Meghan Markle says ‘everyone has a basic right to privacy’ in unseen clip from Oprah interview

‘It’s about boundaries and it’s about respect,’ Duchess of Sussex says

Meghan Markle has said she believes everyone, including her family, has a “basic right to privacy” in a previously unaired clip from her interview with Oprah Winfrey.

On Monday, O, The Oprah Magazine, shared the unseen clip, in which the Duchess of Sussex addressed criticism she and Prince Harry have faced over their desire for privacy. 

After Winfrey suggested that the couple should “have an expectation that you’re going to have to lose privacy” and that it’s “part of the deal,” the duchess said: “I think everyone has a basic right to privacy. Basic. Right? And we’re not talking about anything that anybody else wouldn’t expect.

Meghan went on to give an analogy summing up her belief about what the basic right to privacy entails, telling Winfrey that if you are at work and have a photo of your child on your desk, and a coworker asks to see your phone to view “all the pictures of your child” that “you would go: ‘No, this is the picture I’m comfortable sharing with you.’”

The duchess, 39, then continued with the analogy by incorporating some of her experiences, such as photographers hiding in the bushes to capture a photo of the couple’s son Archie.

Read more: You can find all the details from Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah here.

“And then if they double down and say: ‘No, but you already showed me that one. So you have to show me everything. You know what, I’m just gonna hire someone to sit in front of your house, or hide in the bushes and take pictures into your backyard, because you’ve lost your right to privacy ... because you shared one image with me,’” she said. “That’s sort of the flawed argument in this operating mechanism that they’re confusing people to think.”

According to the duchess, life is about “being able to share our stories and share parts of our lives that you’re comfortable with”.

Meghan also compared her desire for privacy and the ability to share what she is comfortable with to everyone else, despite being a public figure, telling Winfrey that there is “no one” on Instagram or other social media platforms like it that would say: “Because I shared this one picture, that entitles you to have my entire camera roll.”

“No one would want that,” she added. “So it’s about boundaries and it’s about respect.”

In the clip, the duchess addressed claims that she and Harry, 36, wanted their lives to be completely private, a claim that she disputed, telling Winfrey that “they’ve created a false narrative” and that she’s “never talked about privacy”.

The Suits star’s comments come after she and her husband have been embroiled in numerous legal battles over their rights to privacy, with the couple suing paparazzi last year after they took photos of their son Archie playing in their backyard without permission.

In February, Meghan also won a claim against the Mail on Sunday’s publishers after contents of a letter she’d written to her father were published without her consent.

The latest clip comes after both the duke and duchess opened up about their mental health struggles during the interview with Winfrey.