Meghan Markle talks planning suicide as she hasn't 'scraped the surface' of her experience

Meghan Markle has spoken candidly about her experience with suicidal thoughts, as she admitted she had planned to go through with it.

The Duchess of Sussex sat down for a rare joint interview with her husband Prince Harry on CBS Sunday Morning with host Jane Pauley over the weekend. The interview tied in with the launch of the couple's new site , Parents Network, which provides a place for parents to go to for help if they think their child is being bullied online.

During the interview, Jane turned to Meghan and said: "You had an experience that connects you to these families – and I see you touch your husband's hand in just the way I knew that you would be looking after each other if I went places – but the connection that you have with people is they know you had suffered, too, personally. Contemplating killing yourself is what suicidal ideation was. And I'm dancing around this because I could see you're uncomfortable with my even going there..."

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Meghan replied: "I understand why you are, though – I wasn't expecting it, but I understand why you are, because there is a through-line, I think. And when you've been through any level of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey (certainly part of mine) is being able to be really open about it.

"And you know, I haven't really scraped the surface on my experience. But I do think that I would never want someone else to feel that way. And I would never want someone else to be making those sort of plans. And I would never want someone else to not be believed.

"So, if me voicing what I have overcome will save someone, or encourage someone in their life to really genuinely check in on them and not assume that the appearance is good, so everything's okay, then that's worth it I'll take a hit for that."

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Elsewhere in the interview, Jane asked the couple: "The central topic is the loss that these families have suffered, stories that need to be shared, because the parents who are listening who have not suffered a loss think that they couldn't. But they could."

"They certainly could," Harry said. "And that's, I think, one of the scariest things that we've learned over the course of the last 16, 17 years that social media's been around, and more so recently, is the fact that it could happen to absolutely anybody.

"We always talk about in the olden days if your kids were under your roof, you knew what they were up to; at least they were safe, right? And now, they could be in the next-door room on a tablet or on a phone and can be going down these rabbit holes. And before you know it, within 24 hours, they could be taking their life."

If in the United States, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to http://SuicidePreventionLifeline.org