ANNUS HARRYBILIS
IT’S TIME FOR TIN HATS AT THE PALACE
THE QUEEN will ‘ignore’ the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s much-anticipated TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, it has been reported.
Harry and Meghan’s conversation with the talk show host, which has fuelled tensions in the royal family, aired in the US last night and will be broadcast on ITV tonight.
Royal author Christopher Wilson said Her Majesty faced an ‘annus Harrybilis’, rivalling the 1992 ‘annus horribilis’ when Windsor Castle caught fire and three of her children split from their spouses.
But she has decided to not even watch the programme, The Sunday Times reported. She will instead focus on duty as she helps lead the nation out of the Covid crisis. She will also be supporting husband Prince Philip, 99, who is recovering from heart surgery.
In clips from the Oprah With Meghan And Harry programme, the duchess criticised the constraints she faced as a working royal.
She said it felt ‘liberating’ to be able to ‘ say yes’ to the interview. She accused The Firm – as the royal family is sometimes known – of ‘perpetuating falsehoods’ about her and Harry.
Reports in the US said Winfrey had been paid up to £6.5million by CBS for the programme, while the duke and duchess will not receive a penny.
Courtiers have dismissed the Q&A as a ‘circus’, with royal aides said to be ready to retaliate with fresh disclosures about the behaviour of the couple.
A Buckingham Palace investigation has already been launched over claims that Meghan bullied royal staff working for her ‘to the point of tears’.
The Duchess of Cambridge could be questioned as part of the probe because she witnessed at least one angry scene and was upset, it is claimed.
Meghan is accused of driving out two of her personal assistants and ‘humiliating’ staff several times.
The investigation will focus on the Sussexes’ tour of Australia in 2018, according to The Sun. Past and present employees have been invited to speak in confidence about their experiences of working for the duchess.
But the 39-year-old has responded by saying she is ‘saddened by this latest attack’ on her character.
Valentine Low, the royal correspondent for The Times who broke the story about the allegations, told US breakfast TV show GMA that his reporting had uncovered an ‘intensely difficult working environment’.
The Duke of Edinburgh remains at the private King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London, where he returned on Friday following a successful procedure to treat a pre-existing heart condition at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
The Sussexes had faced calls for the broadcast to be postponed out of respect for Philip.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson said he would probably not record the US broadcast of the interview.
He told reporters yesterday: ‘ We are focusing on the vaccine rollout and economic recovery.’