ROYALS BRACED FOR MEGHAN TV I’m worried this is going to affect the health of our dad.. and of Prince Philip
Clips tease the Oprah special
FOUR clips have been released from the Oprah Winfrey special to be shown on US TV channel CBS tonight and ITV at 9pm tomorrow.
In the first teaser on Monday, Meghan didn’t say a word, but it included Oprah asking: “Were you silent... or were you silenced?”
Oprah also said: “I just want to make it clear to everybody, there is no subject that’s off-limits.”
And she later added, “Almost unsurvivable sounds like there was a breaking point” and “You’ve said some pretty shocking things here”.
Harry was heard saying, in reference to Diana’s death: “My biggest concern was history repeating itself.” In a second teaser the same day, he said: “For me, I’m just happy and relieved to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself all those years ago because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other.”
In the third clip on Thursday, Oprah asked Meghan: “How do you feel about the Palace hearing you speak your truth today?”
The Duchess replied: “I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there was an active role that The Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.”
In the fourth, on Friday, Oprah referred to Meghan turning down an interview with her before her wedding in 2018 because it “wasn’t the right time”.
MEGHAN Markle’s half-sister fears Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview could affect the health of their father and that of Prince Philip.
Samantha Markle says she and dad Thomas, 76, are preparing to watch the two-hour show which has been described as “shocking” with “no subject off-limits”.
The interview is expected to include footage of the Duchess speaking about her father and the Royal Family.
But Samantha says chat queen Oprah Winfrey, 67, should have postponed the screening of the interview until the Duke of Edinburgh leaves hospital.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, Samantha, 56, said: “I’m worried all this could affect my dad’s health. And it’s terrible that this is happening when Prince Philip is in hospital.
“It’s stressful to have someone making this drama and personal affronts on the family at a time when he’s so fragile.
“My dad could die at any time but it doesn’t seem to matter to Meghan. All that seems to matter to her is she gets her way. She’s like a bull in a china shop.”
Samantha believes clips released ahead of tonight’s programme show that Meghan, who is pregnant with her second child, has now turned on the royal family in the same way she says she did on her own, including brother Thomas Jnr, 55.
Meghan describes living in Britain as “almost unsurvivable” and accused the royal family of “perpetuating falsehoods”.
Samantha said: “The royal family welcomed Meg in and were so gracious. Now she’s acting like they’re the problem.
“For her to turn on them now feels like such a slap in the face, but I did once say ‘if she’ll do this to our family, she’ll do this to yours’ and I’ve been proven right.
“They shouldn’t be surprised because my father gave Meg everything she has but she treated him exactly the same way. I’m sure it will have affected their family and hurt them deeply, just as it has ours.”
Asked what she expects Meghan to say on the show – to be broadcast in the US tonight to mark International Women’s Day – she said: “I’m sure Meghan will play the victim and blame us for everything. It’s easier than apologising and acknowledging her own mistakes.
“Clips I’ve seen look like gaslighting at its finest. She talks of empowering women, but what about the voice of her sister in a wheelchair? Or her father who had two heart attacks? Or the voices of Prince Philip and the Queen? The only voices she cares about are ones that praise her.”
Thomas, an award-winning Hollywood lighting director, has said he spent thousands sending Meghan to private schools
The way Meghan has treated my dad is horrifying. He’s been on the phone in tears SAMANTHA MARKLE
ON HER SISTER’S BEHAVIOUR
and university. Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, live in Montecito, California, just 240 miles from Thomas in Rosarito, Mexico. But he has not spoken to Meghan since she cut off all contact with him after he took part in a paparazzi shoot before her wedding in May 2018.
It is understood Meghan remains close to mum Doria, 64, a social worker and yoga teacher. She was the only member of the family to attend the wedding, at which Prince Charles walked Meghan
INTERVIEW: SISTER SAM SPEAKS part-way down the aisle. She has never spoken publicly.
Last month, Meghan won a privacy battle against the Mail on Sunday for publishing extracts from a letter to her father. In a High Court judgement, Mr Justice Warby said they showed “her feelings of anguish about her father’s behaviour” and called them “inherently private and personal matters.”
Samantha said: “The way Meghan has treated my father is horrifying. He’s been on the phone to me in tears. He couldn’t understand it. Some people have accused my dad of spoiling her growing up. When she was young I made excuses for her and thought ‘she needs to feel special’. But I didn’t see what effect it was having.
“She’d throw hissy fits when she didn’t get her own way so a lot of people, including me and my dad, said ‘oh, don’t upset her’. It became her way of dealing with people. She was everyone’s joy, I loved that little girl but it’s not the same person she is today. He’s now come to terms with what she is. My poor dad is coming to terms with the fact he can’t take this personally. I don’t know how you recover from something like this.”
Wheelchair-user Samantha, who has multiple sclerosis, says her health has suffered due to being targeted by fans of Meghan, including one who was handed a twoyear restraining injunction. She added: “This interview will go down as one of the worst things the royal family has had to deal with. Harry is enabling and rationalising her behaviour
on television. To turn on his own family reminds me of kidnap victims defending their captors. He’d never have treated his family like this before he met Meghan.”
Samantha, who has published her own book The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister, also criticised Oprah, saying: “She’s wrong to do this interview
knowing the effect it can have on others. She shouldn’t be showing it while Prince Philip is in hospital. If she had any decency as a human she would wait until things stabilise. I don’t feel Oprah is a neutral unbiased interviewer. She runs in the same circles as Meghan.
“I don’t expect it to happen, but the best thing Meghan could do is apologise for her past behaviour and maybe Oprah could offer her counselling.”
PRESSURE from all directions was last night building on the Government over its pay snub to Britain’s NHS heroes.
And the explosive nationwide fury Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing was summed up in the powerful words of an exhausted intensive care nurse on a children’s ward.
“I have endured a hell of a lot more pain and suffering than my job title should allow,” said Louisa Carrington, 36.
“I’ve carried babies to the morgue, answered children who ask, ‘Am I going to die?’ and watched teenagers plan their funeral songs.
“I do it because I love children and I love my job. But I’m worth a lot more than 1%.
“I want to ask Boris Johnson what salary do you think someone looking after dying children deserves. How much is it worth to hold a dying child’s hand?”
Louise from Newcastle, whose NHS band 5 salary starts at £24,907 – slightly more than a QUARTER of an MP’s pay – spoke out as:
■ Backing mounts for a nurses strike – the first in England by the Royal College of Nursing – with a ballot as early as summer.
■ Warnings grow of a staff exodus on a day when 158 more Covid deaths were reported and more than 6,000 new cases. ■ The mum of the Covid nurse Johnson thanked for saving his life branded the proposed deal “pitiful”.
The Tories’ offer would add an average £3.50 a week to the pay of staff like Louisa.
Almost 1.5 million NHS workers, including midwives and health assistants, have been offered the 1% rise which No10 claims it is all it can afford.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has insisted the offer – equivalent to £500million – was based on “affordability”. He suggested NHS staff had been rewarded while other public sector workers endured pay freezes. Yet this Government has not blanched at wasting billions in taxpayers’ money on deals for Tory cronies and on buying unusable PPE.
The National Audit Office last year found £18billion was spent on contracts for firms – often without competition– early in the pandemic. And it was this week confirmed that the “world-beating” test and trace programme that under-performed so drastically will cost taxpayers at least £37billion. Adding insult to injury, Downing Street wasted £2.6million on renovations to hold White House-style press briefings.
Meanwhile the starting salary for most newly-qualified nurses is just £24,907. And the service’s lowest-paid full-time workers – such as housekeeping assistants and nursery assis
WORTH MORE Children’s intensive care nurse Louisa
tants – start on just £18,005 per year. Low-paid NHS staff have already endured a 1% pay cap from 2013 to 2018, following a three-year freeze.
Then PM Theresa May agreed on a 6.5% pay rise spanning three years.
Now nurses want a 12.5% one-year deal, equivalent to £4.25billion. And they are prepared to dig in. The £35million strike fund assembled by the Royal College of Nursing is said to be the largest put together by a union.
In an emergency meeting, Dave Dawes, RCN chair of council, told nurses to prepare to be balloted on action “probably in July and August”.
Unions Unite and the GMB – which represent staff including ambulance staff porters and cleaners – are also considering doing the same.
NHS Providers, which represents health service employers, has accused ministers of backtracking on a 2.1%
pre-pandemic pay pledge. There are fears the snub could lead to thousands of NHS staff quitting.
Surveys suggest a fifth could leave after the pandemic – 300,000 people. There are already 100,000 vacancies.
Unite last night warned staff shortages could increase backlogs of nonCovid ops, such as cancer treatments. A total of 4.52million people are now on NHS waiting lists, already their longest for about 20 years
Assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail warned: “The NHS will be a pale shadow of the great health service we know if the insulting 1% is not revised upwards by ministers.
The Government pay proposal will be considered by the NHS Pay Review Board, who will then make a final recommendation.
Last night the Portuguese mum of the London St Thomas’s intensive care nurse Luis Pitarma – who Johnson credited with saving his life – said the 1% offer was “pitiful” and added: My son and his colleagues should be properly paid for their hard work and dedication in such difficult times.”
Celebrities yesterday joined the fury against the offer. Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville branded it “brutal”. Antony Cotton, who plays Corrie’s Sean Tully, said it was “despicable”.
Dame Donna Kinnair, RCN chief executive, said public support was “incredible”, adding: “Every MP will hear from their voters.”
Another 158 people with Covid-19 died in the UK yesterday, bringing the toll to 124,419. A further 6,040 cases were confirmed. But the figures represent big progress since January when 935 people a day were dying.