Meghan Markle and Prince Harry decided to give an interview to their friend Oprah Winfrey after becoming aware that they are going to be stripped of all their remaining royal links when the terms of their exit package from the royal family are reviewed on March 31, it was claimed Tuesday.
The Daily Mail says that insiders at Buckingham Palace believe that the interview, due to be screened on CBS on March 7, was organized by Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, because the couple could “see the direction of travel” in regards to their future royal roles.
The Mail, whose publishers Associated Newspapers last week humiliatingly lost a high-profile privacy action brought by Meghan, says that the couple are now almost certain to be asked by the Queen to relinquish their remaining links with any organizations which were passed down through the royal family.
Harry will have to give up his three remaining honorary military titles as well as his key role heading up royal support for the London Marathon. Meghan will be asked to step down as patron of the National Theatre, but the Mail suggests she may be able to negotiate another position with them.
Intriguingly, the Palace appears eager to show it is not behaving in retaliatory or vindictive fashion against Meghan, who is pregnant, and Harry, briefing that the move to strip the couple of their last remaining royal titles is not a reaction to the interview. The suggestion is that Harry and Meghan could simply sense which way the wind was blowing and got out ahead of it.
The Daily Beast understands that Buckingham Palace had not been informed of the interview in advance, but courtiers sought to dial down any sense of grievance Monday night, with sources saying that as the couple were no longer working royals, any decisions taken with regard to “media commitments are matters for them,” and that they were “under no obligation” to inform the palace of their plans.
While unlikely to impact the royals as badly as Prince Andrew’s 2019 interview with Newsnight and Princess Diana’s bombshell 1995 interview with Panorama, there is likely to be a certain dread at what Meghan may reveal in the interview. The palace is thought to be particularly nervous about possible allegations of racism or sexism and the settling of “old scores,” The Times reports.
Meghan and Harry sitting down with Winfrey is not, however, an unexpected development.
The talkshow host attended the couple’s wedding in 2018, having met Meghan just once before, and has assiduously courted the couple since then.
In 2019, it was announced that she and Harry were working together on a documentary about mental health and Winfrey was also photographed visiting Meghan’s mother, Doria, at her home in Los Angeles. They live near each other in Montecito and Winfrey has used her social media sway to plug a brand of coffee drinks that Meghan has invested in.
One source told the Mail that the forthcoming sit-down with Winfrey was “one of the most inevitable and, sadly, predictable consequences” of the couple leaving the royal family.
