Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan think openness is "valuable".

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex - who stepped down as senior royals earlier this year - are "cut from the same cloth" and they feel "candour" is incredibly important, according to friend Tom Bradby.

Tom - who interviewed them in their 'Harry & Meghan: An African Journey' documentary, in which the Duchess of Sussex admitted she was "not OK" - said: "Prince Harry is very much his mother's son. The first interview I did with Harry was in Africa when he was 18. He talked about his mum and how hurt and sad he had been. Apart from his mother, I'm not sure any royal had talked that openly about their feelings before. And Meghan is cut from the same cloth. She obviously feels a bit of candour is valuable."

And Tom says he wasn't surprised by Duchess Meghan's admission.

He added: "I wasn't surprised that Meghan Markle said what she did in 'Harry & Meghan: An African Journey'. I kind of knew things weren't great. I guess I was surprised they had become as bad as they were. That clip of Meghan saying, 'I'm not OK,' was viewed something like 23 million times on our website alone in the first four days ...

"In any documentary, you have no idea what you're going to get. I have known Harry and Meghan for a long time, and you agree that you're going to ask whatever you want and they can refuse to answer or skate away from a subject. Are they going to be honest or not? You don't know. It's a weird journey. In some ways, it was quite a bruising project."

Tom also heaped praise on Prince Harry and his older brother Prince William for being so open about their own struggles to raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.

Speaking to The Times magazine, he added: "William and Harry have probably had the single biggest effect on reducing the stigma around mental health. To have two of the most high-profile people in the world saying that our mother died and we had pretty severe issues as a result of it is empowering for everybody."