1:09 PM PT -- Author and royal expert Tom Bower joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday, and he isn't buying Harry's claims about 5 options for their relationship with the royal fam ... the way he sees it, you're either in, or you're out.
Tom sees this as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's "fantasy narrative, which they call 'the truth'" ... and he thinks what the couple's doing against Harry's family is disgraceful -- and even thinks Princess Diana would be furious if she saw what her son's been doing.
He says Harry's chalked up to a traitor now, and Meghan's playing a big part in that ... and FYI -- it doesn't sound like the 2 are gettin' an invite to King Charles' coronation in May, according to Tom.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just dropped some major bombshells, revealing they've been subject to online death threats, nasty infighting with the Royal Family and who they believe was behind their much-publicized miscarriage.
The controversial couple released Volume 2 of their popular Netflix series ... and during the 5th episode Meghan kicked things off by talking about her nightmarish online experiences. She pointed to one horrific message she received ... "Meghan just needs to die. Someone needs to kill her. Maybe it should be me."
In the clip, Meghan responds ... "And I was just like, 'OK.' That's what's actually out in the world because of people creating hate."
The Duchess of Sussex then starts to cry, saying ... "I'm a mom. That's my real life. And that's the piece when you see it and you go, 'You are making people want to kill me. You are making me scared.'"
Meghan adds that she couldn't sleep due to the stress and was frantically looking around the house, worried about the safety of baby Archie and whether the doors were locked in their house.
Turning to Prince Harry ... he discussed a tense meeting he had with the Royal Family over him asking for a "half in, half out" arrangement. Harry made it clear to them that he and Megan no longer wanted full-time palace jobs, but they still wanted to work in support of the Queen. Harry said the Royals quickly dismissed the idea, leading to a HUGE confrontation between him and his brother, Prince William.
"It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that just simply weren't true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in," Harry said, referencing his father and then-Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II.
In the Netflix episode, Harry also blamed Meghan's 2020 miscarriage on the tabloid media, specifically citing the Daily Mail. The couple took legal action against the outlet for publishing a 2019 private letter from Meghan to her dad, Thomas Markle.
"Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was caused, created by that?" Harry said. "Of course we don't, but bearing in mind the stress that that caused, the lack of sleep and the timing of the pregnancy, how many weeks in she was, I can say from what I saw, that miscarriage was caused by what they were trying to do to her."
Originally Published -- 6:11 AM PT