Harry and Meghan
Like many adult Americans, I promised myself I wouldn’t get sucked into watching the highly hyped Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle.
Fool that I am, I clicked by shortly after the program started and immediately got intrigued. That was for the first five minutes. After that I just found myself angry and not for the reasons most people would be. My beef was more centered on the fact that the entire interview was an act of journalistic malpractice.
I’m not knocking Oprah, my God she’s the best at what she does, but she’s not a journalist and didn’t act like one. She acted exactly like what she is to Harry and Meghan, a friend. The problem is, when someone is going to hurl unsubstantiated accusations, you need a journalist to keep them in check.
What do I mean? I’m so glad you asked. Let’s start with the biggest bombshell that Meghan Markle hurled at Harry’s familysomeone is clearly a racist by wondering what their baby’s skin color might be. It’s an incredibly stupid thing to ask any expecting parents and may well have come from a very racist place in the heart of the person who asked it. The problem is Harry and Meghan decided to detonate that bomb but not have the courage to tell Oprah who said it, thus tarring the entire family as racist.
Oprah, to her credit, pressed them, but Harry wouldn’t budge. At that point, in my opinion, a journalist would have said, “Guys, if you’re not going to name the person who said it, I can’t use it or I’m unfairly targeting the whole family.”
Can you imagine a reporter who covers Hollywood writing a story that said, “Oh, and I spent some time on the set of the hugely popular TV show ‘Friends’ and was shocked to learn one of them is extremely homophobic and anti-Semitic. I just can’t tell you who.” Wait… what? You could never write that story and get it by an editor.
Oprah should have told Harry, if he didn’t have the courage to name the person, the allegation had to be cut from the program because it wasn’t fair to dozens of innocent people.
Point number two. Prince Harry acknowledged that he wanted to step back from many of his royal duties and go live in Canada, then was shocked to learn he wouldn’t be getting his royal allowance and the family was losing their security, which is paid for by the British people through taxes. I wanted Oprah to lean in and say, “Why, when this was your choice to scale back and you are the one moving on the other side of the world, why would you expect to keep getting money?
“Why would they keep paying your security? You want to be a grown-up man, living on your own, why is this there responsibility and not yours?”
After Harry stumbled through that answer, a journalist would have followed up with a hard truth. “Harry, when you turned 30-years-old your inherited more than $10 million dollars from your late mother Diana. Why didn’t you use that money to pay the bills and pay for security? Why would you have to live rent free in Tyler Perry’s home in California and use his security?
“I’m confused, aren’t you already rich?”
I mean God bless Tyler Perry, we should all be so lucky to have such a friend in our lives, but why didn’t Harry and Meghan use their own money?
On the very serious issue of mental illness there was another inconsistency that Oprah never questioned. Meghan told Oprah she wanted to harm herself and asked the staff at the palace for help and they refused to get her help. Harry then came on TV, held her hand, and said that he never told anyone what Meghan was dealing with because it was too uncomfortable.
I was screaming at the TV set for Oprah to say, “Wait, I’m confused. Did people know or not know because you are both telling me different things?”
There were more instances where a strong follow-up question was needed and never came. Instead, Oprah just gave them a wide-eyed look. Meghan insisting that she didn’t really know who Prince Harry was and never googled his name; seriously? The first thing a person does when they meet someone new is go look at their Facebook page or Twitter and Instagram to get a peek into their lives.
Yet Meghan had no clue? Does that really ring true?
We’ve also learned that Oprah’s company was paid more than $7 million dollars for the exclusive interview and will make oodles more money selling the international rights, yet we’re to believe Harry and Meghan didn’t get a dime?
Possible? I suppose. Likely? I’ll let you decide.
Listen, I’m not anti-Harry and Meghan and hearing them speak, they seem free and happy. Good for them. I’m just not certain we got the whole truth in that interview and innocent people were hurt by it.
It also sounds like Harry is no longer talking to his brother and dad. Why do I feel like he’s going to wake up in ten years and wish he had done things differently.