Prince Harry and Meghan sit down for a chat with Oprah.
Screenshot of CBS video by Leslie Katz / CNET
Royals does not grant interviews to Oprah. It just isn’t done. Then again, Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, herself a true iconoclast, would never be a prince according to the rules. Now Harry and his wife, American Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are sitting with celebrity royalty, Oprah Winfrey, for a long-awaited television interview.
Royal courtiers in the palace are probably nervous about Oprah With Meghan and Harry on Sunday: a prime time CBS special. They like to control the family image, and Meghan and Harry are wild cards now.
When is Oprah’s interview with Harry and Meghan?
The Oprah, Meghan and Harry special will air on CBS on Sunday, March 7 at 8 pm PT / ET and 7 pm CT. See below for how to watch if you don’t have a cable.
The 90-minute interview will begin with Oprah and Meghan talking, while the veteran talk show host makes the pregnant Duchess open up about marriage, motherhood and the unique pressures of real life. Later, Prince Harry will join, and both must discuss their move to the United States and their future plans. You just know that baby Archie will make some kind of appearance, because if Oprah knows something, it’s like making a good TV, and real babies are a really good TV.
CBS has released three preview clips.
How did we get here?
The normal protocol for someone at the top of the royal family like Harry would be to live in the UK forever, as a working member of the royal family – attending hospital openings, museum exhibitions, board meetings, playing bingo with retirees and usually just supporting Queen Elizabeth II in a quiet but respectful way. But that would never be the preferred path for the rebellious Harry and his American-born actress wife. Realistically, with his father Charles, brother William, and the three children of William and Kate all in line for the throne before him, Harry would never rule. So he and his wife, perhaps inspired by the late Diana’s love for America, decided to go their own way, in the style of Fleetwood Mac.
You may have heard that Meghan and Harry (their real titles are too confusing to keep using here) first moved to Canada, then to California in 2020. In February 2021, after a year of trial, Buckingham Palace announced that the couple would not return as working members of the royal family, although they remained “very loved”.
And Meghan and Harry have been busy. In 2020, they signed an agreement to develop programming for Netflix and also signed an agreement with Spotify to produce and host their own podcasts. They are residing in America now, and Americans are going to America. So the interview with Oprah, while not something that a regular royal would do, fits perfectly with what a Hollywood celebrity would do.
Why Oprah?
Why not Oprah? Although Winfrey stopped doing her iconic talk show in 2011, she is still one of the most powerful and well-known women in the American media, and perhaps the world. Harry is used to powerful women, of course – just look at his mother and grandmother. And Oprah has been part of the life of the royal couple for some time. She attended the 2018 royal wedding and lives not far from her home in Montecito, California. In fact, it was Oprah who gave baby Archie the beautiful book, Duck! Rabbit !, which he was seen reading with Meghan in a video released to mark his first birthday in May 2020.
Will there be bombs?
The survivors of the palace can be forgiven for freaking out. In 1995, Harry’s mother, Diana, sat down for a television interview with British journalist Martin Bashir. She spoke very well – discussing her bulimia, the lack of support she felt she received from royalty and Prince Charles’s infidelity to Camilla Parker-Bowles, now his wife.
The provocations for the interview indicate that it will really shake royalty. In a preview clip, Winfrey announces, “You said some really shocking things here,” and then throws up your hands, saying, “Wait, wait – wait, wait a minute.” She also emphasizes that nothing is off limits to the discussion.
And in a clip, released on Wednesday, Oprah asks Meghan how she feels about the palace “to hear you speak your truth today.”
Meghan replies that she does not know how the couple can be expected to remain silent “if there is an active role that the company is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us, and if it comes with the risk of losing things … there is a lot that already It has been lost. ”
Yes, she did say “The Firm”, one of the most used terms for the royal family. But even that aside, the old guard in Buckingham and Windsor is likely to be furious with every word of this sentence. She seems to be suggesting a campaign of lies about the couple, coming straight from the palace itself.
Lighter dishes can be discussed. Meghan is expecting the couple’s second baby in 2021, so maybe she’ll share information about that. Name preferences will almost certainly not be revealed, and it seems unlikely that Meghan will say whether she is having a boy or a girl. But it is possible that Oprah gives some kind of hint about how much longer the couple will have to wait for their new child.
Perhaps the couple will share some more information about their upcoming commercial ventures on the Netflix and Spotify worlds. That would be standard material for a celebrity interview, but it is still awkward to hear royalty – even royalty removed – discussing how to make money from entertainment.
Royal observers will take note of all the little homemade details – glimpses of the Sussex mansion in California, Archie babbling and laughter, appearances of the couple’s dogs – the kind of things People magazines cover about movie stars. And whatever happens, this is new territory for the queen’s grandson. The royal family has always lived in front of the cameras, but usually cautiously. Oprah is nothing but unprotected.
How do I watch if I don’t have a cable?
If you do not have a cable or satellite subscription, you can watch the interview on the CBS CBS All Access streaming service or another live TV streaming service.
CBS All Access
CBS All Access ($ 6 per month or $ 10 without ads per month) offers live TV (in some cities) from CBS, CBSN and ET Live, in addition to a healthy selection of video on demand from ViacomCBS properties. CBS All Access also offers exclusive originals like Star Trek: Discovery, Picard and Good Fight. Is about to renamed Paramount Plus.
Hulu with live TV
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YouTube TV
YouTube TV costs $ 65 a month and includes the top four networks – ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC – along with popular cable news channels, including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Enter your postal code on the welcome page to see what local networks are available in your area.
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FuboTV
FuboTV starts at $ 60 a month and includes the top four networks – ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC – along with popular cable news channels, including Fox News and MSNBC, but not CNN. Click here to see what local channels you get.
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AT&T TV
AT&T Now’s $ 70 basic monthly entertainment package includes the four main networks – ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC – along with popular cable news channels, including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. You can use your channel search tool to see what local channels are available where you live.
Read our review of AT&T TV.
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