This year Buckingham Palace officially announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had told the Queen, Harry’s grandmother, that they were officially leaving the Firm to pursue their new life in the US. The couple moved out of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor for Canada last year, before settling down in a mansion in Montecito, California, where they are raising their two children, Archie Harrison and Lilibet Diana. The pair announced their intentions to carve out a new life in North America in early 2020, saying that they would “step back” as “senior” members of the Royal Family.

       Media reports suggested there had been friction in the Palace between Meghan, 39, and some members of the Royal Family.

       There were also claims the Duchess had bullied courtiers, including two senior members of staff at Kensington Palace, their initial royal residence.

       Meghan got to give her own account of what royal life was like when she and Harry, 36, sat down with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey in May for a televised interview in March.

       Broadcast on CBS, the conversation featured a string of shocking claims, including that Meghan said she felt she was “trapped” by Palace life.

       She told Oprah she had asked to check into hospital after her mental health had spiralled and she had been having suicidal thoughts, but said she had been unable to do so.

       “You couldn’t just go. You couldn’t. I mean, you have to understand, as well, when I joined that family, that was the last time, until we came here, that I saw my passport, my driver’s licence, my keys. All that gets turned over. I didn’t see any of that any more,” Meghan said.

       Meghan’s version of events was questioned by Andrew Morton, author of ‘Diana: Her True Story’.

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       He told the Royally Obsessed podcast in April that friends of his had “seen Meghan walking from [the] Wholefood supermarket on Kensington High Street with bags of food back to Kensington Palace.”

       He added that Meghan’s time in the Firm “didn't seem too much like a prison” and that it seemed like she “led a normal life.”

       Harry also told Oprah he had felt “trapped” by the institution of the Royal Family and claimed his father, Prince Charles and brother Prince William are in the same position.

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       “They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that,” he said.

       Unearthed claims previously said it was Meghan who allowed Harry to break out of the Firm, which he felt had long held him back.

       Journalist James Longman said he believed Meghan was the catalyst for Harry’s new start.

       “For me, maybe, Meghan is the woman that set Harry free,” the foreign correspondent for ABC News, told the broadcaster’s documentary, ‘Royal Divide: Harry, Meghan, and The Crown.’

       Mr Longman has followed the couple closely and joined them for their 16-day visit to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand in 2018.

       This was when he also claims the first signs of the pressures of royal life on the couple became apparent, as Harry even appeared “angry” during the trip.