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Meghan and Harry are set to sit down with Oprah Winfrey for a 90-minute interview, and Buckingham Palace has the jitters.
Concerns that Meghan and Harry will talk about racism she faced, his tensions with Prince William, or that Meghan will use the interview to “settle old scores,” has left Buckingham Palace “nervous” and could widen the couple’s rift with the royal family, according to multiple reports in the U.K.
“The queen, Prince Charles and Prince William will be bracing themselves for a series of accusations and revelations, as will Buckingham Palace courtiers,” royal biographer and author Phil Dampier told the Daily Mail. “And the sad truth at present is that Harry and Meghan, buoyed up by recent legal victories against the press, feel they have the upper hand.”
The Mail also reported Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, decided to finally sit down for a 90-minute interview with Winfrey, their media mogul friend, after it became clear that Queen Elizabeth planned to ask the couple to relinquish the remainder of their royal patronages when the terms of their exit package from the royal family are reviewed on March 31.
For Harry, an army veteran, this request was reported to be particularly upsetting because it would mean losing his three honorary military titles.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also could “see the direction of travel” in regards to their future royal roles, the Daily Mail added, with royal sources saying that the interview would signal that there would be “no way back to official duties.”
News that Meghan and Harry were participating in CBS special with Winfrey, one of the most powerful figures in America media, reverberated around the world Monday.
Exclusive: The Duchess of Sussex has agreed to an interview with TV host Oprah Winfrey in what could be an explosive and revealing interview about Meghan and Harry’s departure from the Royal Family.
Read more from ITV News Royal Editor @chrisshipitv https://t.co/3YFd54z35q
— ITV News (@itvnews) February 15, 2021
The interview announcement came one day after the couple made another splash on Valentine’s Day by announcing that Meghan is pregnant with their second child. In addition, the couple scored another PR victory last week when Meghan won a high-profile privacy suit against The Daily Mail, which had published excerpts from a letter she wrote her estranged father.
Meghan Markle Is Pregnant, Expecting Second Child with Prince Harry https://t.co/Vw1PDU6A6r
— Harper’s Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) February 14, 2021
The “tell-all” TV special with Winfrey is set to air March 7. It may already have been recorded, the Times reported, though The Sun reported that the conversation will happen this week. The event is being billed as a wide-ranging interview with Winfrey and will be in two parts, with the California-born duchess being asked by Winfrey about “everything from stepping into life as a royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure,” the Times said. Meghan and Winfrey will be joined by Harry to talk about moving to the United States last year and future plans.
The Daily Beast reported that Buckingham Palace was not notified of the interview in advance of its announcement. Courtiers sought to downplay any sense of anger or concern about the interview Monday night, with sources telling the Daily Beast that the couple are “under no obligation” to inform the palace of their plans because they are no longer working royals.
Royal author Robert Jobson called the interview a “betrayal of trust” of Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. He told the Daily Mail: “Just after smoothing over the cracks caused by ‘Megxit’ — just over a year ago — the Sussexes seem hell bent on causing the queen more discomfort and possible embarrassment.”
Of particular concern, according to Dampier, is that Meghan and Harry will claim that she wasn’t welcomed into the royal family, or that they didn’t adequately defend her from criticism by the U.K. tabloid press. She could also talk about facing racism from within the ranks of the family or from certain tabloid reports.
Certainly, in-depth interviews given by royal family members have caused the queen much discomfort in the past, going back to Princess Diana’s bombshell 1995 Panorama interview when she openly discussed Charles’ infidelity with his longtime mistress and future second wife, Camilla Parker Bowles. More recently, Prince Andrew caused extensive damage to the monarchy and his own reputation with his disastrous 2019 interview about his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Winfrey has been courting Meghan for three years, according to reporting by Times reporter Valentine Low. She attended their May 2018 wedding and was described as “a friend of the couple,” even though she had only met the duchess once before, Low said.
“Winfrey was happy to play the role of mentor, offering friendship and guidance to the duchess” as she grew into becoming one of the most famous women in the world, Low wrote. He added that the women’s growing closeness has made an interview “a seeming inevitability.”
Winfrey and the Sussexes are now neighbors in Montecito, in Santa Barbara County, and she “raised eyebrows” in Buckingham Palace in December when she gushed about a brand of vegan lattes that Meghan invested in.
In the past year, the fact that Meghan had agreed in principle to do an interview with Winfrey “was an open secret in palace circles,” Low reported. “All that remains to find out now is what she will say. Palace officials know that, in the worst-case scenario, Meghan will settle old scores.”
