Hide behind the sofa, family told, as exiles tell all to Oprah
Meghan and Harry’s Oprah tell-all is likely to deliver the most explosive revelations since the Panorama confessions of Princess Diana.
Three days before the severing of ties on Friday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made their move. Oprah Winfrey’s “intimate” interview with the duchess was filmed on Tuesday in the Californian enclave where Harry and Meghan are neighbours of America’s first lady of talk shows, it has emerged.
The royal tell-all airs next month and is likely to deliver the most explosive revelations since the Panorama confessions of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995, including Harry and Meghan’s account of why they quit royal service and the UK.
Meghan, 39, who is expecting their second child, will be the star of show, discussing “stepping into life as a royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work” and “how she is handling life under intense public pressure”. Harry, 36, is billed as the support act by CBS, the American channel that will broadcast the “primetime special”, Oprah with Meghan and Harry, on March 7. A bidding war for international broadcast rights is under way.
Winfrey’s coup is in contrast with her failed 2009 courtship of Prince Charles, which ended with no interview. “It was politely rejected,” a royal source said. “It is very high stakes putting any member of the royal family in front of the camera for that kind of interview, as history proves.”
Ratings aside, the precedents are not encouraging. The Duke of York’s disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview about his friendship with the late paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Espstein, an interview he thought had gone well, forced him to step back from public life. Charles, Harry’s father, is understood to regret his 1994 interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, in which he admitted adultery. Diana, Harry’s mother, told friends she “deeply regretted” her Panorama interview, in which she also admitted adultery and said of her relationship with Charles: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Harry’s aunt Sarah, Duchess of York, however, has given Winfrey several interviews.
Friday’s announcement from Buckingham Palace confirmed that the “Megxit” decree absolute was done and all official royal ties with the couple severed. “Following conversations with the duke, the Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of the royal family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service,” the palace said. Two minutes later came the Sussexes’ riposte, declaring they would offer “continued support to the organisations they have represented regardless of official role. We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”
In this transatlantic war of words, they will attempt to have the final say with Winfrey, 67. “Time to hide behind the sofa at the palace,” said a royal source. “Oprah is skilled at getting people to talk about their feelings and bound to take them down a path they’ll almost certainly regret. There will be an element of reliving Megxit and airing their grievances. No one benefits from that, but Oprah will get it out of them whether they like it or not.”
Which is precisely why she did not get the green light for a sit-down with Prince Charles when advances were made more than a decade ago. A source close to Charles said: “A couple of Oprah’s producers were courting the prince and wanted to do an interview under the banner of climate change. The decision was taken not to do it because, whatever was being promised, you know it’s Oprah and it’s going to be personal - that’s what she does. She’s not just going to sit down and ask about the rainforest.”
Sarah, Duchess of York, certainly spilt some royal beans. Shortly after her divorce from Prince Andrew in 1996, she spoke of shattered dreams in words that may resonate with Meghan: “You fell in love and married a man, and then you have to come to terms with the fairytale ... it’s not a fairytale.”
In another interview in 2010, after being caught in a tabloid sting in which she seemed to accept cash for access to Andrew, she said she was “in the gutter” with her financial woes and described herself as “a huge overtrusting, idiotic, stupid woman”.
The timing of the Sussexes’ interview has raised eyebrows: it follows Meghan’s victory in a privacy case against Associated Newspapers and announcements about multimillion-pound deals with Netflix and Spotify. “Why do this?” said a royal source. “Why not just bank the lovely baby news and court victory and gracefully leave it there? We don’t need to hear any more from them now.”
A YouGov poll shows many people agree: 46 per cent of Britons think the interview is inappropriate, with 29 per cent in favour (25 per cent don’t know).
But the UK is not the Sussexes’ key target audience now, and with millions from their new homeland sure to tune in, not to mention the international market, Harry and Meghan know they will find more receptive and sympathetic ears for their tale globally.
What of those golden media deals? So far, the Sussexes have aired one Spotify podcast in December from their new Archewell Audio platform, with Meghan signing off: “No matter what life throws at you guys, trust us when we say, love wins.” A Sussex source said there was “lots under way and more to come on all fronts: Archewell, Netflix and Spotify”.
A person who knows the couple said: “When they first started dating, Meghan felt she had lost her voice. She had had a platform as a moderately successful actress, and when she was told to stop using her social media and be careful what she said, I could tell that loss of voice and independence pained her.
“Having an institutional voice within the royal family wasn’t enough. This interview will be the loudest way she’ll get her voice back.”
When Winfrey made an unexpected appearance at the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018, she was described as “a friend of the couple”. It emerged that she had met Meghan only once, which proved no hindrance to her taking a prime seat in the quire at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, alongside the Queen and the couple’s closest family and friends.
Winfrey’s careful three-year courtship has finally paid off. As she prepared to film the interview last week, the CBS news presenter Gayle King - a friend of Winfrey and the Sussexes who was a guest at Meghan’s 2019 New York baby shower - said: “Nothing is off limits: she can ask anything she wants.” Brace yourselves.
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