LOS ANGELES (AP) – The time has finally come for the audience to hear Meghan and Harry describe the background story and the effects of their tumultuous separation from royal life.
The broadcast on Sunday night of a two-hour special hosted by Oprah Winfrey will provide the unprecedented first glimpse of the couple’s departure from royal duties and the tensions it has put on them.
Its reception will likely depend on the side of the Atlantic Ocean spectators.
The show, which includes Winfrey’s interviews with Meghan and Harry, will air first in the United States, Meghan’s home country, at 8 p.m. in the East. Hours earlier, Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, will deliver a royal speech before Commonwealth Day.
The British public will wake up on Monday with headlines and social media posts about the Winfrey special, but will not be able to watch the full interview until Monday night, when it airs on ITV.
Royal interviews that are not related to a particular topic are rare, and previous televised sessions have often proved problematic. The 2019 BBC interview of Prince Andrew about his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sparked his own departure from royal duties after he failed to show empathy for Epstein’s victims.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal duties began in March 2020 in what they described as racist intrusions and attitudes by the British media towards the Duchess, who is biracial.
Clips released before the broadcasts suggest that at least Meghan will have some punctual criticism of real life. In one, he describes the royal family as “the company,” a nickname that is sometimes used affectionately and sometimes critically.
At one point, Winfrey asked Meghan how she felt about Buckingham Palace “who hears you tell your 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 that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us,” he said. “And if that carries the risk of losing things, I mean, there have been a lot of things that have already been lost.”
In another clip, Harry invoked the memory of his late mother, Princess Diana, who had to find herself alone after her divorce from Prince Charles.
“I’m very relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to my wife by my side, because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her to go through this process herself all those years ago, “Harry said, adding,” because it’s been incredibly hard for the two of us. “
In Britain, the interview is considered timeless. It will be broadcast while Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized after undergoing a heart procedure.
Meghan is shown in a clip posted Friday contrasting the conversation the two women were able to have now versus 2018 before their wedding. Meghan described not being able to talk to Winfrey, who was looking for an interview, without real assistants.
“As an adult who lived a truly independent life to then get into this construction that is … different from what I think what people imagine it is, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some way being able to say yes, ”Meghan told Winfrey.
It is unclear what public reaction the queen and other members of the royal family will have in Sunday’s interview.
On Wednesday, the palace said it was initiating an investigation into human resources after a London newspaper reported that a former aide had accused Meghan of harassing staff in 2018.
A spokeswoman for the duchess said she was “saddened by the latest attack on her character, especially as someone who has been the target of harassment”.
The excerpts already posted provide some details about the interview, which includes Winfrey talking individually with Meghan and a joint session with the couple.
Holding hands, Harry and Meghan sat in front of Winfrey as he interrogated them in a lush garden. The couple lives in Montecito, California, where they live in Winfrey.
Meghan, who recently announced she is pregnant with the couple’s second child, wore a black dress to the empire with embroidery. Harry was wearing a light gray suit and a white dress shirt, minus a tie.
Like Meghan Markle, the actor starred in the legal television drama “Suits.” She married Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018 and her son, Archie, was born a year later.
Harry and Meghan’s departure from real life was to be reviewed a year later. On 19 February, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple would not return to royal duties and Harry would relinquish his honorary military titles, a decision that made the separation of the couple from the royal family formal and final.