CBS reportedly paid $9M for Prince Harry, Meghan Markle interview

The explosive interview Oprah has done with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was sold for an eye-boggling amount to one TV network.

CBS reportedly paid more than $9 million for the rights to air Oprah Winfrey’s highly anticipated tell-all interview with Prince Harry and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.

The two-hour interview, set to air at 7.30pm. Monday on Ten in Australia, cost the US TV network a pretty penny — likely somewhere between $US7 million and $US9 million ($AU9 million and $AU11 million), the Wall Street Journal reported.

RELATED: Meghan and Harry’s charity facing probe

CBS bought the lucrative rights — the network is charging $422,000 for every 30 seconds of commercial time — from Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, and can also license the interview in international markets.

A spokesman for the Sussexes’ told the Journal they were not paid for the interview.

In a snippet of the interview teased on Friday, Markle tells Winfrey she feels “liberated” to speak for herself after having to turn down the TV host’s’ initial request because she wasn’t “allowed” to talk to her then.

“So, I just want to say that I called you, either February or March of 2018, before the wedding asking, ‘Would you please give me an interview?’ And you said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s not the right time,” Oprah says.

Meghan and Harry were not paid for the interview. Picture: Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP.

“Mhmm,” says Meghan.

“And finally, we get to sit down and have this conversation,” Oprah adds.

“I remember that conversation very well. I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you, personally. There had to be people sitting there,” Meghan recalls.

“There were other people in the room when we had that conversation. You turned me down nicely, and said, ‘Perhaps there’ll be another time, when there’s the right time.’ What is right about this time?” Oprah asks.

“Umm … well, so many things,” the Duchess replies after a long pause.

It will be the couple’s first televised interview since they quit royal life. Picture: Ben STANSALL / POOL / AFP.

“That we’re on the other side of a lot of life experience that’s happened, and also that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that – I couldn’t have said yes to you then. That wasn’t my choice to make.

“So, as an adult who lived a really independent life, to then go into this construct that is different than what I think people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege, in some ways, to be able to say, ‘Yes, I’m ready to talk.’

“To say it for yourself. To be able to just make a choice on your own and to just be able to speak for yourself.”

The special is the couple’s first televised interview since they abruptly quit Buckingham Palace last year.

This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission