LOS ANGELES (AP) – It’s finally time for the audience to hear Meghan and Harry describe the backstory and effects of their tumultuous split from royal life.
The Sunday night airing of a two-hour special hosted by Oprah Winfrey will provide the first and unprecedented glimpse into the couple’s departure from royal duties and the pressure it has placed on them.
How it is received will likely depend on which side of the Atlantic Ocean viewers are on.
The show, which includes Winfrey’s interviews with Meghan and Harry, will first air in the United States – Meghan’s homeland – at 8 p.m. Eastern. Hours earlier, Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, will deliver a royal speech for Commonwealth Day.
The UK public wakes up Monday to headlines and social media posts about Winfrey’s special, but won’t be able to see the full interview until Monday night when it airs on ITV.
Royal interviews that are not tied to a specific topic are rare, and previous television sessions have often proved problematic. Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC interview about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to his own departure from royal duties after showing no empathy for Epstein’s victims.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal duties began in March 2020 after what they described as the British media’s invaders and racist attitudes towards the Duchess, who is biracial.
Clips released ahead of broadcasts suggest that Meghan will at least have some harsh criticism of royal life. In one, she describes the royal family as ‘the firm’, a nickname sometimes used affectionately and sometimes critically.
At one point, Winfrey asked Meghan how she felt about Buckingham Palace ‘hearing you speak the truth today?’
“I don’t know how they could expect that after all this time we would still be silent if there was an active role the company is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us,” she said. “And if that comes with the risk of losing things, I mean, a lot has already been lost.”
In another clip, Harry recalled his late mother, Princess Diana, who had to find her way alone after her divorce from Prince Charles.
“I’m just really relieved and glad to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her to go through this process all those years ago on her own,” Harry said. adding, “because it’s incredibly difficult for the two of us.”
In Britain, the interview is considered ill-timedIt is broadcast while Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip remains in the hospital after undergoing a heart procedure.
Meghan can be seen in a clip released on Friday in contrast to the conversation the two women were able to have now versus in 2018 prior to her marriage. Meghan described being unable to speak to Winfrey, who was looking for an interview, without royal sitters present.
“As an adult living a truly independent life and then going into this construction that is um … different from what I think people think it is, it’s really liberating to have in some ways the right and privilege to be able to to say yes, ”Meghan said to Winfrey.
It is unclear what public reaction, if any, the Queen and other members of the royal family will have to Sunday’s interview.
On Wednesday, the palace said it was launching a human resources investigation after a London newspaper reported that a former assistant accused Meghan of bullying staff in 2018.
A spokesman for the Duchess said she was “saddened by the latest assault on her character, especially as someone who has been the target of bullying herself.”
The fragments already released give some details about the interview, including Winfrey speaking one-on-one with Meghan and a joint session with the couple.
Harry and Meghan held hands and sat across from Winfrey as she interrogated them in a lush garden. The couple live in Montecito, California, where they are Winfrey’s neighbors.
Meghan, who recently announced that she is pregnant with the couple’s second child, wore a black Empire-style dress with embroidery. Harry was wearing a light gray suit and white shirt, without a tie.
As Meghan Markle, the actor starred in the TV legal drama ‘Suits’. She married Harry in Windsor Castle in May 2018 and their son Archie was born a year later.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal life would be revised after a year. On February 19, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple would not return to royal duties and Harry would relinquish his military honorific titles – a decision that made the couple’s separation from the royal family formal and final.