In Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s upcoming royal tell-all with Oprah Winfrey, the couple will talk openly about the unique challenges that they faced as working members of the Royal Family, and it looks like they aren’t holding back. New clips from the highly anticipated interview show Meghan directly commenting on the Firm’s role in her mistreatment over the past few years.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special will see the Sussexes being the most candid that they’ve likely ever been on national television as they discuss the highs and lows of being former royals. The first looks at the special show Meghan and Harry being blunt about the extensive psychological toll of their time in the spotlight, but the latest teaser sees the Duchess directly calling out the Royal Family.
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"How do you feel about the palace hearing you speak your truth today?" Oprah asks in a new clip.
“I don't know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there's an active role that the Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us,” Meghan replies. “And if that comes with risk of losing things, there's a lot that's been lost already."
The surprisingly point-blank response hints at just how intimate this conversation is going to be. In the year since she and Harry stepped back from the Royal Family, Meghan has been very strategic about sharing her truths in a way that doesn’t intentionally make the Firm look bad. However, this answer not-so-subtly intimates that the palace has somewhat had a hand in the British media’s persistent bad press about her. Since first being publicly linked with Harry in 2016, many British tabloids have been publishing increasingly negative stories about her, claiming that she’s difficult to be around and purposefully cutting the prince off from his family. It’s of note that, in comparison to stories about Meghan, coverage of Kate Middleton has been overwhelmingly positive over the years. Wonder why!
I think one of the grossest thing we did as a country was attack meghan markle and prince harry until they left the country smh pic.twitter.com/B21BLAo6mC
— Charles Entertainment Cheese (@tabbykate01) February 26, 2021
On Tuesday March 2, The Times published a story claiming that royal aides on Meghan’s service were “terrified” of the Duchess because she bullied them, so much so that former communications secretary Jason Knauf reportedly filed an official complaint to the palace. Today, Buckingham Palace shared that it is launching an investigation into the bullying allegations, which gives the claims a shred of legitimacy and furthers the narrative around Meghan being problematic behind closed doors.
How will the Oprah sit-down affect Meghan and Harry’s relationship with the Firm going forward? It’s hard to say. From other interviews, including Harry’s recent jaunt around Los Angeles with James Corden, we know that the spouses are currently still in touch with the Royal Family; according to the prince, his grandparents Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip frequently log into Zoom so that they can have quality time with little Archie from across the pond. But, for an institution that has had an observable history of tension with outed family members, the intimation that they’re essentially sabotaging Meghan and Harry’s reputations can only lead to heightened hostility down the line, which will definitely spill out into the British press.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special will air on CBS this Sunday, March 7.