Harry admitted he was ashamed of acknowledging that Meghan needed help to his family.

“It’s a very trapping environment that a lot of them are stuck in,” says Prince Harry.

“For the family they very much have this mentality of ‘this is how it is’…we’ve all been through it, [but] what was different for me is the race element,” he says.

“To say to people ‘Guys this is not going to end well’ the way that I saw it – there is a way of doing things but for us and this union and the specifics around her race, it was an opportunity for my family to show some public support,” he says.

Harry also says his family are “acutely aware” and are scared of the tabloid press. “To simplify it if you as a family member are willing to wine dine and give full access to these reporters then you will get better press,” he says.

“There is a level of control by fear,” he says. “The institution survives based on that perception”.

We’re back with the chickens.

Meghan is talking about watching Disney’sThe Little Mermaid at Frogmore Cottage and relating to the character.

“She falls in love with the prince and because of that she has to lose her voice.

“But in the end she got her voice back…”

The couple have started talking about why they chose to stand down – and what finally pushed them to leave. Harry sums it up as: “Lack of support and lack of understanding”.

Meghan clarifies what they were originally looking for: “We never left the family and we only wanted to have the same type of role that exists – there are senior members and non-senior members. Earn a living, live on palace grounds and can support the Queen as and when they are called upon.”

The pair say they suggested living in a number of commonwealth countries: New Zealand, south Africa, Canada (where they did temporarily move before California).

Harry continues: “When you can see something happening in the same kind of way anyone would ask for help – ask the system of which you are part of. They could help you and share some truth or call the dogs off so to receive no help at all and be told ‘this is how it is’…”

He also mentions his mother, Princess Diana.

Talking about January 2020, Harry said: “I’ve never blindsided my grandma – I have too much respect for her” in response to allegations that the Palace did not know about the couple’s announcement in advance.

Harry has pulled up a chair and joined the interview.

The happy parents have also revealed they are expecting a baby girl as a younger sibling for Archie.

In the summer, the duke and duchess will welcome a new baby. They did not offer any more specific dates for the birth.

Harry said: “To have any one or any two, but to have a boy and then a girl. What more could you ask for? The four of us and our two dogs…”

They confirmed “two is it” and would not be having more children.

Pop the kettle on – we’re halfway through the interview…

Got a taste for royal chatter? Why not read our round up of the best Meghan Markle interviews here, or the best ever royal interviews here.

And in case you needed reminding: this isn’t the first time Meghan has taken on the UK tabloids. Read here.

Meghan says that the situation became so bad that she told Harry she “didn’t want to be alive anymore”.

“I remember how he just cradled me and I went to the institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help…I’ve never felt this way before,” she said.

“I went to one of the most senior people to get help [in the institution] and I share this because there are so many people who are afraid to voice that they need help.

“This wasn’t a choice – this was emails and begging for help and saying very specifically I am concerned for my mental welfare.

“But nothing was ever done,” she says.

“I thought it [suicide] would have solved everything for everyone right,” and said it was “very clear”. “This isn’t some abstract idea, this is methodical.”

She told Harry she couldn’t “be left alone” and had to go to an event even though she was experiencing these suicidal thoughts.

Meghan said she couldn’t just “call an uber” and go to a hospital herself.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

This is the moment Meghan reveals conversations that supposedly happened within the Firm about the potential skin colour of their unborn baby.

She described it as “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”.

Oprah says: “Who is having THAT conversation with you? What?”

“There are several conversations with Harry…potentially and what that would mean or look like,” says Meghan.

Meghan says she was not able to follow up on it – because the conversations were told to her secondhand by Harry.

Meghan is discussing Archie not having a “Prince” title when he was born.

“The idea of the first member of colour of this family not being titled in the same way the other grandchildren would be,” she says.

When Prince Charles becomes King, automatically Archie will become Prince according to convention – as a grandchild of the monarch.

But Meghan claims the royals wanted to change this convention during her pregnancy. “They said they wanted to change the convention for Archie,” she says. “It’s not their right to take it away”.

“It’s not our decision to make. Even though I have clarity on what comes with the titles – good and bad – and a lot of pain…but that is their birthright to then make a choice about.”

Meghan also says her and Harry weren’t asked to take a picture outside the hospital after Archie was born – not that they refused to do so as had been previously reported.

Asked why Meghan chose the interview with Tom Bradby to share how she was really feeling, she said: “I was fried and I think it just hit me so hard.

“Because we were making it look like everything was fine, I can understand why people were really surprised to see pain was there because we were doing our job.”

“I felt it had never occurred to anyone that I wasn’t okay and I was suffering, I had been asking the institution for help for quite a long time,” she says.

Meghan talks about spending months trapped in the house – unable to go out, saying that her public appearances were managed because of press coverage.

“I am everywhere but I am nowhere,” she said of endless press headlines.

Meghan says she asked: “I know there is an obsession with how things look but has anyone talked about how things feel? Because right now I could not feel more lonely.”

Although she is quick to clarify she did not feel “lonely with him [Harry]”.

Meghan said that she was touched by how welcoming the Queen was to her as she joined the family.

She gifted her pearl earrings and a pearl necklace and at the first event they did together – she offered to share a blanket to keep warm in the car.

“She was like – ‘Meghan come on’ and put it over my knees as well,” said Meghan.

“And it made me think of my grandmother she’s always been warm and very welcoming.”

Meghan describes the headlines about an argument with her sister-in-law as a “turning point” and “when everything changed”.

Meghan says that the coverage did correctly hit upon a disagreement over flower girl dresses that had happened in the lead up to her wedding – but that she didn’t make Kate cry, but the reverse.

“It made me cry and it really hurt my feelings,” she said. “I don’t say that to be disparaging to anyone – it was a really hard week of the wedding but she owned it.”

Meghan says Kate apologised and sent flowers and a note. “She’s apologised and I’ve forgiven her.”

“What was shocking was – six seven months after our wedding that the reverse of that would be out in the world,” she said. “I would never have wanted that to come out about her.”

Adding that Kate is a “good person”.

We get a BTS [behind the scenes] section of Oprah visiting their new Santa Barbara house and greeting Meghan’s dogs, including Guy who Meghan has had since she lived in Canada.

“We put on our wellies to feed the hens that Meghan recently rescued,” said Oprah. We see the coop and a hen house with “Archie’s Chick Inn” written on the side.

Plus the first big line – the wedding in 2018 at St George’s chapel was actually the second event, following a back garden ceremony with the Archbishop several days before.

“Just the two of us in our back yard with the Archbishop of Canterbury,” revealed Meghan.

To which, Harry sings “Just the three of us…”

Warning, as an American broadcast we should expect a lot of advert breaks over the next couple of hours…

To recap the first part of the interview – we’ve covered the fairytale wedding, Meghan’s choice of music beforehand (“Going to the chapel”) and how she learned to curtsy for the Queen (with Harry and Fergie at the last minute).

Meghan also explained how the “penny dropped” in learning about how the royal family differ from other celebrities she was accustomed to seeing in her hometown of Los Angeles.

So far, no bombshells dropped on the house of Windsor..

Harry and Meghan were going to lunch at the royal lodge – where Andrew, Fergie, Eugenie and Beatrice live – and Meghan says the Queen made an unscheduled appearance after church in Windsor.

Meghan says Harry asked in the car if she “knew how to curtsy” but Meghan only thought that was what happened in public – not behind closed doors.

She then had to have an impromptu lesson outside the house – with Fergie and Harry (imagine that scene…).

“Apparently I did a very deep curtsy…I don’t remember it. And then we sat and chatted and it was lovely and easy,” she recalls.

Reminding us all of the indeed unprecedented times we are living in, the start of the interview sees Oprah and Meghan do a distanced air hug.

They are practicing social distancing and everyone on the crew is wearing two face masks and visors.

Meghan and Oprah reiterated they were not at either of their homes and instead had borrowed that of a friend for the interview.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are now facing their UK audience – as the ITV broadcast gets underway.

The interview is scheduled to last till 10.50pm, delivering the explosive lines many people will have read about overnight.

But even hearing it the second time around is likely to make it any less shocking.

Follow along here for all the best lines and reactions…

We are ten minutes away from the UK broadcast, which will be available on ITV at nine o’clock.

For those who have been waiting all day to catch up on the full interview, let us bring you up to speed.

The 90-minute (ish) interview aired in the US last night and brought bombshell after bombshell about what went on behind the scenes over the last four years.

In unprecedented levels of royal candidness, Harry spoke about the “toxic environment” and said he often thought about the other royals as being “trapped” in the system he was able to escape.

While Meghan revealed the real toll the experience took on her, saying that there was a period where she was experiencing suicidal thoughts and told Harry she couldn’t “be left alone”.

They also shared comments they said were made by The Firm – during Meghan’s first pregnancy – about the potential colour of the baby’s skin.

To which Oprah said: “WHO is having those conversations?” The couple refused to be drawn on specific names, although Harry later said he wanted it to be made clear it was not his grandmother, the Queen, or grandfather, Prince Philip.

While you’re making a cup of tea and waiting for things to get started – why not read about the other best royal interviews from over the decades?

Prince Harry told Oprah that his mother, Diana, would have been “angry” and “very sad” about how the situation has panned out for him and his wife.

“I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out, and very sad. But ultimately, all she’d ever want is for us to be happy,” he explained.

“I think she saw it coming. I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process. I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side,” he said.

“Because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her, going through this process by herself all those years ago.”

“It has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other,” he continued.

Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997 after divorcing the Prince of Wales, Charles, who later went on to remarry.

His wife is now Camilla, the duchess of Cornwall.

In a sentimental nod to Harry’s mother, the Princess of Wales, Meghan wore a piece of jewellery from Diana’s collection to do the Oprah interview.

The diamond bracelet can be seen throughout the nearly-two-hour broadcast, and was the same one worn by Diana at several public engagements before her death in 1997.

It is also the same band that Prince Harry took two stones from to create his wife’s three-stone engagement ring.

During the interview, Harry said he felt Diana’s presence throughout their choice to step down and the ensuing process.

“So touching back on what my mother would think of this, I think she saw it coming. I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”