Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on March 5th.
Photographer: Joe Pugliese / Harpo Productions / Getty Images
Photographer: Joe Pugliese / Harpo Productions / Getty Images
Los Angeles (AP) – The time has finally come for Meghan and Harry to hear listeners describe the backstory and effects of their turbulent separation from royal life.
Sunday night’s broadcast of a two-hour special with Oprah Winfrey will bring the first, and never-before-seen, look into the couple’s departure from royal duties and the rays it cast on them.
How it is obtained is likely to depend on which aspect of the Atlantic audience.
The show, which includes Winfrey’s interviews with Meghan and Harry, will air in the United States first – Meghan’s home country – at 8pm Eastern. Earlier hours, Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, will give a royal speech before Commonwealth Day.
British listeners wake up Monday to headlines and social media posts about Winfrey’s special program, but can’t see the full interview until Monday night when he hears on ITV.
Royal interviews unrelated to a particular topic are rare, and previous television sessions have been difficult. Following the BBC’s Prince Andrew 2019 interview about his links to the guilty sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he resigned from royal duties after failing to show sympathy for Epstein’s victims.
Harry and Meghan resigned from royal duties in March 2020 over what they reported to the brutal and racist views of the British media towards the bisexual duchess.
Excerpts released ahead of the case show that Meghan will have at least some obvious criticism of royal life. In one she refers to the royal family as “the company,” a nickname that is sometimes used affectionately and sometimes critically.
At one point, Winfrey asked Meghan how she felt about Buckingham Palace “hearing you speak your truth today?”
“I don’t know how they would expect after this time that we would remain silent if the company played an active role in becoming increasingly deceptive about us,” she said. “And if that comes with the risk of losing things, I mean, a lot has already been lost. ”
In another clip, Harry introduces the memory of his mother, the late Princess Diana, who had to find her way on her own after her divorce from Prince Charles.
“I’m really relieved to be sitting here talking to my wife by my side, as I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for her to go through this process. alone years ago, Harry said, adding, “because it’s been really hard for both of us.”
In Britain, the interview is seen as a bad time. The air will go in while Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, is in hospital after undergoing a heart transplant.
Meghan is featured in a clip released Friday contradicting the conversation the two women could now face against 2018 in marriage. Meghan said she could not speak to Winfrey, who was seeking an interview, without royal intellectuals present.
“As an adult who lived very independently to enter this building which is um .. different from what I think people think it is, it’s really a freedom to being able to claim the right and the privilege in some ways is possible, ”Meghan told Winfrey.
It is unclear what impact, if any, the public will have on the queen and other royal family members to Sunday’s interview.
On Wednesday, the palace said it was launching a human resources investigation after a London newspaper reported that a former supporter had accused Meghan of bullying workers in 2018.
A spokeswoman for The Duchess said she was “saddened by the latest attack on her character, especially as someone who has been a target of bullying herself. ”
The already released clips provide some details about the interview, which involves Winfrey talking one-on-one with Meghan and a session with the couple.
Holding hands, Harry and Meghan sat opposite Winfrey while questioning them in a vegetable garden setting. The couple lives in Montecito, California, where they are Winfrey neighbors.
Meghan, who recently announced she is pregnant with the couple’s second child, wore an empire-style black dress with embroidery. Harry was wearing a gray suit and a white dress shirt, without ties.
Like Meghan Markle, the actress starred in the legal TV drama “Suits. ”She married Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018, and their son, Archie, was born a year later.
Harry and Meghan were due to retire from royal life after a year. On February 19, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple would not return to royal duties and that Harry would relinquish his honorary military titles – a decision that formally, and ultimately, separated the couple from the royal family.