AMANDA PLATELL: Why I don’t buy self-appointed victim Meghan’s ‘compassion’

She appeared tearfully in a joint interview with Prince Harry on US network CBS on Sunday, to announce the launch of their Parents’ Support group, for people whose children have been harmed or even committed suicide as a result of toxic content on social media.

Meghan, who revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey three years ago that she considered suicide while still a royal, said she hoped to help others by speaking out.

“I just didn’t want to live anymore,” she told CBS News host Jane Pauley.

Meghan has shunned her seriously ill father Thomas, who paid for her private education and cared for her when her mother disappeared for years during her childhood, writes Amanda Platell

“If you’ve experienced pain or trauma, part of our healing process – and certainly mine – is being able to be very open about it.

“I would never want anyone else to feel this way,” and “if expressing what I have overcome can save anyone, then I will take the blows for it,” she added nobly.

I am no stranger to the devastating impact of suicide. My beloved grandfather took his own life on his third attempt. I have seen it rip the heart out of families. So all my sympathy goes out to Meghan who has had to endure such thoughts.

Fortunately, the Duchess seems to have recovered, even though, as she herself says, it is a long journey.

But how brazen of Meghan to use this interview as an opportunity to promote herself as the ‘compassionate duchess’, when on other occasions she has shown so little respect or empathy for others.

Like most self-proclaimed victims, Meghan often tries to blame others. The dream she had of a life without luxury and wealth as a duchess was, she says, destroyed by the Queen, supported by her seriously ill husband Prince Philip, Prince William and his father King Charles. She and Harry believed they had no choice but to betray the Queen and Charles, William and Kate, in their bitter Oprah interview, their Netflix documentary and then Harry’s unforgivable memoir Spare.

But let’s start with that private dossier investigating the reported allegations of systematic ‘bullying’ against her staff when she was a working Royal – vehemently denied by Meghan – which the Firm loyally buried before it could surface. I’d be interested to hear what the staff who made the allegations had to say about Meghan’s ‘compassion’.

And then there’s her disrespect for the Windsors – who welcomed her before she vilified them. Not only because they were cruel to her and unsupportive of her mental health issues, but also because she branded some of them racists, telling Oprah that members of the royal family had “raised concerns and conversations about how dark [her baby’s] skin could be’. By dropping this bombshell in such a cryptic manner, Meghan surely knew she was cruelly kicking off a royal witch hunt.

Then in December 2023, just months before Kate revealed her devastating cancer diagnosis, Meghan’s spokesperson, “royal correspondent” Omid Scobie — who worked with the Duchess on his first book about the Sussexes, Finding Freedom — “accidentally” revealed that the alleged “royal racists” were King Charles and Kate via the Dutch-language version of the book. The constant attacks from Montecito and the couple’s supporters can’t have been good for the Princess of Wales’ health in recent years.

Let’s not forget Meghan’s ongoing estrangement from her fragile father Thomas, who paid for her private education and cared for her for years growing up. She has turned her back on him and denied him the right to meet not only her husband Prince Harry, but also his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet. I’m sure Thomas wouldn’t describe his daughter as “compassionate.”

Meghan’s tearful interview with a friend of hers and Harry, ITV presenter Tom Bradby, during a trip to Africa when he asked how she was doing

The friendly impression Meghan gave during the CBS interview was worlds away from the often-indignant duchess portrayed in royal expert Robert Jobson’s new biography of the Princess of Wales, recently published in the Mail. Among other things, he revealed that Meghan was “astonished” by the difference between William and Kate’s opulent Kensington Palace apartment and the Sussexes’ modest two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage.

As I said, Meghan always seems to want to be seen as the victim. Remember her tearful interview with ITV presenter Tom Bradby (a friend of Harry’s) during a trip to Africa in 2019, when he asked how she was doing? Meghan replied: “Look, any woman, particularly when she’s pregnant, is very vulnerable and that made it very challenging.

“And then when you have a newborn – you know. And especially as a woman, it’s a lot. And, also, thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK.”

Forgive mothers everywhere for not sympathizing with the whining of Meghan – who enjoyed success, wealth and privileges most women could not imagine. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now.

As Jobson wrote in his book, it’s not just us Brits but Americans too who have grown tired of the privileged Sussexes spreading dirt on the Royals. The couple’s biggest salaries – from Netflix and that memoir – are now behind them. So how will they fund their lifestyle as their popularity wanes here and abroad?

One thing is for sure, Meghan’s father-in-law, King Charles, is not coming to Harry’s rescue. As People Magazine revealed last week, Dad’s bank isn’t taking Harry’s calls or responding to his letters.

It is possible that the King, like all of us, has had enough of the pretence of compassion that the Sussexes continue to impose on the world.