YYou could have forgiven the British royal family for giving prime-time and revealing interviews ample space for the predictable. The evisceration of Prince Andrew by the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in 2019 managed to achieve the near impossible: to make the Duke of York look more doubtful and less likable.
But if we learn something about Sussex, Harry and Meghan, it is that they intend to do almost the opposite of what other royals want them to do. Then, next Sunday, March 7, a 90-minute special, Oprah with Meghan and Harry, airs on the US CBS network. It is also understood that there is a bidding war between UK broadcasters – although not the BBC – for the interview, which, it is promised, will be “intimate” and “wide”.
“Most of the real interviews are horrible car accidents,” said Jonny Dymond, the BBC News’ real correspondent. “Princess Diana attracted enormous sympathy, but did it really work as she thought it would? Probably not. Prince Charles and Jonathan Dimbleby, Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis. Now, Meghan is going to get an easier trip from Oprah, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. But you must ask yourself how this is going to work. “
Most of the program will be a conversation between Oprah Winfrey and Meghan; Harry is expected to participate in only one final, forward-looking segment. And it seems clear that the reason this is happening is the growing closeness between the two women. They first met in March 2018, when Winfrey was visiting London and was invited to Kensington Palace. Two months later, she was invited to the Sussex wedding at Windsor Castle. Winfrey later wrote in his magazine, THE: “All mature beings recognized what the beginning was like.”
If it was dating, it was mutual, sometimes broadcast on social media. Winfrey, 67, dispatched “welcome to the world” gifts for the couple’s baby son, Archie. In December, Meghan, 39, sent Winfrey a basket from Clevr Blends, a company she invested in that makes vegan “superlattes”. “My new favorite drink in the morning and evening,” Winfrey told his 19.3 million followers on Instagram. Last summer, the Sussex moved into a $ 14 million home in Montecito, California, not far from the $ 100 million Winfrey mega-ranch, Promised Land.
“Now we have the great benefit of a retrospective, but exactly why you would have someone at your wedding that you met exactly once is a curiosity,” says Dymond. “Maybe they really got along, but this seems to have been a relationship that has certainly thrived in a very short time. Now [with the interview] this brings mutual benefits: Oprah is a great platform for Meghan, and Meghan is a fantastic acquisition for Oprah. “
For Kitty Kelley, an American author who published a controversial unauthorized biography of Winfrey in 2010, and also wrote extensively about the royal family, friendship makes sense. “They both have a lot in common: they know what it takes for a black woman to stand out in a racist society,” says Kelley. “Yet, each has achieved the American dream of global success and wealth for Midas. Both women exude immense charisma and know how to dazzle the media, not unlike the late Princess of Wales. Both Oprah and Meghan had to deal with parents giving embarrassing interviews to the media. ”
Kelley speaks from experience. Winfrey is famous for her guarding, and many of the most obscene sections of Kelley’s book came from a three-hour conversation she had with Oprah’s father, Vernon Winfrey, at his barbershop in Nashville. “Each sees each other,” says Kelley. “Oprah always wanted to be an actress and listed ‘dramatic acting’ as her talent when she ran for Miss Black Nashville in 1971. In her personal lives, every woman seems to be the driving force: Meghan the push behind Harry as Oprah is with [long-term partner] Stedman Graham. “
For Meghan, Winfrey’s endorsement may have some powerful (and profitable) benefits. Winfrey turned unfamiliar books into bestsellers, turned diets into overnight sensations, and her support for Barack Obama from 2006 onwards may even have balanced the balance for him to become president. “Oprah can see herself becoming to Meghan what Maya Angelou was to her: a mentor and best friend,” says Kelley. Winfrey, of course, has considerable previous form when it comes to global scoops. In 1993, Michael Jackson gave her a tour of his Neverland ranch and his first interview in 14 years. The program was watched by 90 million: a record for TV interviews that still stands. Tom Cruise jumped on his couch in 2005 to proclaim his passion for his new girlfriend, Katie Holmes.
Along the way, a new term, “Oprahfication”, was coined, a form of therapy by which public confession becomes the first step on the path to forgiveness. When in 2013, cyclist Lance Armstrong finally decided to confess his drug use, it seemed inevitable that he would tell Winfrey everything.
She also has a history with royalty: Sarah Ferguson made two memorable appearances and then made a six-part series, Find Sarah, with Winfrey’s TV network, OWN.
There is also no doubt that Winfrey can be difficult. “That was a beating,” said Armstrong after his appearance. She was particularly relentless with American writer James Frey, whose memories of drug addiction, A million little pieces, which Winfrey selected for his book club, proved to be substantially invented. “The nation watched Winfrey skin it, gut it and fillet it, water it with vitriol and bake it in a 10,000 degree oven for an hour,” reported Nancy Franklin in the New Yorker.
The exchange between Winfrey and the Sussex should be no more than a light interrogation. Certainly, Kelley does not expect to see an unfolding in the air like that of the Duke of York. “I don’t see the disaster of a Prince Andrew interview taking place with Meghan and Harry with Oprah because at least two of these three are very experienced in media,” she says.
So, what can we expect from the 2021 TV event so far? After recent confirmation that Harry and Meghan would not return to the UK as full-time royalty, it seems clear that there is sadness and bitterness on both sides. Harry is said to have been particularly disappointed to resign his honorary military commands, while on Thursday he told James Corden in The Late Late Show that his relationship with the British press was “toxic” and that “it was destroying my mental health”.
Meghan’s concerns are believed to be more related to the lack of support she received after the wedding and tensions with courtiers and royalty. Finding Freedom, a behind-the-scenes book by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, has already detailed some of this, as a senior royalty referring to Meghan as “Harry’s showgirl”. The Sussex did not collaborate directly with the authors, but Meghan has since been found to have allowed at least one friend to speak on his behalf.
“It will be fascinating to see what your big problem is,” says Dymond. “The crown has been around for 1,000 years and has already gone through some horrible constraints. Hearing that Meghan does not like Kate or that Prince Charles wears an old, shabby robe – I am not convinced that this will swing the crown down to the foundations. “
Most likely, in an echo of what happened to Sarah Ferguson, the interview will be part of an ongoing collaboration between Meghan and Winfrey. They are already partnering on a mental health series for Apple TV, and the Sussex clearly want to build a media portfolio. The mutual benefits are clear, says Kelley. “Oprah’s huge world rankings and global sympathy for excommunicated royalty, who wanted to maintain their royal privileges in America … It’s a win-win situation.”