Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s long-awaited interview with Oprah Winfrey could do a major blow to the British monarchy – far worse than Prince Andrew’s disastrous meeting in the midst of Jeffrey Epstein’s saga, royal experts say.
Author Pauline Maclaran said she believed that Prince Andrew’s infamous interview about his friendship with the late convicted pedophile Epstein would pale in comparison to the Duke and Duchess special for CBS.
“I think it’s more of a danger than Prince Andrew’s car accident interview,” Maclaran told The Associated Press about the Oprah meeting.
“I think Meghan is going to get a lot of sympathy, especially from the American public, for her position being unsustainable,” said Maclaran.
Maclaran, author of “Royal Fever: The British Monarchy in Consumer Culture”, said the CBS interview would threaten the stature of “The Firm”, also known as Palace, by “tarnishing the royal mystique” and making the blue bloods look normal celebrities.
Royalty rarely grants interviews, and when they do, questions are usually focused on specific issues. More comprehensive interviews often go wrong, such as Andrew’s interview with the BBC in 2019, in which he did not apologize for being friends with Epstein or showing empathy for the financier’s victims. Andrew gave up his royal duties shortly after the interview.
But now that they are officially post-Megxit and living in California, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex don’t seem to have anything to lose by chatting on TV.
In a clip from Oprah’s interview released on Friday, Markle, 39, said she was finally “ready to talk” after she was supposedly gagged by royal aides.
“As an adult who lived a really independent life and then entered this building that is different from what I think people imagine, it is really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege of some ways to be able to say yes,” for the interview, Markle explained.
Other pre-released clips showed that the duchess will accuse the royal family of “perpetuating lies” against her and Harry, 34.
The couple claimed to have been the victim of a “smear campaign” by royalty after a UK newspaper published allegations that Markle had bullied palace officials and that Queen Elizabeth had ordered an investigation into the charges.
Regardless of what else is said in the interview, Penny Junor, who has written several books on royalty, predicted that things will get ugly on all sides.
“It’s a mess,” she said. “I don’t think there are going to be winners in that.”
With Post Wires