Prince Harry says the royal family dismissed Meghan Markle's public harassment as a 'rite of passage'

• Three episodes of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's docuseries on Netflix were released on Thursday.
• The series delves into Meghan's media treatment, including tabloid reports with racial undertones.

Prince Harry said members of the royal family told him harassment in the public eye is a "rite of passage" when his relationship with Meghan Markle went public.

In the second episode of the couple's new Netflix docuseries, "Harry & Meghan," the Duke and Duchess of Sussex went into detail about the media scrutiny and harassment from paparazzi Meghan, 41, experienced when they decided to confirm they were dating in 2016. Meghan, who was working as an actress on "Suits" and living in Canada at the time, said her neighbors were paid to install cameras that would live stream her entering and exiting her home.

Harry, 38, said they quickly saw that tabloids back in the UK were also publishing articles with racist undertones. The couple said the "direction of the palace" at the time was not to provide comment to the media.

Harry said that when he broached the topic with members of the royal family, he was met with the opinion that Meghan's racial harassment was almost like an initiation.

"What people need to understand is as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through was, they had been put through as well," he said. "So it was almost like a rite of passage."

"Some of the members of the family said, 'Right, but my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment, why should she be protected?'" he said. The difference, Harry said he told the family, is the "race element."

Harry did not identify which members of the royal family had questioned why Meghan should be given protection. Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Kensington Palace, and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

During the discussion about Meghan's treatment in the media in comparison to other royals, videos of Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson, and Kate Middleton walking down the street while being followed by paparazzi are shown.

Moreover, the docuseries also includes snippets of articles published by British tabloids at the time, including the now-infamous piece in the Daily Mail, titled: "Harry's Girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed - so will he be dropping in for tea?"

Other articles shown in the episode include one from the Daily Star with the headline "One's Gone Gangster" and another in the Daily Mail titled: "Meet the Family! How Harry's American girl's ancestors were a tailor, a teacher and a cleaner in racially divided Jim Crow South - while his were ruling the British Empire."

An article from the National Enquirer, "Royal Shame! Meghan Markle's Mom Hits The Laundromat," with the tagline "Prince Harry's princess frolics in Africa while her mother toils like a peasant!" was also shown alongside photographs of Doria Ragland, Meghan's mother.