Harry and Meghan open up to Oprah about ‘breaking point’ in ‘shocking’ interview 

1.8k

View
comments

Prince Harry said his ‘biggest fear was history repeating itself’ in a new teaser for the couple’s ‘shocking’ sit down interview with Oprah Winfrey, where he also revealed that leaving the Royal Family was ‘unbelievably tough’.

The royal, who blames the press for the death of his own mother Princess Diana, has always been very protective of his now-pregnant wife Meghan who he appears to fear will suffer the same fate.

Later in the interview, Oprah refers to comments Meghan appears to have made about life in the royal family being ‘almost un-survivable.’

”Almost un-survivable’ sounds like there was a breaking point,’ Oprah says to Meghan in the clips.

At the end of the teaser for the 90-minute interview, Oprah says: ‘You’ve said some pretty shocking things here’, while the couple holds hands.

In a second teaser posted online, Harry said he is ‘relieved’ to be talking to Oprah with Meghan by his side – and said he can’t imagine what his mother went through ‘going through this process by herself.’

‘I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself all those years ago,’ Harry said.

‘Because it’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we have each other.’ 

Sitting down with Meghan alone, Oprah asks her in the first teaser: ‘Were you silent or were you silenced?’

Scroll down for video 

 

Oprah’s very rare sit-down interview with Prince Harry and Meghan is scheduled to air on CBS at 8pm on March 7.

Oprah called her interview with the royal couple ‘the best she has ever done’, according to her best friend Gayle King said.

King, 66, who is an anchor for CBS, made the comments on This Morning on Friday while reporting on the Duke of Sussex’s appearance on James Corden’s Late Late Show.

King said the interview with Oprah, which was filmed before Harry’s appearance with Corden, is the couple’s ‘first major broadcast interview since giving up their senior royal duties.’

‘I’ve heard from reliable sources, this is Oprah talking, that it’s the best interview she’s ever done so I’m curious. That’s saying something,’ King said.  

King revealed on February 16 that Oprah had been given permission to ask Harry and Meghan ‘anything she wanted’ and that ‘nothing was off limits’ during the interview. 

News of the interview likely sparked fresh fears for Buckingham Palace over what embarrassing revelations could come to light – particularly in the wake of the Queen’s decision to remove the couple’s remaining royal patronages and honorary titles, a move that prompted the Sussexes to bite back in a petty public statement. 

On Monday, it was revealed that the Queen address the UK in a pre-recorded speech that will air on BBC One before the interview with Harry and Meghan. 

The Queen was due to attend the annual Commonwealth Service on March 8 – but this has been cancelled for the first time in nearly half a century due to COVID-19, Westminster Abbey announced on Monday.

Instead, the Queen has chosen to share her annual message 24 hours earlier with a show of support from Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.

The Royal Family will also take part in the Queen’s A Celebration For Commonwealth Day show, hosted by Anita Rani to share their royal perspectives on the importance of Britain’s Commonwealth links.

On Monday, it also emerged that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s incendiary interview with Oprah may have to be re-edited or even partially re-shot due to the rift it has caused with the royal family and 99-year-old Prince Philip’s hospitalization. 

Some previously claimed that the interview, believed to be completed two weeks, could even be toned down – though new trailers show that seems unlikely.

It has also emerged that Meghan is expected to speak about the feud with her own family on her father Thomas’ side in the interview with Oprah.

This Morning host Holly Willoughby said that Oprah’s team had been in contact with ITV for footage of an interview with her half-sister. 

In the January 2020 broadcast Samantha Markle said the former Suits actress and Harry owed her and their father an apology for ‘incredibly wrong, untoward, and shocking’ behavior after the royal wedding in 2018.

‘Oprah Winfrey’s team contacted This Morning requesting footage from our interview with Samantha Markle in preparation for the interview with the Duchess of Sussex,’ Willoughby said on Monday.

She added: ‘So, we don’t know whether or not they used that in the interview, but what we do know is nothing was off limits.’

Insight into the no-holds-barred interview with Oprah has prompted further questions about why Harry and Meghan chose to take part in such an explosive sit-down, in spite of their continued insistence that the media respects their privacy.

Those same questions arose after Harry’s interview with Corden aired – while critics also outrage over his decision to defend Netflix show The Crown, despite its very negative portrayal of his grandmother, parents, and wider members of the family.

Harry, who, along with his wife, inked a very lucrative deal with Netflix last year, told long-time friend Corden that he has watched The Crown, and said that the show is ‘fictional’ but ‘loosely based on the truth’ and captures the feeling of being expected to put ‘duty and service above family and everything else’.

While sitting down for the widely-publicized interview, which partly took place on an open-air double-decker bus in Los Angeles, Harry hit out at the ‘toxic’ media – blaming the press for his decision to quit the royal family and relocate to the US.

The Duke said the pressure of being in London was ‘destroying my mental health’, but insisted that he never ‘walked away’ from the royals – instead describing the move as a ‘step back’.

‘It was never walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down. It was a really difficult environment, which I think a lot of people saw. So I did what any father or husband would do and thought: ‘How do I get my family out of there?’ But we never walked away.’

And while the interview was carried out before the Queen stripped the Sussexes of their royal patronages, Harry appears to know what was coming.

‘My life is public service, so wherever I am in the world it’s going to be the same thing. As far as I’m concerned, whatever decisions are made on that side [in Britain], I will never walk away,’ he said.