Meghan interview: We upset Royal dynamic just by existing, says Duchess of Sussex

She also spoke about Prince Harry's relationship with his father, the Prince of Wales.

Asked by journalist Alison P Davis about the impact of her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday, Meghan said: "Harry said to me, 'I lost my dad in this process.'

"It doesn't have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that's his decision."

A spokeswoman for the duchess later told BBC News that Meghan was referring to her own father, from whom she is estranged, and was saying she hoped the same would not happen to her husband.

A source close to Prince Charles told the PA news agency he would be saddened if Prince Harry felt their relationship was lost, adding: "The Prince of Wales loves both his sons".

The 37-year-old prince has previously said his father "stopped taking my calls" after the couple stepped back as senior working royals in 2020.

Under the arrangement, the couple gave up their Royal Highness titles, and became able to work to become financially independent. Harry retained the title of prince through birth.

Prior to this, the Sussexes reportedly set out a vision for continuing to be working royals in the Commonwealth and to earn their own money, in the hope this would reduce "the noise" about them.

Meghan told The Cut: "That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing."

After announcing they would step back from royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan initially moved to Canada in January 2020.

But, after Canada said it would stop providing security for the family, the family moved to California, where they lived in a home provided by media mogul Tyler Perry before buying their own property in Montecito.

Meghan is media dynamite, so a fairly gentle interview, with some open-to-interpretation comments, has blasted its way on to the front pages.

For her fans, it was another slice of the unfair, crabby-minded pressures of royal life that forced Meghan and Harry to move to California.

For her critics, it was more deluded self-promotion, seizing on quotes such as Meghan being told that her marriage to Harry was greeted in South Africa with rejoicing the same as "when Mandela was freed from prison".

The article describes them living in the "home equivalent of billionaires dressing down in denim" and their complaints might grate with families worried sick about paying energy bills.

But the interview raised some of the contradictions facing Harry and Meghan.

They wanted to get away from the suffocation of royal life, but their royal links are their most bankable assets.

It's like old rockers not wanting to talk about their early records, when that's the only reason people are interested.

They also wanted to escape media intrusion and they have in effect become part of the media, with deals with Spotify and Netflix.

And Harry voiced the perennial royal dilemma: "If you do something, they criticise you. If you don't do anything, they criticise you anyway."