The Sussexes ‘were reeling at palace’s statement’ when they sat down with Oprah
MEGHAN and Harry already knew they were being stripped of their titles and patronages when they sat down for their ‘no subject off-limits’ interview with Oprah Winfrey, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
But the Sussexes are understood to have been left reeling by the tone of the strongly worded statement in which the announcement was made on behalf of the Queen. Sources say their shock at least partly explains the anger and hurt displayed by the couple during the trailers released ahead of tonight’s primetime CBS interview.
The Queen had several private conversations with Harry in the preceding weeks in which she explained it would be impossible for him and Meghan to keep their patronages if they confirmed they were staying away from official duties.
But the statement announcing the move, released by Buckingham Palace on February 19, was a potentially explosive from the royal family’s perspective – and risked the sort of on-screen reaction that US viewers are likely to see tonight.
‘Oprah says it’s the best interview she’s ever done’
References to ‘a life of public service’ were a particular bone of contention for Harry who served on two tours of Afghanistan with the British army. The couple are also thought to have been upset that the Queen chose to sign off her announcement by saying ‘we are all saddened by their decision’ rather than wishing them well for the future. The timing also caused anger, given that a review of the couple’s decision to step back from Royal duties wasn’t due until later this month.
For her part, billionaire Oprah, a chatshow veteran with more than 40 years of television experience, has described the broadcast to colleagues as ‘the best interview she’s ever done’.
Within hours of the palace statement, photographs had been taken of her boarding a jet at Santa Barbaraairport, 25km from the Sussexes’ $15m mansion.
Reports suggest that Oprah had only met Meghan once before she was a guest at the royal wedding in May 2018 when she was described as a ‘friend of the couple’. It is thought they were introduced through the American network CBS and met when Oprah found herself in London.
The 67-year-old said she previously asked for an interview with Meghan, but her request was declined with the duchess apparently telling her it was
‘not the right time’. ‘I remember that conversation,’ Meghan tells
Oprah in one of the trailers for the interview. ‘I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you personally. There had to be people sitting there.’
Meghan goes on to say that now is the right time because ‘we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that I couldn’t have said yes (to a previous request for an interview). That wasn’t my choice to make. So, as an adult who lived a really independent life, and then go
into this construct that is different than, I think, what people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to have the right and privilege to say, “Yes, I’m ready to talk.”’
As well as losing his military titles, Harry was also forced to give up his position as patron of the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League.
The couple had been president and vice-president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust,
an organisation set up by the duke’s office in 2018 and which would give them both an international role. But these also reverted back to the Queen, while the duchess lost her position as patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. The decision also meant Meghan was stripped of her patronage of the National Theatre, a role gifted to the former actress by the Queen after she had held it for 45 years.