Meghan planned Oprah Winfrey interview for almost two years

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s highly anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey Sunday — where they’re expected to reveal “shocking things” about their life in the royal family — has been in the works for almost two years, a report says.

The Duchess of Sussex originally tried to arrange a “short interview” with Gayle King, her friend and CBS anchor, after her son Archie’s birth in May 2019, the Daily Mail reported. 

Meghan was overruled by the royal family’s public relations representatives, however. The royal aides feared that the British media would be angry that the American duchess was giving her first exclusive interview to an American TV personality, the Daily Mail said.

Meghan’s planned interview with King, who is a good friend of Winfrey’s, also would have taken place at a time when Kensington Palace officials were trying to quiet rumors of tensions between Harry and Meghan and Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Daily Mail added.

Now that Meghan and Harry have officially stepped back from royal duties and live in California, they are no longer bound by such restrictions. The Daily Mail said they had stayed in touch with Winfrey about “when they would do the interview,” agreeing to a “wide-ranging” interview that will air Sunday. Winfrey said in suspense-filled ads promoting the two-hour CBS special that “no subject is off limits.”

A look at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah. I AM READY🍿!!! pic.twitter.com/TzMtGQPxiY

— TV Fanatic👑⚜️ (@TvKhaleesi) March 1, 2021

To say anticipation is high for the interview is putting it mildly. It’s being played up as the TV event of the past year, or of the past couple years. It certainly has become must-see TV for both fans and critics of the Sussexes and of the royal family.

The interview also will be one half of a royal TV blitz Sunday. During the afternoon U.K. time, Queen Elizabeth II and other royals will appear on the BBC for their first TV-only Commonwealth Day service.

Both the Winfrey interview and the Commonwealth Day service come at a sensitive time, with uncertainty about the health of 99-year-old Prince Philip. The queen’s husband has been in London hospitals since Feb. 16 battling an infection and a pre-existing heart condition.

On Monday, he was transferred to a specialized cardiac hospital for testing and observation and was expected to stay there until the end of the week.

CBS has no plans to cancel the interview if Philip’s health worsens, the Sun reported. Instead, the network has been teasing viewers with what Meghan and Harry might say about their conflicts with royal life, perhaps even about certain family members. Fans of royal intrigue are wondering if the couple will talk about Prince Charles, or Harry’s supposed feud with Prince William. Charles and William are first and second in line to the throne respectively.

Clips show the legendary talk-show host asking Meghan, “Were you silent or were you silenced?” The interview takes place in a garden, reportedly near their Sussexes’ home in Montecito. Meghan, pregnant with her second child, wears a long black Armani dress that flows over her baby bump.

Winfrey, who became friends with the couple after attending their 2018 wedding, also exclaims, “You’ve said some pretty shocking things here” and observes: “‘Almost unsurvivable’ sounds like there was a breaking point.”

Many in the British media, whom Meghan reportedly wanted to sideline in 2019, have expressed outrage at the idea that the queen’s grandson and his wife would consent to such an interview, where they will get personal and likely air grievances.

That’s not something royals have done much of. When they do — Princess Diana and Prince Charles in the 1990s; Prince Andrew in 2019 — they say things that embarrass themselves or the queen or that otherwise make the monarchy look bad.

Critics of the Sussexes have accused them of being ungrateful to the queen and to the British public, who they say welcomed Meghan into the royal family. The initial press coverage of the relationship was generally positive, with commentators speculating on how she, as a biracial woman and a self-described feminist with a successful career, would bring a 21st century sensibility into the 1,000-year-old monarchy, but that changed by the wedding.

Critics accuse the Sussexes of being attention-seeking, hypocritical and greedy for multimillion-dollar media deals. British TV anchor Piers Morgan complained that they always find ways to get themselves into the news, including with a blockbuster Oprah Winfrey interview, even though they cited a desire for privacy as the reason they left the U.K. and took action against the U.K. tabloids, notably the Daily Mail.

The action against the Daily Mail led to a judge ruling Tuesday that Meghan should be awarded $625,000 in legal costs over her privacy and copyright infringement case against the Daily Mail. The court said the newspaper violated her privacy by publishing excerpts of a handwritten letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

Meghan and Harry’s defenders say the Daily Mail case is an example of how Meghan was treated poorly by the U.K. media. They also say some headlines were racist and sexist. Chris Ship, the royal editor for ITV, said the duchess is likely to use the interview to talk about press intrusion, racism in Britain and the impact both had on her mental health.

Meghan and Harry’s defenders also say it’s natural that they would want to assert control over what’s being published about them. They should, of course, be free to tell their side of the story. Before the interview with Winfrey, or Harry’s appearance last week on James Corden’s “The Late Late Show,” the couple presumably found ways to have their side revealed. They relied on the help of friends to give interviews to sympathetic journalists, including to the authors of the book, “Finding Freedom.”

When Meghan and Harry were part of the royal family, their ability to share their side was denied to them. That’s in part because they had to abide by pool-coverage protocols that had been established by the royal family and U.K., the Daily Mail said.

A source told the Daily Mail that the couple felt handcuffed and “not having full ownership of their image.” That was the case when Meghan wanted to sit down for an interview with King.

When the interview was overruled, an uneasy truce was worked out that would allow King and her CBS TV crew to attend the first photo shoot of Meghan and Harry with newborn Archie, the Daily Mail said.

“The couple wanted to usher in a new era and mindset about having control, not just in their messaging but also about who they chose to speak with,” the source told the Daily Mail. “Oprah and Gayle have been supportive publicly of Meghan and Harry, since they dated. So for the Sussexes their friends felt like a safe place.”