WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House said Monday that it took “courage” for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan to speak out in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.

“For anyone to come forward and speak about their own struggles with mental health and tell their own personal story, that takes courage,” President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters.

However, Psaki stressed that the two royals are now “private citizens” and “we aren’t going to provide additional commentary from here on behalf of the president.”

“We have a strong and abiding relationship with the British people and a special partnership with the government of the United Kingdom on a range of issues and that will continue,” she said.

Harry and Meghan, officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, unloaded on the rest of the royal family in the two-hour blockbuster with Oprah on Sunday, discussing suicidal thoughts, racism and what the burden of tradition.

The two-hour sit-down was the most startling since Harry’s late mother Princess Diana made her own bombshell revelations in 1995, and triggered similar questions about the ability of Queen Elizabeth II’s family to weather the storm.

Harry described feeling “really let down” by his father Prince Charles, who had stopped taking his phone calls for a time. Both Charles — the queen’s heir — and Harry’s elder brother William were “trapped” by the conventions of the monarchy.

“They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that,” Harry said in the interview broadcast on CBS Sunday night, explaining the couple’s dramatic exit from royal life last year, which has now seen them stripped by the queen of their honorary titles and patronages.

Meghan, a mixed-race former television actress, described herself as “naively” unprepared for life in the pressure cooker of the royal family.

But she said she was denied help for a mental health crisis, targeted by lies in an incident involving her sister-in-law, and there was even official concern about the skin colour of her unborn son.

“I… just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought,” she told Winfrey, describing the impact of vitriol from hostile tabloids in Britain and social media.

Asked if she had had suicidal thoughts while pregnant with son Archie, Meghan replied: “Yes. This was very, very clear.”

Meghan, 39, also told of “concerns” about “how dark” Archie’s skin would be, saying Harry revealed to her conversations over their baby’s appearance, as well as the security he would be entitled to, ahead of his birth on May 6, 2019.

The couple both declined to name the royal involved but Winfrey said Monday that Harry had told her the queen, 94, and her 99-year-old husband, Prince Philip, were not part of the conversations.