Meghan Markle Was So Upset Before Leaving The Royal Family. Here's Why

For Meghan Markle, wedded bliss has been met by one royal nightmare after another. As Prince Harry's significant other, Meghan has become fodder for every tabloid known to man. And while she was warned that the press "will destroy your life," the duchess told ITV's Tom Bradby that even the "British sensibility of a stiff upper lip" wasn't enough to shield her from the pain inflicted by such harsh attacks.

"I never thought that this would be easy," Meghan explained in Bradby's 2019 ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey (via People), "but I thought it would be fair and that's the part that's really hard to reconcile." 

Although Queen Elizabeth attempted to bring Meghan into the fold shortly after she married Prince Harry — she and Meghan embarked upon their first solo trip together less than one month after the wedding — such gestures weren't enough to counter the barrage of negativity that defined Meghan's life across the pond.

Meghan constantly found herself the subject of dissection in the press, whether rumors about her family life or members of her own family speaking out against her. People criticized her throughout her pregnancy and for a range of other reasons. Two upcoming books promise to shed more light on what was really going on behind the scenes.

In a new biography inspired by Meghan Markle's emotional ITV interview, celebrity biographer Sean Smith hopes to shine new light on why "the most charismatic member of the Royal Family" has been "so upset" (per the Daily Mail). Of course, Meghan made clear that the attacks from the tabloids and press were simply too much, but this book teases that it'll go even deeper and "pull no punches."

Smith's Meghan: Misunderstood, set for release in November 2020, promises to dive into the behind-the-scenes drama that drove Prince Harry and Meghan out of the royal family and into Tyler Perry's $18 million mansion in California. Per Daily Mail, the book describes Meghan as "the most talked about, unfairly vilified and misrepresented woman in the world."

Yet, while the media continues to blame Meghan for the pair's exit, Prince Harry might have been the true mastermind behind their decision to leave his native England for America.

Although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step back from royal duties has been dubbed "Megxit," insiders claim this nickname makes Prince Harry angry because it "gives the impression that the decision to walk away from the royal family was Meghan's," according to The Sun. As royal watchers await the release of another book called Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, a source for The Sun claims the book (out in August 2020) will absolve Markle for good. In fact, leaving the royal family wasn't even her idea.

"The seeds of Megxit were sown before they even got married. The truth is that Harry had been deeply unhappy for a long time," the insider said. "He and Meghan openly discussed going in a different direction well before they got married." While Meghan was deemed "manipulative" after the announcement, it's Prince Harry who wanted to protect his growing family from the same fate as his mother, Princess Diana.

"Sometimes the right decision isn't always the easy one," Prince Harry noted (per Page Six). "And this decision certainly wasn't the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son. And I think there's a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first." Now that's true love at its finest!

The couple's choice to leave their royal duties and the accompanying (seemingly unfair) scrutiny behind may have primarily been Prince Harry's idea. However, there are plenty of reasons Meghan Markle may have wanted to return — or, at least, had not been opposed to returning — to the kind of life that she used to have before getting married and becoming the Duchess of Sussex.

According to a press release from HarperCollins (via the Daily Mail), Meghan had an "extraordinarily accomplished life" when she met Harry. Indeed, along with being an actress who starred on the show Suits, she was also active in many charitable initiatives prior to marrying the prince and had established a supportive social circle.

That's why the biography by Sean Smith aims to tell the "remarkable and powerful story of this self-made, intelligent American woman with a strong social conscience" and delve into how she and Harry ended up involved in "a story that the screenwriters of Hollywood — where Meghan had made her name — could scarcely have imagined." It's also a story that Meghan and Harry are still creating together while aiming for their happily-ever-after.