Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and CBS whet the audience’s appetite with a series of video teasing ahead of their two hour interview special.
But Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS primetime special is expected to be full of even bigger revelations. Markle admitted that she was considering suicide as a result of the British tabloid intrusion and lack of support from the royal family, and that the “company” “had concerns and talks about how dark it was [son Archie’s] Skin would be when he was born ”.
Markle and Prince Harry announced that they are having a girl this summer and that they are stopping with two children.
The couple also went into the details of leaving the royal family and revealed how they ended up signing multi-million dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify.
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Winfrey opened the CBS interview that there was no agreement, no out-of-bounds issue, and the couple are not getting paid for the interview.
Markle said she was “naive” into her marriage and didn’t know much about the royal family. “I didn’t look up my husband online,” she said, adding that she also “didn’t quite understand what the job was”.
Markle announced that there wasn’t much “formality” when she first met the Queen, but her future husband asked if Markle knew how to kink, and that was when “the penny fell”. “I made a very deep curtsey,” she said.
She added that she grew up in LA and has seen celebrities all along. “It’s not the same,” she said.
After the first commercial break, Oprah put on her “rubber boots” to check on the couple’s chickens. At that moment, Markle announced that they had actually married three days before the royal wedding.
“Everything changed” on the post-wedding narrative when the UK press said Markle made Kate Middleton cry – which Markle said it never happened.
The problem was flower girl dresses, and Markle said it actually made her cry. Why didn’t the royal “institution” clear the narrative? “It’s a good question,” she said, adding that Middleton is a “good person”.
The avocado problem emerged when British tabloids accused them of fueling deforestation with the fruit, while Middleton was praised for their taste at breakfast. “That’s a loaded piece of toast,” joked Markle.
Seriously, she revealed that she was “silenced” by the royal family. “Everyone in my world was given very clear instructions not to comment,” she said. “Just as things were starting to emerge in the media … I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m being protected.’ I believed that and that was really hard to reconcile because it wasn’t until we were married and things started to get worse that I realized I wasn’t being protected, but they were willing to lie to protect other family members, but they were weren’t prepared to tell the truth to protect me. “
Markle calls the royal family “the company” – a common UK reference. But she said it was important to distinguish between family and institution. “It’s a family business. There is the family and then there are the people who run the institution. The queen has always been wonderful to me. “
She talked about the troubles around her and Harry’s son Archie’s title and security. She said it was really hard to find out that he wasn’t getting any security – “that was really hard”. In addition, it was the family who created the “monster machine” out of clickbait and tabloid feed instead of them.
She admitted that they never got an answer as to why the royal family changed the rules of Archie’s title, a controversial move as the first member of the Color Royal Family. “There was a lot of fear around him.”
BOMBSHELL MOMENT – Markle revealed that there were “concerns and conversations about how dark it is [son Archie’s] Skin would be when he was born ”.
“I know how important representation is,” she said, highlighting the British Commonwealth.
Later in the interview, Harry confirmed this but said, “I’ll never share this conversation. It was uncomfortable and I was a bit shocked. “
BOMBSHELL MOMENT # 2 – Markle admitted that she “didn’t want to be alive” during a particularly nasty intrusion and went to the Royal Family to try to improve her sanity. “That was a scary thought,” she added.
She spoke to someone high up in the “Institution” but was turned down. “You couldn’t just call an Uber into the palace” and check into a hospital, which showed she didn’t even have access to her own passport. She admitted that her suicidal thoughts were “very real” and she was scared and admitted that “I don’t think I can be left alone”.
“It takes so much courage to admit that you have to help. To admit that you need help … “
Winfrey called some of the revelations “shocking,” and Markle joked that she wasn’t about to say anything shocking. “I will not live my life in fear,” she added. “I don’t know how you can expect that after all this time, if the company played an active role in perpetuating falsehoods about us, we would still be silent.”
She also referred to a miscarriage, saying that she also “lost” her father, who was excommunicated from the family after a series of interviews.
BIG NEWS # 3 – Prince Harry attended the interview after an hour to reveal that the couple had a girl.
The couple then opened up on “Megxit,” where they resigned as working members of the royal family. They said they left because they asked for help but did not get it and were only planning to step down from their leadership positions, like many others in the family. “We haven’t reinvented the wheel here,” said Harry.
He added that he wanted to breath the “constant barrage” and they left because of lack of support and understanding.
When asked if he blinded the Queen with the outcome and her testimony, Harry said, “I never blinded my grandmother,” adding that if he had to guess where these reports came from, ” it could have come from within the institution ”.
He announced that he had had three conversations with Queen Elizabeth II and two with his father, Prince Charles, prior to the statement, and this “came as no surprise to anyone,” but he also admitted that Charles had stopped making calls accepted.
A touching moment … Markle comes across a rerun of The Little Mermaid and realizes that she is Ariel, who falls in love with a prince and loses her voice before finally finding her.
Harry reveals that there were many ways for his family to show support for Meghan, but they never did. He then goes into the killing related to the tabloids and the relationship with the royal family. “I am very aware of how scared my family is of the tabloids that turn on the royal family.”
He calls it an “invisible contract”. “When you as a family member are willing to eat, eat and give reporters full access, you get better press,” he said. “There is a level of control by fear that has been around for generations.”
He added that the institution survived from its relationship with the press, and Markle highlighted the press holidays held at the palace.
But Markle said the press coverage had racist overtones and this changed the threat level, including increased death threats.
She shoots back at the idea that she caused “Megxit”. “I left everything because I loved him,” adding that unlike the things you see in the films, there was no guide and admits she Googled the words to the British King late on Family.
While Oprah showed compassion during the interview, she was visibly upset when Harry, a man literally born a prince, said he was “trapped in the system like the rest of my family.”
ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY – The two spoke briefly about their business with Netflix and Spotify through their company Archewell. Harry said “The Netflixes and Spotifys of Everything were never part of the plan,” but they were forced to find ways to make money after being financially cut off from family in the first quarter of 2020. He admitted that he had money for it his mother left him.
Harry said, “That was never the intention. We’re definitely not complaining, our lives are great now, we have a beautiful house, I have a beautiful family. The dogs are very happy. At the time during Covid, a friend suggested “What about streamers?” and we hadn’t thought about it. There were many different options, and from my perspective, all I needed was enough money to pay for security and keep my family safe. “
“Life is about storytelling,” added Markle. “It’s great when we are able to tell stories through a truthful lens that is hopefully uplifting when we know how many people we can land with and are able to voice a lot of people who Are underrepresented and not really heard. “
He said his relationship with his grandmother was good and they zoomed in with Queen Elizabeth and Archie, although he added that there was “a lot to do” in his relationship with his father.
Harry said he loved his brother Prince William “to pieces” but they are “on different paths” and the relationship takes space. “Time takes off all things.”
He said he had “no regrets”. “I’m so proud of my wife,” he added. “Without question, she saved me.”
Markle said she regretted it once. “I regretted believing them when they said I was protected. Now that we are actually on the other side, not only have we survived, but we are thriving too. Wonder. I think all of the things I was hoping for happened, and in a way, this is just the beginning. It feels like a lifetime. It does [have a happy ending]. Bigger than any fairy tale you’ve ever read. “
Winfrey ended the two-hour interview by revealing that there was “so much more” to share, and she will appear on CBS News Monday morning with Gayle King to discuss this and the reaction.
The special was produced by Harpo Productions. Terry Wood and Tara Montgomery are executive producers and Brian Piotrowicz is co-executive producer.
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