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LONDON. – The royal family yesterday absorbed the tremors from a sensational television interview by Prince Harry and Meghan, in which the couple said they encountered racist attitudes and a lack of support that drove the duchess to thoughts of suicide.

In a two-hour soul-baring interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple painted a deeply unflattering picture of life inside the royal household, depicting a cold, uncaring institution that they had to flee to save their lives.

In her emotional interview, Meghan said that racism she experienced as a member of the British royal family contributed to her having suicidal thoughts. Racism from within the royal household and the media had played a part in her feeling she “didn’t want to be alive anymore”, Meghan said.

Several high-profile figures and thousands of social media users have thrown their support behind Meghan as they denounced the “cruelty” she was allegedly subjected to by the British royal family and some sectors of UK media.

The highly anticipated interview, broadcast on Sunday in the US, was the first by Meghan Markle and her husband Prince Harry since they stepped down from royal duties a year ago.  The two-hour special included explosive revelations likely to reverberate on both sides of the Atlantic, with the pair describing controversial discussions in the palace about the colour of their son Archie’s skin, losing royal protection and the intense pressures that led the duchess of Sussex to contemplate suicide.

It quickly drew mass attention on Twitter, where several prominent public figures backed Meghan, a biracial actress whose mother is black and father is white.

Meghan’s close friend Serena Williams, the US tennis star, said she understood the “pain and cruelty” Meghan had experienced. Williams, who has won 23 Grand Slam titles, said Meghan had taught her “what it means to be truly noble”.

“I know firsthand the sexism and racism institutions and the media use to vilify women and people of color to minimise us, to break us down and demonise us,” Williams tweeted. “The mental health consequences of systemic oppression and victimisation are devastating, isolating, and all too often lethal.”

US television host Nina Parker tweeted: “You know why black women believe Meghan? Because we know exactly what micro aggressions look like. And how they slowly drive you insane.”

Others said Meghan and Harry’s withdrawal from royal duties symbolised the “cost of racism” for the country.

Meanwhile,  British television personality Trisha Goddard was yesterday  being praised for shutting down Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain.

Goddard appeared on the ITV show to discuss Prince Harry and Meghan’s high-profile interview.

During the interview, Markle said that she had a conversation with an unnamed member of the royal family who questioned how dark her unborn baby’s skin would be when she was pregnant with Archie.

Markle refused to name the family member, saying it “would be very damaging” to them if she revealed their name.

On GMB, Morgan questioned whether this conversation should be considered “automatically racist” to which Goddard replied: “Why is everybody else such an expert about racism against black people?”

She continued: “I’m sorry, Piers – you don’t get to call out what is and isn’t racism against black people. I’ll leave you to call out all the other stuff you want, but leave the racism stuff to us, eh?” – Al Jazeera-Agencies.