Speaking in the new Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, the prince said that seeing “another woman in my life who I love go through this feeding frenzy, that’s hard.”
The second episode of the bombshell series opens with the royal couple being driven in the US. They and their driver note that photographers – or “paps”, as they refer to them – are following them down the street.
Harry said: “Back in my mum’s days it was physical harassment. They had cameras in your face, following you, chasing you.”
But he claimed that the bulk of the abuse now comes on social media.
“Paparazzi still harass people, but the harassment still exists more online now,” he said.
“Once the photographs are out and the story is then put next to it, then comes the social media harassment.”
Meghan said that when their relationship was first made public in 2016, she was unprepared for the scale of the attention she would get.
She described having men parked outside her house in Toronto ready to photograph her – and even a neighbour installing a camera in her garden so they could livestream her every move.
She said: “All the curtains were pulled; all the blinds were pulled. It was scary.”
Describing the overwhelming attention Ms Markle got after the relationship was announced, her former agent Nick Collins said: “My phone just started going crazy. It was like a tidal wave.”
The second episode also features Ms Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland.
Asked if she remembered meeting Harry for the first time, she said: “I do, when she told me we were on the phone and she said ‘Mummy I’m going out with Prince Harry’ and I started whispering ‘oh my god’.
“And I remember when I first met him too, he was a six one handsome man with really great manners. He was just really nice and they looked really happy together, like he was the one.
“Once it was announced that they were together it seemed kind of like a novelty.”
The first three episodes of the documentary were published on Netflix on Thursday.
The first episode details how Harry and Meghan met and dated before explaining the background to Harry’s life, including the press interest in Harry during his childhood and the period when Charles and Diana divorced.
It has been claimed the royals will not watch it but officials at Buckingham and Kensington Palace will.
Reports say the royals will probably try and avoid responding to the show, but are prepared to rapidly hit back if anything they consider to be “unjust accusations” emerges. The documentary also starts with Netflix saying the royals declined to comment on the show.
