Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put their life on candid display in the documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey. Now, ITV reporter Tom Bradby opened up about the observations he made while telling the royal’s story. “The couple just seemed a bit bruised and vulnerable,” the writer shared with Good Morning America. “That was the story I found, and it seemed like the right journalistic thing to do was to try and tell that story as empathetically as I could. That just felt like the approach I should take.”

In the hour long special, Tom followed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they embarked on their 10-day royal tour of Africa. Throughout their conversations, the journalist got the usually private couple to open up about their struggles in the public eye. When asked if he could sense that things were not okay with the royals during their conversations, Tom shared that he wasn’t surprised at Harry’s openness.

“As time wore on I began to get a sense of where he was at,” he shared. “I would say one thing about harry, he’s always been one of those people that if you ask him an honest question, in public or private, he will give you an honest answer for better or for worse. I think that was what was happening here.” The special, which aired over the weekend on ITV, is set to air for U.S. audiences on Wednesday, October 23.

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Tom hopes that viewers around the world take away one thing. “It's that everyone takes a really deep breath, inside the royal family, outside of the royal family, with the public with the media,” he said. “Just to give them a little space, that’s what I hope would happen. If this documentary has an outcome, I do hope that everyone, perhaps even them, takes a really deep breath and maybe thinks pretty hard about how the future plays out.” Harry and Meghan: An African Journey airs on ABC at 10pm.