Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Break Down ‘Cold’ March 2020 Engagement at Westminster Abbey Following Royal Exit: ‘Felt Really Distant’

usmagazine.com:

The aftermath. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recalled their first public engagement with the royal family members after their exit.During the second part of their Netflix docuseries, which started streaming on Thursday, December 15, the couple broke down an appearance at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 for Commonwealth Day.“We were nervous seeing the family because [of] all the TV cameras and everybody watching at home and everybody watching in the audience,” Harry, 38, admitted about the event, which took place two months after they stepped down. “It’s like living through a soap opera, where everybody else views you as entertainment.”The Duke of Sussex noted that he “felt really distant” from his loved ones, saying, “Which was interesting, because so much of how they operate is about what it looks like, rather than what it feels like.

And it looked cold. But it also felt cold.”After their public reunion with the royals, Harry and Meghan, 41, immediately left the U.K.

for Canada. The pair, who share son Archie, 3, and daughter Lili, 18 months, would eventually move to California after their decision to exit as senior working members of the royal family was made permanent in 2021.“We had left Westminster Abbey, and then that was it.

I had to go to the airport,” the Duchess of Sussex said about the departure. “We get on the plane. And it’s not the pilot — but whoever is sort of overseeing the crew — and he came and he knelt next to my seat and he took his hat off.