No winners: UK waits for Harry, Meghan’s take on royal split
LONDON — The timing couldn’t be worse for Harry and Meghan.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will finally get the chance to tell the story behind their departure from royal duties directly to the public on Sunday, when their two-hour inter view with Oprah Winfrey is broadcast.
But back home in Britain, events have conspired to overshadow the tale of a prince and his American bride. On top of the pandemic and record economic slump, Prince Philip, Harry’s 99year-old grandfather is now recovering from a heart procedure.
CBS announced the program Feb 15. The next day, Philip was admitted to hospital.
“Harry and Meghan are hugely popular,’’ Pauline Maclaran, a professor of marketing and author of “Royal Fever: The British Monarchy in Consumer Culture,” told The Associated Press. “But I think that some people who might other wise have suppor ted them will find this just a little bit distasteful, that they’re drawing all this attention to themselves … just at this time when Prince Philip appears to be quite seriously ill.”
Though it is the choice of CBS when to air its pre-recorded inter view, critics are already lining up to deride it as a brandbuilding exercise by the pair, who left Britain saying they wanted to live a normal life but have been accused of continuing to use their royal status to open doors and make money.
The sit-down with America’s queen of celebrity inter views is a chance for the couple to explain what led them to quit royal life, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. A book about their departure, “Finding Freedom,” also alleges that senior royals had little respect for Meghan, a biracial former actor, and that courtiers treated her badly.
Pre-released clips have already shown Harry talking about his fears that histor y would repeat itself after his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash while pursued by paparazzi. In another clip from the inter view, Winfrey asks Meghan how she feels about the palace “hearing you speak your truth today?”
“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,” the duchess replies.
“The firm” is a nickname for the royal family, sometimes used with af fection and sometimes with a note of criticism.
In another pre-released clip, Meghan told Winfrey how “liberating” it was to have a conversation with the television host without the input of royal minders.
Ahead of the broadcast, relations with the palace are increasingly strained. First there was Queen Elizabeth II’S decision to strip Harry and Meghan of the handful of royal patronages they had retained in the one-year trial period following their departure last year. The couple responded with a terse statement promising to live a life of ser vice — a move many in the U.K. saw as disrespectful to the queen, as she usually has the final word. Then on Wednesday, the palace said it was launching a human resources investigation after a newspaper reported that a former aide had accused Meghan of bullying staf f in 2018.
One of the authors of “Finding Freedom,’’ Omid Scobie, compared the recent commentar y about Harry and Meghan in the British media to the Salem Witch Trials, while noting Americans have had more sympathy them.