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Meghan and Harry to lift lid on royal split in Oprah interview


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Posted

Meghan and Harry to lift lid on royal split in Oprah interview

By Michael Holden

 

2021-03-07T000644Z_1_LYNXMPEH26002_RTROPTP_4_BRITAIN-ROYALS-MEGHAN.JPG

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in this undated handout photo. Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese/Handout via REUTERS

 

LONDON (Reuters) - A highly anticipated Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan airs on U.S. television later on Sunday, amid what one royal watcher called a "toxic" atmosphere between the couple and the British monarchy.

 

Not since the late Princess Diana appeared on television to share intimate details of her failed marriage to Harry's father, Prince Charles, has an interview with members of the royal family attracted so much attention.

 

Having severed their official royal ties, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will explain why they abandoned Britain to move to California and start new lives.

 

"I'm ready to talk," Meghan, a former American actress, told Winfrey in an excerpt shown on U.S. station CBS on Friday, saying it was "liberating" to be able to give the interview.

 

Meghan and Harry's detractors say the couple want the glamour of their positions without the dedication it requires or scrutiny it brings.

 

To their supporters, their treatment shows how an outdated British institution has lashed out against a modern, biracial woman, with undertones of racism.

 

In another extract released ahead of the broadcast, Meghan accuses Buckingham Palace of "perpetuating falsehoods" about them, saying it could not expect them to just be silent.

 

A source close to Harry and Meghan said they wanted to have their say as they began a new chapter - moving home with a baby on the way after ending royal duties and on the back of a successful court case against a tabloid newspaper.

 

'REVENGE'

Some experts said the interview could damage the royal family, just as the split between Charles and Diana did.

 

"The interview is a form of revenge," royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Reuters. "The link in people's minds can only be the constant attacks on each other by Charles and Diana, which were so damaging to the monarchy in the 1990s."

 

Since their wedding in May, 2018, which had all the pomp of a traditional British royal occasion with a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust, Harry and Meghan have become global celebrities.

 

But they have railed against media intrusion, successfully waging legal battles with photographers and newspapers, including a privacy case against the Mail on Sunday which printed extracts of a letter Meghan wrote to her estranged father.

 

Rifts within the House of Windsor also appeared, with Harry admitting a falling out with elder brother Prince William.

 

For the royal family on Sunday, it was business as usual. Queen Elizabeth celebrated the unity forged by the coronavirus pandemic to mark Commonwealth Day in a broadcast speech. Her son Prince Charles, joined by other royals, hailed the courage shown during the crisis.

 

The decision to do the sit-down interview with Winfrey, recorded some two weeks ago, has already attracted criticism, partly because it will air while Harry's 99-year-old grandfather Prince Philip, the queen's husband, is in hospital.

 

He underwent a procedure for a pre-existing heart condition on Wednesday.

 

There have also been allegations of bullying against Meghan which first appeared in The Times newspaper. It said a senior aide raised a complaint in October 2018 from staff alleging Meghan had reduced some of her assistants to tears and treated others so badly that they quit.

 

Buckingham Palace, which has made no comment on the interview, said it would investigate the claims, saying it was "very concerned".

 

In response to the report, a spokeswoman for Meghan said she was "saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself."

 

Fitzwilliams said the Palace's move appeared to be a "pre-emptive strike" ahead of the interview.

 

The Winfrey interview is set to be broadcast in Britain on Monday as well as in many other countries around the world.

"I have not seen enthusiasm at this level for a royals-related story since the weddings - the royal weddings of both Meghan and Harry and William and Kate," said Michelle Tauber, senior editor for U.S. magazine People.

 

(Additional reporting by Sarah Mills and Elizabeth Piper; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Mike Collett-White and Elaine Hardcastle)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-08
 
  • Haha 1
Posted
27 minutes ago, gunderhill said:

Why do'nt they stop calling him "Prince"  for starters, remove all  his cash if  he wants to be like the rest of  us.

Because the son of a king, queen, emperor, empress or a prince is called a prince. Just because he left doesn’t make him not the son of a prince! 

  • Sad 2
Posted
7 minutes ago, camble said:

The demonization in the British tabloid press is similar to what Yoko Ono received 50 years ago.

 

Not really, this is about 'the firm'. 

 

But the Red Tops do love to stir everything up.

Posted

Meghan says Kate, Prince William's wife, made her cry before wedding to Harry

 

2021-03-08T013945Z_1_LYNXMPEH27025_RTROPTP_4_BRITAIN-ROYALS-MEGHAN.JPG

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in this undated handout photo. Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese/Handout via REUTERS

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Meghan, the wife of Britain's Prince Harry, said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that Kate, who is married to Harry's brother Prince William, had made her cry just before her 2018 wedding.

 

Speaking on U.S. station CBS late on Sunday, Meghan denied a newspaper story that she had made Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, cry before the wedding and said it was a turning point in her relations with the media.

 

"That was a turning point," Meghan said. Asked if she made Kate cry, Meghan replied: "The reverse happened."

 

"A few days before the wedding she (Kate) was upset about something, pertaining to yes the issue was correct about the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings," Meghan said.

 

Meghan said she had been naive before her wedding and did not realise what she was marrying into when she joined the British royal family.

 

"I will say I went into it naively, because I didn't grow up knowing much about the royal family," Meghan said.

Meghan explained that she was not being paid for the interview.

 

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-08
 

 

  • Haha 2
Posted

You married into the British royal family what did you expect and didn't learn anything from Dianna and Fergie's lives within their family as a royal  .

Harry is the only decent person that i have ever seen in that family .

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1

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