Oprah asks the duchess: "How do you feel about the palace hearing you speak your truth today?"

Meghan says she's not going to live her life in fear.

"I don't know how they could expect that, after all of this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that The Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us," she says.

"That at a certain point you're gonna go: you guys, someone just tell the truth."

"And if that comes with risk of losing things, I mean... there is a lot that has been lost already."

She says she's lost her father, she lost a baby and also the loss of identity - but "I'm still standing".

Image source, EPA

Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent

A horrible picture is being drawn – of Meghan torn apart by the coverage of her, having suicidal thoughts - and of the palace having learnt nothing in the 40 years since Diana.

Again, worth noting that this is only one side of the story.

Oprah asks Meghan about her past comments, describing the experience as "unsurvivable".

"Almost unsurvivable sounds like there was a breaking point,” Oprah says.

"I just didn't want to be alive anymore," Meghan replies, saying she was "ashamed" to admit it to Harry because of how much "loss he's suffered".

"That was a real and frightening, constant thought," she says.

Meghan says she sought help from the "Institution", asking to go somewhere to get help.

The request was denied, she said.

"Were you having suicidal thoughts?" Oprah asks.

"Yes," Meghan replies. "I thought it would have solved everything for everyone."

If you want to talk to someone about the issues raised in this piece, you can call the USNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineon1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

You can call the UK Samaritans Helpline on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.

Oprah asks Meghan about why she thinks the Royal Family didn't want to make Archie a prince.

"Why do you think that is? Do you think it's because of his race? I know that's a loaded question." says Oprah.

"I can give you an honest answer," says Meghan.

"In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time so we have in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born."

Oprah asks her who said that.

Meghan doesn't answer, and Oprah asks again. "There are several conversations about it," says Meghan. The conversation was with Harry, she says, and about how dark the baby's going to be "potentially and what that would mean or look like".

She refuses to say who it is, saying: "I think that would be very damaging to them."

Meghan adds: "That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations that family had with him. And I think it was really hard to be able to see those as compartmentalised conversations."

Image source, EPA

Meghan is asked by Oprah about baby Archie - who was not made a prince at his birth.

She says she found the news "really hard" - not because she wanted the title but because it meant he wouldn't receive security.

"All the grandeur surrounding this stuff is an attachment I don't personally have, right.

"The most important title I will ever have is 'mom'. But the idea of our son not being safe and also the idea of the first member of colour in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be..."

She says the convention, meaning her children would be prince or princess, was changed while she was pregnant.

"It's not their right to take it away... While I was pregnant they said they want to change the convention for Archie. Well, why?"

She says the news reports suggesting the lack of title was her and Harry's decision were wrong.

Image source, Reuters

Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent

A picture emerges of Meghan feeling desperately lonely and abandoned, denied the ability to go out and see her friends by a palace machinery that was concerned that she was all over the media – and driving other members of the Royal Family out of the newspaper coverage.

In response to Oprah asking her whether she was "silent" or "silenced", Meghan says it was the latter.

Meghan says that everyone in her world was given "very clear directive" to always give no comment from the moment it became publicly known that she and Harry were dating.

She said that she initially thought that she was "being protected", but this soon changed.

"That was really hard to reconcile because it was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family.

"But they weren't willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband."

Image source, EPA/STR

Meghan talks more about being in the Royal Family, saying that she began to feel lonely after limits were put on the things she could do, for example not being able to go to lunch with her friends.

She says one of the "members of the family" asked her to lay low for a while, but Meghan says she hadn't left the house in months. "I'm everywhere but I am nowhere," she says.

She says at one point, she thought: "Right now I could not feel lonelier."

"I wasn't lonely with him," she says, meaning Prince Harry. "There were moments he had to work, he had to go away, there were moments in the middle of the night. There was very little I was allowed to do.

"Of course that breeds loneliness."

She compares losing her freedom to how people have felt during the past year because of the coronavirus lockdowns.

Image source, Getty Images

Meghan stresses the difference between the Royal Family and "the Firm" - the people and business around them.

"The Queen has always been wonderful to me," Meghan says. "I loved being in her company."

She recalls their first public appearance together in 2018, saying the Queen had given her pearl earrings and a matching necklace as a gift.

"She's always been warm and inviting and really welcoming," Meghan says.

Oprah asks if all members of the Royal Family did the same.

"I think everyone welcomed me," Meghan replies.

Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent

Fifteen minutes in and the Royal Family's worst fears are already being confirmed – Meghan is setting the record straight, she says, about some very personal stories from within the palace walls.

It’s the stuff that normally NEVER gets confirmed or denied – and it will throw Kensington Palace onto the defensive.

Image source, Getty Images

Oprah asks whether Meghan thinks the press had a standard for Kate and a different one for her.

The chat show host highlights some of the news stories published about Kate compared to Meghan, for example Kate eating avocados to help with morning sickness but in the story about Meghan, avocados were described as a fruit linked to deforestation.

"I don't know why, I can see now what layers were at play there. And again they really seemed to want a narrative of a hero and a villain," she says.

Oprah points out that she was the first mixed-race person to marry into the family, as well as a divorcee and an independent woman. Did that concern her in being able to fit in?

"I thought about it because they made me think about it, right. But I think at the same time now upon reflection, thank God all of those things were true. Thank God I had that life experience. Thank God I had known the value of working."

Image source, Getty Images

Oprah asks Meghan about the onslaught of tabloid stories published about her.

The US broadcast star asks specifically about rumours that Meghan made Kate Middleton cry in a fight about flower girl dresses for Harry and Meghan's wedding.

This story marked a "turning point", Meghan responds, saying that the "reverse" was true.

"A few days before the wedding [Kate] was upset about the flower girl dresses and it made me cry," Meghan says, adding that she "hoped" Kate would have wanted the false stories corrected.

Kate later apologised, bringing flowers and a note to make amends.

"I'm not sharing that piece about Kate to be disparaging about her," Meghan says. "She's a good person."

Asked why she thought Kate hadn't set the record straight, Meghan says: "Good question".

Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent

As she speaks you realise – we’ve NEVER heard her speak at length before.

She seems relaxed, happy, relieved, even.

It’s worth remembering that in her few interventions as a working royal she has proved a brilliant communicator, with a very clear idea of what she wants to say and great understanding of how to get it across.

Image source, PA

Meghan tells Oprah that she and Harry got married three days before their wedding.

"Three days before our wedding, we got married. No-one knows that but we called the Archbishop (of Canterbury) and we just said 'this thing, this spectacle is for the world but we want our union between us'."

She revealed this as the couple spoke to Oprah during a pre-recorded segment during which Meghan showed the chat show host the chickens they have rescued.

Image source, Reuters

Meghan is asked about meeting the Queen - Harry's grandmother - for the first time. What was that like, was she worried?

She says "there wasn’t actually a huge formality the first time I met Her Majesty the Queen".

She and Harry were going to lunch at the place where Prince Andrew lives, and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice spend a lot of time. "It turned out the Queen was finishing a church service there in Windsor," says Meghan.

She says Harry asked her whether she knew how to curtsy, and she responded with: "What?"

"I thought genuinely that that was what happens outside," she says, saying she thought it was "part of the fanfare" and she "didn’t think that was what happened inside".

That was the first moment that the penny dropped, she says. She and Harry practised the curtsy.

"Apparently I did a very deep curtsy," she says, adding: "I don't remember it."

Then she and the Queen "sat there and just chatted".

"Thank God I hadn't known a lot about the family," she adds. "Thank God I hadn't researched."

Image source, Reuters

Discussing her wedding day, Meghan says it was like “having an out-of-body experience”.

She reveals that she slept through the night the night before her wedding and when she woke up on her wedding day she listened to the song, Chapel of Love.

“I think we were just both really aware, even in advance of that, this wasn’t our day. This was the day that was planned for the world.”

Oprah asks Meghan what her expectations were in joining the Royal Family.

Meghan insists she had never looked up her husband online during their "courtship". What she knew was what Harry told her, she says.

There was "no way of knowing day-to-day" what it meant to be a working Royal, Meghan says.

And perception - based on fairy tales - is very different from reality, she says.

"You're being judged on the perception but you're living the reality."

Image source, Courtesy of Harpo Productions/CBS

Oprah starts the interview by commenting on Meghan's baby bump.

"You look lovely, pregnant and lovely".

Meghan says they know whether they are having a boy or a girl - but will wait until Harry joins before sharing the news.

They talk about the wedding day, and Oprah feeling a "sense of magic", and Meghan seemed to be "floating" down the aisle.

"It was like having an out of body experience that I was present for," says Meghan. She says she started listening to the song about "going to the chapel" before the wedding.

She also says she and Harry realised that "this wasn't our day, this was the day that was planned for the world".

The primetime sit-down between Oprah and the royal couple has begun.

Oprah has promised a "shocking" interview, telling us in teaser clips that no subject is off-limits.

Join us for live updates of the much-anticipated interview, coming live from US television network CBS.

And for those in the UK tuning in - the interview will be broadcast on Monday night on ITV at 21:00 GMT and on ITV Hub.

Peter Bowes
North America correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Oprah Winfrey’s daily chat show ended in 2011, after 25 years, but she remains a powerful force in US television and American life.

There was even talk of a presidential run, following a particularly powerful speech she delivered at the 2018 Golden Globe awards.

Winfrey has a track record of getting major public figures to speak from the heart, during difficult times. Michael Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Sarah Ferguson come to mind.

The apparently insatiable interest in the lives of Meghan and Harry, combined with the audience pulling power of Oprah, will ensure this TV special is a blockbuster in the ratings.

The way American TV works, the interview is not being broadcast at the same time across the US. Viewers in the east are about to watch it, at 20:00 local time, but people living in the western states, in the Pacific time zone, will have to wait three hours. It means that viewers in the Los Angeles area will be able to read about the interview online, in social media, before it airs at 20:00 on their local CBS station. The delay is designed to place the programme in a prime-time viewing slot, across the country.