The Duchess of Sussex revealed on Tuesday’s episode of her podcast “Archetypes” that when her mental health was at an all-time low, she managed to find a person who could help her with her struggles, and she has Prince Harry to thank for it.
“I mean, I think at my worst point, is finally connected to someone that [helped]. You know, my husband had found a referral for me to call. And I called this woman,” Markle, 41, said in the episode, Us Weekly reported. “She didn’t know I was even calling her.”
The former actress recalled that the woman, who she did not name, was checking out at the grocery store when she called but could immediately sense that Markle was in a “dire state.”
“She was checking out at the grocery store. I could hear the little beep, beep, and I was like, ‘Hi,’ and I’m introducing myself. You can literally [hear her] going, ‘Wait, sorry. I’m just [confused]. Who is this?’ [I was saying] I need help and she could hear the dire state that I was in,” Markle shared.
The former “Suits” star then encouraged her listeners to “be really honest” about what they need when it comes to mental health and to not be afraid to ask for help.
Markle admitted in her and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey last year that the unwanted attention from the British press and public scrutiny of her relationship with the Duke of Sussex affected her mental health.
The duchess told Winfrey that she had suicidal thoughts at one point because she “realized that it was all happening just because I was breathing.”
“I was really ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry, especially, because I know how much loss he’s suffered. But I knew that if I didn’t say it, I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought,” Markle explained in the March 2021 interview.