The Duchess of Sussex said her experience with the press was different to that of the Duchess of Cambridge, saying “rude and racist are not the same”.

Meghan said while it was probably “really hard” for her sister-in-law to have been dubbed “Waity Katie” during her long courtship with her now-husband the Duke of Cambridge, it cannot be compared to her own treatment at the hands of the media.

During a previously unseen clip of her interview with Oprah Winfrey, which was aired on US breakfast show CBS This Morning, Meghan also said she had not been defended by the palace press team.

She said: “Kate was called ‘Waity Katie’ waiting to marry William. While I imagine that was really hard – and I do, I can’t picture what that felt like – this is not the same.

“And if a member of his family would comfortably say ‘we’ve all had to deal with things that are rude’, rude and racist are not the same.

“And equally you’ve also had a press team that goes on the record to defend you, especially when they know something’s not true, and that didn’t happen for us.”

Winfrey asked the Duke of Sussex if acknowledgment from his family that the couple’s treatment in the press was different due to race would make a difference to him.

The Duke of Sussex said: “Yeah, it would make a huge difference. As I said, there’s a lot of people that have seen it for what it was.

“A lot of people. It’s talked about across the world, yet the very people that don’t want to see it, or can’t see it, choose not to see it.”

Asked by Winfrey, in another previously unseen clip, if the couple left the UK because of racism, Harry replied: “It was a large part of it.”

Recalling a conversation he had at a Sentebale fundraiser, Harry said he was urged by someone who is “friends with a lot of the editors”: “Please don’t do this with the media, they will destroy your life.”

He said he was told: “You need to understand that the UK is very bigoted,” to which he replied: “The UK is not bigoted, the UK press is bigoted, specifically the tabloids.”

He added: “But unfortunately if the source of information is inherently corrupt or racist or biased then that filters out to the rest of society.”