And, I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it, to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he suffered.
“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.”
Meghan continued: “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 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.”
