Within a week, the nuclear interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for CBS with Oprah Winfrey became a global television event that brought down the incendiary host Piers Morgan of “Good Morning Britain” and now leaves a considerable question mark about the future of Sharon Osbourne as co-host on “The conversation.”
But it is the war of words that is being waged across the Atlantic that has led British royal observers to cling to a large pearl, intrigued by the US media that control the narrative about the British royal family.
In the latest jaw-dropping development, Gayle King, co-host of “CBS This Morning” and Winfrey’s BFF, revealed on March 16 that Prince Harry is in contact with his father, Prince Charles, and his brother, Prince William.
“The word they gave me was that these conversations were not productive,” said King live on TV. “No one in the royal family has spoken to Meghan yet.”
Seeing a major update on private family conversations revealed by an American broadcaster instead of the British press is unprecedented, says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.
“If you had told me, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Fitzwilliams, astonished. Variety. “This is one of the royal family’s worst nightmares.”
Katie Nicholl, real editor of Vanity Fair and author of “Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss and Love”, says she was “really shocked” to see the couple “using Gayle King as a spokesperson, not least because we heard so much from them earlier that we didn’t expect there to be comments from your friends in the media. ”
Buckingham Palace is probably “very concerned”, but, notably, it is in unfamiliar territory and “will not know how to respond,” says Fitzwilliams. “It’s not possible to know how the hell you can have a conversation with Harry and then get Gayle King to report it.”
In fact, there is caution among the British media about the revelations of Markle and Prince Harry in their interview with Winfrey. The UK media focused their efforts mainly on debunking the points made by the couple regarding their son Archie’s eligibility for a title, rather than interrogating racism within the royal family or Markle’s lack of mental health support. .
Nicholl argues that the couple received their share of “sympathy” from the public – especially among the younger generations – but that the British media are less willing to “just accept everything the couple said because they are probably more aware than any other section. to the media that there are two sides to this story.
“We heard the side of Meghan and Harry, but there is another side too,” says Nicholl.
Asked whether the British press is irritated by real news from the United States, the commentator insists that “it makes no difference”.
“Whether in the United States or any other media, they continue to feed the narrative. There’s the world talking and selling newspapers, so from a journalist’s point of view, why would you want to cut that out? ”Says the commentator.
“But from another perspective, here is a family trying to resolve a very serious breach,” notes Nicholl. “It seems like a very unusual strategy [by Harry and Meghan]. “
On March 12, the results of a survey by data analysis firm YouGov revealed that the couple’s ratings have dropped to the lowest levels ever in the UK
About 45% of Britons have a positive opinion of Prince Harry, while 48% view him negatively, giving a net score of -3 – a steep drop of 15 points since March 2, and the first time that Kingdom attitudes Kingdom fell to the negative for the prince.
As for Markle, 31% have a positive opinion of her, while 58% see her negatively, giving her a net rating of -27, below -14.
In comparison, a Morning Consult survey of 2,200 American adults before the interview and 838 after the interview revealed that the proportion of Americans with a favorable view of Markle increased from 45% to 67%, while Harry rose from 46% to 69 %.
Chris Ship, a real correspondent for the ITV broadcaster, who broadcast the program in the UK, said Variety that the impact at home is “slightly greater” than Princess Diana’s historic interview with the BBC’s “Panorama” program in 1995.
“What Harry and Meghan did really hurt the reputation of the royal family in the United States,” says Ship. “You have to think: how long does this international reputation last for the royal family?”