Pope francis bids farewell to iraq after a Ground Breaking trip. Good to have you with us. Our top story this hour, the duke and duchess of sussex making shocking and damning claims about the British Royal family in a tellall interview. They stepped back from their senior roles because they didnt feel supported by the royals. They felt trapped in the institution of the royal family and at one point meghan said life of the royal family felt so isolating for her that she contemplated suicide. I just didnt want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought, but we had to go to this event. I remember him saying, i dont think i can go and i remember saying, i cant be left alone. Because you were afraid of what you might do to yourself . And we went and thats im so sorry to hear that. That picture, if you zoom in, what i see is how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine. You can see the whites of our knuckles because we are smiling and doing our job. And that was just one of many bombshell claims and another stunning revelation, harry and meagan say there were questions about what color their son archies skin might be before he was born but the couple would not reveal who discussed it. And also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when hes born. What . And who who is having that conversation with you . What . So there is a conver there are several conversations. Buckingham palace has not yet commented on the interview. Cnns anna stewart joins us from outside Windsor Castle in england. More on this. Anna, good to see you. What has been the reaction so far in british papers to this bombshell interview and hue will the palace likely respond to some of these very serious allegations . Reporter well, youre absolutely right. These allegations are so serious that i suspect the palace will have to break away from the no comment policy. That she asked for help from the institution of the palace and didnt get any. Allegations that there were conversations and concerns about how dark the color of their childs skin would be. This is the early stages of me meghans pregnancy. I can show you what the newspapers are saying to far. Theyve been very busy making multiple editions overnight. The daily mail is running with meagan accuses the palace of racism. The daily mirror, they asked how dark archies skin would be and the suns running with, meg, i felt suicidal. These are some of the tabloid newspapers that meghan and harry have battled with, even taking some of them to court. Meghan had a victory against the mail on sunday. These papers make money out of this interview. They even make money, frankly, out of them being taken to court. But the interesting thing perhaps today is to focus on the fact that prince harry and mem meghan are taking control of the narrative. They say what they say and have told their truth and have gotten their justice in the International Court of public thought. Many thanks for that. Lets bring in cnn royal commentator kate williams. She joins us from london. Good to have you with us. Good morning. This bombshell interview said she felt suicidal, archies skin color denying him title and security detail. What might the ramifications of allegations like that be and how will the royals go about responding to this . Reporter these are very serious allegations. The interview, it was bombshell after bombshell. We had expected to talk about the racist nature of the tabloids. The horrific amount of racist press she suffered but what we got really what we got back these absolutely shocking revelations, that she felt suicidal. She begged for help. She wants to go to hospital and she wasnt allowed to because that would make the Institution Look bad. Concern about archies skin color when she was pregnant, theres been talks about the consequence. At the same time there were conversations about him not having security because he wasnt a prince which obviously was very concerning because you see all of those racist memes. Doesnt matter whether archies a prince or not, hes going to get a lot of attention and could be at risk and that he didnt get the title. The title of prince. And in terms of the younger generation, the only one whos allowed to be prince is prince george, the eldest child of william and kate, but an intervention was made so that charlotte and his oldest brother and sister could be prince and princess. That was not made for archie. Theres a difference. She wasnt explicit to say this was tied to the color of his skin, it was close together and implied. When she said and oprah did such a brilliant job asking about this. Who made the comment . Who asked about how dark was archie going to be . Who this this conversation . This is particularly damaging. Meghan wasnt going to say it. It wasnt the queen or duke of edinboro, that does narrow it down to who it would have been, charles, william or their wives. It would have to be someone within that grouping. This is really very serious. And i think what well see from the palace is a statement. There will be a statement. I dont think immediately, theyve got to think about it. Many of them havent seen it but there will be a statement. They have to deal with it. At the moment, this is incredibly damaging. If they dont deal with it, there were implications they dont care about it and there is racism in the royal family and meghan was not supported. I do expect to see a statement. Kate, the British Royal family had an opportunity to embrace meghan and drag the royal monarchy into the 21st century. Why didnt they do it . This is the question. Oprah started off by talking about the wedding. This wonderful moment. We thought, this is the future. This is where the commonwealth appears a very high percent of people of color, they see someone who looks like them. Multicultural brittain and multicultural world and within a couple of years meghan had to leave. Her Mental Health, harrys Mental Health and they were chased out by racist coverage, sexist coverage. Harry made this clear, no one would help me. We said to the royal family, to the firm, to the court, please tell the press to stop and he said he felt that the royal family in particular was scared of the press so they werent going to say stop. They were going to make meghan have to deal with it. And is it worth meghan, as it has been for any other royal women, because of the race because there was racism as well as misogyny. They had this great moment to embrace meghan and harry. When they went to step back this time last year, they wanted to have the cell phones but also do the state commonwealth tours, support the queen as they would do in brittain and all the european worlds would do. This is a chance for them forward a future. Royal siblings spend their whole lives as backups . No. Royal families didnt embrace it. This is a failure. I think there was certainly within what they would call the melon gray suit, the dogmatic thinking. We wont deal with press coverage. Oh, well, we cant have half in half out. The consequence, the royal family have lost these two super stars, these two worldwide super stars and simply it does and the fact is theyve lost the first black woman to marry into the modern royal family. 24 is an indictment of what they said in the interview just adds to this. And it really, i think, it does have to be addressed. We await a response from the British Royal family. See what they say about these serious statements. Kate williams, many thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. For more news about the British Royal family, we have a new service go to you for cnn. Com royal news for our new weekly newsletter. It launches today so sign up now to get the first one. Well, a number of states are rolling back restrictions even as covid vare yaiants spread. Just ahead, why Health Experts fear those could spread new surges. Welcome back. Health experts are worried about the spread of the variant first identified in the u. K. Its already reached at least 46 states and the u. S. Capitol. One Infectious Disease expert says the strain is increasing exponentially and the country is probably on the Tipping Point of another surge. Despite that threat, governors in other states are easing restrictions including mask wearing and reopening restaurants. With less than 10 of the country being vaccinated, they are worried about surges. We are in the eye of the hurricane. It appears things are going well, we can see blue skies. What we know is about to come upon us is the situation with this b. 1. 1. 7 variant, the virus that originated in the United Kingdom that is wreaking havoc in europe. 27 sunday tris seeing significant cases with this really hitting hard. Many countries have been in lockdown for two months to try to control this virus. Last time i was on your show four weeks ago the b. 1. 1. 7 variant made up 1 to 4 of the viruses we were seeing in communities across the country. Today its up to 30 to 40 . What weve seen in europe when we hit the 40 mark, youll see the variants explode. Experts are concerned as states roll back restrictions, potential super spreader events could cause a new surge in coronavirus cases. Cnns natasha chen has more. Reporter outside nba allstar game in atlanta, no fans. Its a made for tv only event. The nba and city of atlanta have asked people not to come. There will be nothing we will be doing in atlanta unfortunately thats open to the public. I want to discourage people from coming to atlanta. Atlanta is not alone. Officials in florida worry they could see super spreader events as they pack beaches and resorts for spring break. We are worried there will be a convergence of people here and a real problem in the aftermath of that. Reporter one of the big problem is some states like texas and mississippi are dropping mask mandates. Its a move other governors wont follow. I have a great deal of respect for my colleagues in texas and mississippi. With the vaccine, were on the offense. But in ohio we cant give up the defense. We have found the masks work exceedingly well. Our approach is to protect lives and livelihoods. We have to get our economy working. Statewide mask mandates have not been in effect and were not going back to that. Reporter on saturday according to the daily camera, hundreds showed up for an outdoor gathering. Fireworks were set off. Police said three s. W. A. T. Officers were hit with bricks and rocks and were hurt while trying to break this gathering up. As for gatherings in atlanta, the nba has sent 200 cease and desist letters to promoters in the area for using their trademark without permission according to a source without knowledge of the situation. We found a lot of promotions for events throughout the week end. We tried to reach out to ask if they have special protocols in place for the health and safety of their guests. One promoter told us no comment, the others have not responded to us. Natasha chen, cnn, atlanta. Thats all contributing to fears of a surge despite the push to promote vaccinations. I spoke with larry brilliant. Where do things go from here . Its only a year since this novel virus jumped from that to this and were in the middle of a huge rollout of almost magical vaccines and theres a lot to be grateful for. We will kind of get the numbers up in the states, the u. K. Im really worried about the rest of the world. I do think that theres the risk of a fourth wave last year around this time we were plateauing. This time were plateauing. Were still going into an easier Holiday Season because of its summerish and people are outdoors, but last year we were clobbered by memorial day and fourth of july poor behavior f. That happens and the variants play an important part, well see a fourth wave now. In addition, we have to really protect ourselves against that happening in the fall. We have vaccines on our side. We have a better administration. Were going to get better at a lot of things but it will be a close race were in. Larry brilliant talking earlier there. Despite the fact recent polls show more americans are willing to get vaccinated, we are learning russia is working to undermine confidence in u. S. Approved vaccines. That is according to a state Department Spokesperson who says the three Online Platforms directed by russian intelligence, news front, Eastern Front and oriental review quote spread many types of disinformation including about both pfizer and moderna vaccines as well as international organizations, military conflicts and any device issue they can exemployed. Kremlin spokesman denied the allegations to the wall street journal and called them, quote, nonsense. Americans could start seeing fresh stimulus checks arrive as soon as this week. Thats if the house approves the senates version of the relief package on tuesday as expected and then is quickly signed by president biden. Meantime, democratic senator joe manchin is defending holding up his own partys bill for hours of negotiations over the weekend. Hes being criticized for pushing for less help for out of work americans but he insists he was simply seeking a fair compromise on income limits for tax writeoffs. Heres how he described it to our jake tanner. To be fair for people out there, working all the time paying their share of taxes, that was something we were concerned about also so we limited it to 150,000. We capped it that anybody over 150,000 could not use that offset. Anybody below it thats struggling, working, more of the middle class is able to do that, that was a fair compromise. We worked through that and got it done. Pandemic Unemployment Benefits are set to expire in the coming weeks if the bill doesnt pass and the irs warns that millions of people could be at risk of missing out on their stimulus payment because the agency doesnt know how to reach them. Ron brownstein is a cnn senior political analyst and Senior Editor for the atlantic. He joins me now from los angeles. Great to have you with us. So president bidens covid relief package cleared the Senate Without any republican support saturday. Now its heading back to the house tuesday. How likely is it that it will pass this week . How imperative is it that this gets done and done fast . I think it will pass. It is kind of extraordinary. If you compare this to the economic plans that bill clinton put forward in his first year in 1993, barack obama in 2009, even george w. Bush in 2001, this is probably passing much closer to the original design than any. There was just enormous drama, widespread defection in the Democratic Party in 93 and 09. Buv bush was forced to cut his tax plan by 25 . Here because of all of the maneuvering and minutebyminute focus, in the end joe biden proposed a 1. 9 trillion package and congress is going to pass that. It is a statement of how imperative the need is but also how much the Democratic Party is holding together, at least at the outset of his presidency. Yeah. At the same time, how does all of this look for republicans who didnt get on board with helping people . They dont feel much of the pain that other americans are feeling during this pandemic so they cant begin to understand what people are going through. How much of a barrier is that disconnect for a party already struggling with its own identity. To me the most interesting part of the republican response is what didnt happen. If you look back at the earlier examples that i mentioned, clinton in 93, obama in 09, the initial plan was part of a backlash that republicans were able to generate basically arguing that it was Big Government gone crazy, spending gone crazy. None of that happened. What was happening last week, the lead republican in the house was reading dr. Seuss on twitter and complaining that, you know, he was a victim of cancel culture. It basically to me underscores the extent to which the arguments of Big Government have lost a lot of their sting, particularly against the backdrop of this, you know, pandemic and all of the economic and social strain that it has created. Ron brownstein talking to me earlier. England is one step closer to getting back to prepandemic norm malts. School is now back in session. Its the first of several stages as officials gradually ease restrictions. Prime minister Boris Johnson attributes the, quote, determination of every person in this country for the progress. The 8th of march is the first big step of the roadmap that we hope is a roadmap to freedom and its made possible by the rollout of the vaccination program. And Officials Say they will be keeping an eye on the level of covid cases as they roll out each state of that roadmap. Still to come here on cnn, the duke and duchess of sussex open up to Oprah Winfrey about their troubled relationship with brittains royal family. Hear what harry had to say about his father, Prince Charles. Thats next. When you switch to xfinity mobile, youre choosing to get connected to the most Reliable Network nationwide, now with 5g included. Discover how to save up to 300 a year with shared data starting at 15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. Come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. You can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. Welcome back, everyone. The duke and duchess of sussex are revealing many stunning claims about the struggles of living in the royal family. Their remarks came during a tellall televised interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired on cbs. Harry and meghans over arching message that they step back from their senior roles because they didnt feel supported by the royals. The prince also said his father, Prince Charles and brother Prince William were trapped in their roles and he felt sorry for them. Harry also told oprah that his father stopped taking his calls for a