According to a royal expert, Meghan Markle was “hoping for an apology” from the royal family following her explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.

During the interview, the Duchess of Sussex said that her mental health had deteriorated to the point that she considered suicide when pregnant with Archie.

The former actress was “horrified” by the royal family’s negative reaction to the interview, which she felt should have inspired compassion, according to royal biographer Tom Quinn.

Quinn said Meghan was likely anticipating a phone call from the royal family to apologize after she exposed how badly royal life had impacted her in the new UK Channel 5 documentary Meghan at 40: The Climb To Power.

“I think she was hoping for an apology, I think she was hoping they would phone and say, ‘We are really sorry, we now see that we pushed you too far. We should have behaved differently, we should have sat down as a family and discussed your mental health issues’,” Tom, author of Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir, said in the documentary.

“I think she was horrified afterward that the reaction was so negative from the family and they didn’t respond in the way that she wanted.”

Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, who grew up in America and married into the nobility like Meghan, agreed with Tom.

“I think that she felt it was an opportunity for her to not only share that (he battle with mental health) with the world but perhaps her hopes were that the royal family would be listening,” Montagu said on the show.

During a well publicized interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, the Duchess of Sussex publicly accused the royal family of racism, earning her an Emmy nomination.

“In those months when I was pregnant (there were) concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born,” Meghan said.

“That conversation, I am never going to share,” Harry told Oprah and added “At the time it was awkward, I was a bit shocked”.

Mr Quinn went on to say that the Duchess of Sussex may regret the interview since she seems to have “burnt her bridges” with the family.

“I think that she thought when she entered the Royal Family she could shake them up and they would love it, she would do things Meghan’s way,” he said.

“When that didn’t happen and she came up against what she saw as the forces of reaction it made her so upset that, that interview was her way I think the only way for her to get her revenge and put the case as she saw it.

“But I think later on she will think I shouldn’t have burnt my bridges to that extent.”

Meghan said she went to the palace human resources department after feeling lonely and losing her freedom after joining the royal family, but that “nothing was ever done.”

During his interview, Prince Harry also criticized the Royal Family, claiming that Prince William and Prince Charles are “trapped” in the institution.

In a new documentary, The Me You Can’t See, the Duke of Sussex tells Oprah Winfrey that what kept his wife from committing suicide was how “unfair” it would be to him following the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.

“The thing that stopped her from seeing it through was how unfair it would be on me after everything that had happened to my mum and to now be put in a position of losing another woman in my life, with a baby inside of her, our baby..

“The scariest thing for her was her clarity of thought. She hadn’t ‘lost it.’ … She was completely sane. Yet in the quiet of night, these thoughts woke her up.”

The impact from the interview has been severe for both Meghan and Harry, with a YouGov survey indicating that they are the ‘least liked royal family members’, just ahead of Prince Andrew.

People on Twitter immediately suggested that the Duchess of Sussex apologize to the royal family for insulting the British Crown during the interview: “Maybe she should issue a formal apology for all the lies she told in that interview,” one Twitter user said.

Another person said, “I’m just glad she never got an apology.” “That’s the part that is eating her up, like how can’t they not fall on her knees and apologise to her.”

The Sussexes have used the TV interview, as well as Harry’s conversation with James Corden, to detail their time in the Firm and fallouts behind palace walls since leaving the royal family last year.

In addition, Prince Harry recently announced that he would publish a book on his life in the royal family, which he has been working on for the last year.