Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Oprah interview is a real balancing act

The long interview with celebrities, on television and broadcast on Sunday at 8 pm ET on CBS,

marks the culmination of the efforts of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to take control of how their lives are portrayed in the media and reinforce what appears, until now, to be a rare example of British royalty successfully leaving what is known as “The Firm “to earn a lot of money.

But tensions with his former employer are growing. On Wednesday, Buckingham Palace said it was investigating claims made in the British newspaper The Times of London that the Duchess of Sussex intimidated aides while working there. The Duchess of Sussex denies this.

Meanwhile, a teaser clip of Oprah’s interview shows the duchess accusing the palace of “perpetuating falsehoods” about her and Prince Harry. “If it comes with the risk of losing things, I mean there is already a lot of things lost,” she says.

An inappropriate public fight risks tainting the monarchy and, in turn, the nascent brand of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, says Rita Clifton, former president of the brand consulting firm Interbrand. “Like any brand relationship, you want to make sure that both are valuable and you don’t want your association to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs,” she says.

Initially, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex tried to keep a foot on the royal family. They registered the trademark “Sussex Royal” and hoped to emulate other minor royalty who hold their military titles and perform some real duties while holding jobs. But Buckingham Palace officials said no. The Sussex Royal brand was abandoned and, last month, all formal ties were severed.

That total split was a blow to the Sussex, according to officials. But it could be a commercial advantage for the couple, who are now free to leverage their real origins without Buckingham Palace interference, says David McClure, who has published books on British royal finances, including “The Queen’s True Worth”.

After moving to Montecito, California, last year, the Sussex created Archewell Audio LLC and Archewell Productions LLC to create audio and video content. They also founded an Archewell foundation to support their charity work.

They signed an agreement to create content for Netflix Inc.

and another to present podcasts for Spotify technology SA

. The multi-year deal with Netflix is ​​worth about $ 100 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

They are signed by the Harry Walker Agency to give lectures. The terms of these contracts are not public. The couple no longer receive a stipend from Prince Harry’s father, Prince Charles, or funds from UK taxpayers.

Sussex could become a billion-dollar entity in the next decade if they decide to endorse products like cosmetics or clothing, says David Haigh, the chief executive of Brand Finance PLC, a British brand valuation company.

But a lot depends on whether the content they produce for Netflix or Spotify is popular and whether they can maintain a good relationship with Queen Elizabeth, he says. “They would make more money if everything was done in a friendly way.”

So far, the couple is playing a cautious hand. They appeared at a conference run by JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Miami last year. The Duchess of Sussex recently narrated a documentary on Disney’s nature on elephants, a project she started before leaving her royal duties. A Spotify podcast right after Christmas introduced the couple’s son, Archie. The Duchess invested in a brand of instant coffee.

The closest they came to the controversy was a video of Prince Harry’s appeal before the US election to people to reject “hate speech, misinformation and negativity”, which some commentators saw as an aside against then President Donald Trump and a violation of the former royal family political neutrality. Prince Harry’s advisers denied that it was.

“The palace will be concerned,” says Mr. McClure. If you leave the British royal family, “you still have the royal shine on your shoulders, whether you like it or not. Then, you will monetize links to the monarchy and it will potentially be embarrassing for the monarchy. “

Last month, the couple said they remained “committed to their duty and service to the UK and around the world” and the advisers played down the idea that they would do anything that was not in line with those values.

The British monarchy is full of examples of royalty trying to go public. Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son, Prince Edward, launched a TV production company that later closed. His wife Sophie, countess of Wessex, ran a public relations firm, but was filmed making critical comments about Prince Charles.

Most traumatizing was the queen’s uncle, the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated as king in 1936 to marry a divorced American. In addition to his royal remuneration, the Duke of Windsor later sold his memoirs and appeared in several magazine interviews. He ended his days living in exile south of Paris. Other family members also profited. The queen’s eldest grandson once led an advertising campaign to sell milk in China.

Real interviews that go wrong are also a staple. The queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, had to resign after a failed interview in 2019 in which he tried to explain his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Royal observers questioned the wisdom of the interviews in which Prince Harry’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, talked about their failed marriage.

Prince Harry said one of the main motivations for leaving the UK was to stay away from the media. Princess Diana died in 1997 in a car accident while being followed by paparazzi.

After Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, the couple struggled with the level of intrusion into their private life and how the palace managed the British press, according to an official. In the United States, they hope to find a more respectful media, according to a person familiar with their thinking.

Last week, the prince appeared on James Corden’s “The Late Late Show,” where he was interviewed on a double-decker touring Los Angeles before crawling through the mud on a military assault course. Prince Harry played down his decision to separate from the monarch. “It was a step backwards rather than a resignation,” he said. The prince said the British press was destroying his mental health. Leaving the country, “I did what any husband [or] dad would do, ”he said.

On the same day of the interview with Mrs. Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth will also be on the air. The queen and her immediate family, including her two direct heirs, Prince Charles and Prince William, will mark “Community Day” – celebrating a club of nations that belonged mainly to the British Empire – and will honor the way these countries have dealt with the pandemic. Buckingham Palace officials say the timing of the special program at British Broadcasting Corp. it is pure coincidence.

Write to Max Colchester at [email protected]

Corrections and amplifications
David McClure is the author of books on British royalty finance. An earlier version of this article misspelled his surname as McLure. (Corrected on March 7)