Over the weekend, CBS released a promo for an Oprah interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which is set to air next Sunday. It’s the couple’s first joint interview since they left their roles as senior royals in March 2020, and based on a few of Oprah’s comments, it’s going to be must-see TV. “I just want to make it clear to everybody there is no subject that’s off-limits,” she said. “You’ve said some pretty shocking things here.”
But it was another clip from the interview that proved exactly how honest Harry was willing to be about how his experience in the spotlight has reminded him of the struggles faced by his mother, Princess Diana. “For me, I’m just really relieved and happy 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 life for her, going through this process by herself,” he said. “It has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other.”
In an October 2019 letter announcing the couple’s decision to take legal action against a handful of tabloids, Harry compared the British press’s critical attitude towards Meghan to the harassment that Diana faced for the first time. “I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person,” he wrote. “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.” The clip from the upcoming interview implies that he is going to elaborate on that comment.
Meghan underscored the references to her mother-in-law’s memory to wearing one of Diana’s cherished items of jewelry, a Cartier diamond tennis bracelet. “They wanted to wear the bracelet to have [Harry’s] mother there with them during the interview,” the couple’s spokesperson said in a statement to Today. Meghan, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, was also wearing an Armani gown featuring a lotus flower, a symbol of rebirth and enlightenment.
The interview with Oprah was filmed outdoors at Meghan and Harry’s property in Montecito on February 16, one day after CBS announced the royals would be sitting down with the talk show queen. Later, the Mail on Sunday reported Queen Elizabeth and staff at Buckingham Palace did not know the interview was set to take place until after it had been announced publicly, just a few days before the announcement that Meghan and Harry would give up the last of their royal patronages because they did not intend to return to royal duties.
It was filmed before Prince Philip was hospitalized for an infection on February 17. On Monday morning the palace announced that he had been moved to a second London hospital for care related to a pre-existing heart condition. According to the Mail, Harry has called his family in the wake of his grandfather’s illness.
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