LOS ANGELES (AP) – It’s finally time for the audience to hear Meghan and Harry describe the story behind them and the effects of their tumultuous division in the royal life.
The broadcast on Sunday night of a two-hour special hosted by Oprah Winfrey will provide the first, unprecedented, a look at the couple’s departure from royal duties and the stems it has placed on them.
How it is received is likely to depend on which side of the Atlantic Ocean the spectators are on.
The show, which includes Winfrey’s interviews with Meghan and Harry, will first air in the United States – Meghan’s home country – at 8 pm East. A few hours earlier, Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, will deliver a royal address before Commonwealth Day.
The British public will wake up on Monday to headlines and posts on social media about Winfrey’s special, but will not be able to see the full interview until Monday night, when it will be broadcast on ITV.
Royal interviews that are not related to a particular topic are rare, and previous televised sessions have often proved problematic. Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC interview about his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to his departure from royal duties after failing to show empathy for Epstein’s victims.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal duties began in March 2020 in connection with what they described as intrusions and racist attitudes by the British press towards the duchess, who is biracial.
The clips released before the broadcast suggest that at least Meghan will have some strong criticism of royal life. In one, she describes the royal family as “the firm,” a nickname that is sometimes used with affection and sometimes with criticism.
At one point, Winfrey asked Meghan how she felt about Buckingham Palace. “When did she hear you tell your truth today?”
“I don’t know how one would expect us to remain silent after all this time only if there was an active role that the company plays in perpetuating the fakes about us,” she said. “And if this comes with the risk of losing things, I mean, there have been many that have already been lost.”
In another clip, Harry invoked the memory of his late mother, Princess Diana, who had to find her own way after her divorce from Prince Charles.
“I’m just relieved and happy to be here talking to my wife next to me, because I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her to go through this process on her own all those years ago,” Harry said, adding. , “Because it was incredibly harsh for the two of us.”
In the UK, the interview is seen as poorly timed. It will be broadcast while Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized after undergoing a heart procedure.
Meghan is featured in a video released on Friday contrasting the conversation the two women were able to have now with the one from 2018 before her wedding. Meghan described that she could not talk to Winfrey, who was looking for an interview, without royal gifts.
“As an adult, who has lived a truly independent life, to then enter this construction that is um … different from what I think people imagine it to be, it is truly liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in certain ways to be able to say yes, “Meghan told Winfrey.
It is unclear what public reaction, if any, the queen and other members of the royal family will have to Sunday’s interview.
On Wednesday, the palace said it was launching an investigation into human resources after a London newspaper reported that a former assistant accused Meghan of intimidating staff in 2018.
A spokeswoman for the duchess said she was “saddened by the latest attack on her character, especially as someone who was the target of the aggression herself”.
The excerpts already released provide some details about the interview, which includes Winfrey talking individually with Meghan and a joint session with the couple.
Holding hands, Harry and Meghan sat across from Winfrey as she asked him questions in a lush garden setting. The couple lives in Montecito, California, where Winfrey’s neighbors live.
Meghan, who recently announced that she is pregnant with the couple’s second child, wore an empire-style black dress with embroidery. Harry wore a light gray suit and a white shirt, minus a tie.
As Meghan Markle, the actor starred in the legal TV drama “Suits”. She married Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018, and their son, Archie, was born a year later.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from the royal life was to be reviewed a year later. On February 19, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple would not return to royal duties and Harry would relinquish his honorary military titles – a decision that made the couple formally and permanently separate from the royal family.