Oprah Winfrey says her interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is ‘the best she has ever done’, her best friend Gayle King revealed in a thinly-veiled attempt to claw back public interest in the sit-down amid intense coverage of the Duke’s appearance on James Corden’s Late Late Show.
According to Gayle, 66, who is an anchor for CBS, the network that broadcasts Corden’s show, and will air Oprah’s primetime interview with Meghan and Harry next month, made the comments on This Morning on Friday, while reporting on the Duke of Sussex’s Late Late Show segment.
After detailing the many revelations shared during the interview with Corden – which took place in Los Angeles before Oprah’s sit-down with Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, was filmed – Gayle reminded viewers about her friend’s own chat with the Sussexes, saying: ‘We want to remind you that Harry and Meghan are talking to Oprah.
‘It’s their first major broadcast interview since giving up their senior royal duties.’
After detailing the date and time of the broadcast, Gayle continued: ‘I’ve heard from reliable sources, this is Oprah talking, that it’s the best interview she’s ever done so I’m curious. That’s saying something.’
Teaser: Oprah says her interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is the ‘best she has ever done’, her close friend Gayle King revealed on Friday morning
Promotion: The 67-year-old TV mogul’s primetime sit-down with the couple is due to air on March 7 on CBS – the same network that Gayle, 66, is an anchor for
Let the battle commence: Gayle’s comments about Oprah’s interview were made just hours after James Corden’s sit-down with Prince Harry aired on CBS
It is the second on-air promotion that Gayle has done for her long-time pal – having already revealed on February 16 that Oprah had been given permission to ask Harry and Meghan ‘anything she wanted’ and that ‘nothing was off limits’ during the interview.
The news likely sparked fresh fears for Buckingham Palace over what embarrassing revelations could come to light – particularly in the wake of the Queen’s decision to remove the couple’s remaining royal patronages and honorary titles, a move that prompted the Sussexes to bite back in a petty public statement.
‘This is a big deal,’ Gayle said last Wednesday – one day before Harry and Meghan reportedly began taping their two-day interview with Oprah.
‘I know Oprah has been working on the questions all weekend long, I’m told that nothing is off limits. She can ask anything she wants.’
The insight into the no-holds-barred interview has prompted further questions about why Harry and Meghan have chosen to take part in such an explosive sit-down, in spite of their continued insistence that the media respects their privacy.
Those same questions arose after Harry’s interview with Corden aired – while critics also outrage over his decision to defend Netflix show The Crown, despite its very negative portrayal of his grandmother, parents, and wider members of the royal family.
Harry, who, along with his wife, inked a very lucrative deal with Netflix last year, told long-time friend Corden that he has watched The Crown, and said that the show is ‘fictional’ but ‘loosely based on the truth’ and captures the feeling of being expected to put ‘duty and service above family and everything else’.
While sitting down for the widely-publicized interview, which partly took place on an open-air double-decker bus in Los Angeles, Harry hit out at the ‘toxic’ media – blaming the press for his decision to quit the royal family and relocate to the US.
The Duke said the pressure of being in London was ‘destroying my mental health’, but insisted that he never ‘walked away’ from the royals – instead describing the move as a ‘step back’.
‘It was never walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down. It was a really difficult environment, which I think a lot of people saw. So I did what any father or husband would do and thought: “How do I get my family out of there?” But we never walked away.’
And while the interview was carried out before the Queen stripped the Sussexes of their royal patronages last week, Harry appears to know what was coming and says: ‘My life is public service, so wherever I am in the world it’s going to be the same thing. As far as I’m concerned, whatever decisions are made on that side [in Britain], I will never walk away.’
Critics have questioned the timing of his TV appearance, released on Thursday night, just as the Queen gave a rare public statement encouraging all Britons to have the COVID-19 jab.
No-holds-barred: Earlier this month, Gayle revealed that Oprah could ‘ask anything she wants’ during her ‘intimate’ interview – which is expected to cover Megxit and Meghan’s pregnancy
Getting involved: Although Meghan, 39, did not join Harry for his Corden appearance, she did FaceTime the duo, revealing on the call that she calls her husband ‘Haz’
Others watching the one-on-one chat, during which Harry complained about the media attention he received in the UK, urged him to ‘stop bl**dy whining’ and accused him of ‘re-writing history’ and ‘ignoring’ the multi-million dollar deals he has signed with Netflix and Spotify.
The royals have already been warned to ‘hide behind the sofa’ when the Sussexes’ incendiary interview with Oprah is broadcast on Sunday, March 7, with experts saying the Late Show appearance suggests the 90-minute CBS show will focus much more on Meghan – who is expected to open up about her experiences of life in the royal family, which could well bring to light several negative revelations.
Royal insiders were left stunned when Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah was first announced last Monday – less than a week before the Queen confirmed that the couple would not return to life as working royals, and would therefore be stripped of all their royal patronages and honorary titles.
The tell-all special, entitled ‘Oprah with Meghan and Harry’, is set to air on US network CBS on March 7, and will focus primarily on the Duchess of Sussex who will discuss ‘everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure’.
Prince Harry will then join his wife in front of the camera, and the two will open up about their decision to move to the US following Megxit, and their ‘hopes and dreams for their expanding family’, a CBS spokesperson revealed.
News of the interview is understood to have sent tremors through the Palace – sparking fears that bombshell details of Harry’s reported rift with members of the royal family including his brother Prince William could be aired for the world.
It will also be Harry’s first opportunity to publicly discuss the repercussions of Megxit being finalized as part of his bitter split from royal life.
Harry faced further backlash over the interview when it was reported days after the sit-down was announced that he had not told his grandmother about it in advance.
Despite the Sussexes having ‘no obligation’ to inform the royal family about any public appearances or media commitments, many insiders agreed that Harry should have told the Queen as a ‘common courtesy’.
The Oprah interview could become one of a series of TV chats that have rocked Buckingham Palace to its core, along with Prince Andrew’s 2019 interview with Newsnight and Princess Diana’s bombshell 1995 interview with Panorama.
The sit-down is just one of a long line of carefully planned publicity moves from the couple and the news of the Oprah sit-down came less than 24 hours after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced that they are expecting their second child.
If Meghan and Harry’s decision to record an interview will be seen as surprising, their choice of Oprah is not given their close friendship with the TV host, who was a guest at their 2018 wedding in London, and now lives just a short distance from the couple’s $14.5 million Montecito mansion.
In December, the TV mogul made clear her close relationship with the couple when she promoted Meghan’s new range of vegan coffee in an Instagram post that is estimated to have been worth $1 million in free publicity.
However, their decision to take part in such an ‘intimate’ interview is certainly at odds with the couple’s ongoing insistence that they wish to maintain complete privacy.
The Palace said they would not be formally commenting.
But a source said that the Duke and Duchess were no longer working members of the Royal Family and therefore any decisions they take with regard to media commitments were matters for them and they had no obligation to inform the Royal Household of such plans.
Phil Dampier, who has been writing about the royals for 35 years and is author of Royally Suited: Harry and Meghan In Their Own Words, told MailOnline news of the interview would the the ‘last thing the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family will want to hear at the moment’.
Opening up: According to CBS the couple will open up about a number of sensitive topics, including Meghan’s entry into the Royal Family, and their decision to quit royal life for the US
He added: ‘The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William will be bracing themselves for a series of accusations and revelations, as will Buckingham Palace courtiers.
‘And the sad truth at present is that Harry and Meghan, buoyed up by recent legal victories against the press, feel they have the upper hand.
‘There is little anyone can do stop them but history tells us that royal interviews – be they Diana’s Panorama, Charles’s admission of adultery to Jonathan Dimbleby or Prince Andrew’s Newsnight clash with Emily Maitlis, normally end in tears.
‘Whether justified or not, the fear will be that the couple claim Meghan was not welcomed into the Royal Family, experienced a degree of racism, and was hounded by the British tabloids.’
Royal author Robert Jobson said he thought the interview was a ‘betrayal of trust’ and Meghan and Harry ‘seem hell bent on causing the Queen more discomfort and possible embarrassment’.
‘Buckingham Palace were quick to say the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles and the rest of the family wished the couple well on the news. They were apparently told about the baby bump before Harry and Meghan went public,’ he said.
‘But now, just after smoothing over the cracks caused by ”Megxit’ – just over a year ago – the Sussexes seem hell bent on causing the Queen more discomfort and possible embarrassment.’
He added: ‘This interview is a betrayal of trust whatever way you look at it. Harry, who claimed he wanted to escape the publicity of being a front-line royal, has swapped duty for a cash bonanza deal with Netflix. We are not told if money has been paid for this interview.
‘The army veteran, who served with distinction in Afghanistan, often talks about respecting the Queen.
‘But to be blunt his decision to join his wife’s tell all US television interview after they exited the Royal Family so noisily and dramatically, is another act of disrespect.
‘The Queen has always lived by the mantra of ”never complain and never explain”. With her husband’s 100th birthday celebrations approaching the Harry and Meghan loose cannon continues to fire.’
What is clear is that this interview will likely be the couple’s most candid yet, with a statement from CBS promising that Meghan and Harry will open up about a variety of hot-button topics – perhaps most significantly their exit from the Royal Family in January 2020, and the Duchess’s views on what it was like to ‘step into royal life’.
‘Winfrey will speak with Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, in a wide-ranging interview, covering everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure,’ a CBS press release revealed.
‘Later, the two are joined by Prince Harry as they speak about their move to the United States and their future hopes and dreams for their expanding family.’
The interview will be the first time that either Meghan or Harry have addressed Megxit directly in a public forum; thus far the couple have remained silent about their reasons for leaving the Royal Family – despite both waxing lyrical about their new life in Los Angeles during several public appearances.
Meghan’s decision to discuss her experiences of royal life may also be cause for concern from the Queen and her aides, particularly given that the Duchess has already stated in court documents that she felt ‘unprotected by the [royal] institution’ during her pregnancy – and claimed that she was ‘prohibited from defending herself’ against stories published in the media.
The choice to broadcast the interview on CBS is surprising, given that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex inked a very lucrative deal with Netflix just last year in a move that is believed to have earned the couple up to $150 million.
Guest role? It is not yet known whether the couple’s son, Archie, will make an appearance during the interview, and CBS refused to comment on any other details about the sit-down
Their partnership with Netflix sparked furious controversy – and further questions about the legitimacy of their pleas for privacy – particularly given that the streaming site is responsible for The Crown, which delved into the very private life of Harry’s mother Princess Diana in its most recent season.
Although the fourth season of the show did not premiere until several weeks after Harry and Meghan’s Netflix deal was revealed to the public, it had already been widely publicized that it would cover Diana’s heartbreaking battle with bulimia in great detail, as well as her turbulent relationship with Prince Charles.
It is understood that such a public and dramatized depiction of such a private matter caused great ‘discomfort’ for Prince William, and many other senior members of the Royal Family, with one source revealing in September last year that Harry’s partnership with Netflix had created yet further tension between him and his brother.
‘William and other senior royals are incredibly uncomfortable about this drama and livid Harry is now in partnership with the company that’s airing it,’ the insider told The Sun.
Details of the couple’s Netflix partnership were kept closely guarded, with the streaming site only revealing that the deal included a wide range of content, from documentaries and children’s programming to feature films.
Oprah also boasts her own multi-year streaming partnership with Apple TV+, on which she recently streamed an interview with former President Barack Obama.
Harry and Meghan have mirrored many of the Obamas’ post-White House deals, following in their footsteps by inking multi-million-dollar deals first with Netflix and then with Spotify, just as the former President and First Lady had already done.
It is unclear whether the interview has already been filmed, or it location; a CBS spokesperson refused to comment, telling DailyMail.com: ‘We have no further information at this time.’
The network has also not revealed whether Harry and Meghan’s son Archie will make an appearance during the 90-minute interview.
Harry and Meghan’s sit down chat with the famous broadcaster will be aired on March 7, just a few weeks from the one-year anniversary of the couple ending their roles as senior royals.
Winfrey is a personal friend of Meghan and attended her royal wedding in May 2018, and there was speculation at the time the couple were likely to be interviewed by the celebrity.
The global chat show star has welcomed everyone from Tom Cruise and Madonna to former president Barack Obama to sit down and discuss their lives.
The last royal television interview aimed at setting the record straight failed spectacularly when the Duke of York appeared on a special edition of the BBC’s Newsnight.
Andrew’s attempt to explain his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to him withdrawing from public life after he was accused of lacking empathy for Epstein’s victims.
His ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York was interviewed by Winfrey in 2010 after she was left humiliated by a newspaper sting that caught her offering to sell access to Andrew for £500,000.
She repeatedly talked about herself in the third person and also broke down in tears during the confessional interview.
It is not known if Harry and Meghan informed the royal household in the UK about their plans to be interviewed, but as non-working members of the monarchy they do not have to give notice of their media commitments.