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Meghan and Harry Oprah interview live: Harry claims Prince Charles stopped taking his calls Meghan and Harry Oprah interview live: Meghan regrets 'believing them when they said I would be protected'
(32 minutes later)
Highly-anticipated prime time two-hour special with Duke and Duchess of Sussex airs as transatlantic public relations war mounts Prime time two-hour special with Duke and Duchess of Sussex delivers bombshell after bombshell about life inside the royal family
I’ll have a recap of what we learned in a few flips of a crumpet.
But Meghan is happy now, she says.
“So your story with the prince does have a happy ending?” says Oprah.
“It does,” says Meghan.
Oprah asks Harry: Do you think [Meghan] saved you?”.
“Without question,” says Harry.
Meghan says it was Harry who saved “all of us”.
“But you need to want to be saved,” says Meghan.
Oprah thanks the couple for sharing their “love story”.
That was harrowing.
Oprah says there will be a little more tomorrow (!) that couldn’t be included tonight as well as reactions from around the world.
Oprah asks whether the couple has any regrets. Harry says no, but that he is so proud of Meghan for “safely delivering Archie” during a really difficult time. He would come home to Meghan breastfeeding Archie while crying.
Meghan says she has one regret: “My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected.”
Harry is very much enjoying the freedom he has now with Archie. Archie’s favourite thing to say is “drive safe” when people leave the house.
Back to the wicker chairs for the interview.
The exit agreement is coming up at the end of March. Is Harry hurt by the decision, Oprah asks.
He is, he says, but be “absolutely respects” the Queen’s decision. In February this year, the palace said the couple would not return as working members of the royal family, adding that they would also be giving up their royal patronages.
We’re back... to the chickens.
Now Meghan is holding a small basket of eggs. The chicken coop says “Archie’s chickens”.
Back to the conversation about Archie’s skin tone.
Harry says, “That conversation I am never going to share.” He felt “awkward” he says, but he is not prepared to share what the question asked was.
“It was at the very beginning,” he says. There were “some real obvious signs even before we got married that this was going to be hard,” he says.
The couple still have Zoom calls with the Queen, says Harry.
His father is taking his calls again, but he still feels “really let down” by Prince Charles.
His father has “been through something similar” but “they only know what they know” – Meghan interrupts to say, “and what they’re told”.
Harry says he loves his brother “to bits” but that they are “on different paths”.
We’re back.We’re back.
Harry says that the deals with Spotify and Netflix deals were never part of the plan, but that his family cut him off financially in the first half of 2020 and he had to find a way to afford security.Harry says that the deals with Spotify and Netflix deals were never part of the plan, but that his family cut him off financially in the first half of 2020 and he had to find a way to afford security.
He has what his mother, Princess Diana, left him, but other than that has been cut off financially.He has what his mother, Princess Diana, left him, but other than that has been cut off financially.
Helen Sullivan here, bringing you the latest from this incredible interview. A reminder that you can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.Helen Sullivan here, bringing you the latest from this incredible interview. A reminder that you can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Oprah asks what Harry thinks Diana would say about the couple stepping back.Oprah asks what Harry thinks Diana would say about the couple stepping back.
“I think she would feel very angry and sad at how this all panned out. But I think all she would ever want would be for us to be happy.”“I think she would feel very angry and sad at how this all panned out. But I think all she would ever want would be for us to be happy.”
We cut to an ad break – but coming up, Oprah will ask Harry about his allegedly being asked by family about how dark Archie’s skin might be before he was born.We cut to an ad break – but coming up, Oprah will ask Harry about his allegedly being asked by family about how dark Archie’s skin might be before he was born.
Oprah asks Meghan about her role in “Megxit” and whether it was “all intentional to build your brand”.Oprah asks Meghan about her role in “Megxit” and whether it was “all intentional to build your brand”.
Nobody prepared her for her role or how to be a royal. They didn’t even think of preparing her to sing the British national anthem, she says.Nobody prepared her for her role or how to be a royal. They didn’t even think of preparing her to sing the British national anthem, she says.
Oprah asks Harry whether he would have stepped back were it not for Meghan.Oprah asks Harry whether he would have stepped back were it not for Meghan.
“No,” says Harry, he would not. “I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped.”“No,” says Harry, he would not. “I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped.”
Oprah asks how exactly he was trapped.Oprah asks how exactly he was trapped.
“Trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are. My father, my brother they are trapped,” he says.“Trapped within the system, like the rest of my family are. My father, my brother they are trapped,” he says.
Harry says he never thought that as a prince born into the family, he never imagined he would have his security removed.Harry says he never thought that as a prince born into the family, he never imagined he would have his security removed.
Meghan says she appealed to the family to at least maintain Harry’s security, even if they would not provide security for her and Archie.Meghan says she appealed to the family to at least maintain Harry’s security, even if they would not provide security for her and Archie.
Harry calls Meghan “one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever asked for.”Harry calls Meghan “one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever asked for.”
Harry says there were many opportunities for his family to show their support for Meghan.
“I’m acutely aware of where my family stand and how acutely scared they are of the tabloids turning on them.”
There is an “invisible contract” between the royal family and the tabloids, says Harry. If you as the family are willing to wine and dine the press, you will get better coverage, he says.
There is a level of “control by fear”: the tabloids controlling the family, he says. “The institution survives based on” their relationship with the press, Harry says.
Meghan says the coverage in the press, because it had racial overtones, changed the level of threat to the couple. “It changed the death threats,” she adds.
Back in the interview setting.
Oprah asks whether Harry asked his family for help for Meghan when she needed help. Meghan said earlier in the interview that at one point she “didn’t want to be alive any more”.
Harry says he was ashamed of admitting to his family that Meghan needed help.
We’re back, and back at the couple’s new home. Oprah is holding a box of eggs, presumably from the new chickens.
Meghan is talking about the Little Mermaid, and how Ariel loses her voice, but at the end, gets her voice back.
One person who is not watching tonight’s broadcast – UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
The prime minister has said he will “probably miss” the upcoming Oprah Winfrey interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, broadcast at 1am UK time on Monday morning. Boris Johnson said he would be focusing on the coronavirus vaccine rollout instead:
Harry says of the unconscious bias against Meghan in the UK press:
“I wasn’t aware of it to begin with, but my God it doesn’t take you very long to become aware of it.”
It was only once he was able to walk in Meghan’s shoes that he understood it.
“I asked for calm from the British tabloids: once as a boyfriend, once as a husband and once as a father.”
Oprah asks what the reason was that they left, in the simplest terms.
“Because we didn’t get enough support,” says Harry.
Did they blindside the Queen, Oprah asks.
“No, I have too much respect for her,” says Harry. He suspects the story came from within the institution.
When the couple were in Canada he had conversations with the Queen and with his father, Prince Charles, “before he stopped taking my calls”.
The conversation now turns to whether Meghan “blindsided” the family when they decided they would leave.
Harry says that first, he went to everyone he thought might be able to help them, but he was not given the help they needed.
And they didn’t actually leave, says Meghan.
They asked to “just take a step back. We can do it in a Commonwealth country, we had suggested New Zealand, South Africa, Canada”.
But the firm wasn’t open to it.
Following their announcement that they would be stepping back, the Queen said in a statement, “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working members of the royal family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”
Days later, Prince Harry would express his sadness over the couple’s decision to step down from royal duties, saying he had taken a “leap of faith”. He said he had not taken the decision lightly, but there was “no other option”.
Oprah is talking to the couple about being told their UK security would be removed.
The firm’s justification for removing security was “a change in status” – that they would no longer be “official working members of the royal family”.
Harry asked whether there had been a change in the level of threat, and were told no.
We’re back and Harry is here.
“Is it a boy or is it a girl,” Oprah asks.
The couple cutely say “you can say it, no you can say it,” before Harry reveals:
It’s a girl.
There is squealing.
“Two is it?” Oprah asks.
Two is it, they respond.
Rather a lot.
The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband and Harry’s grandfather) has left the NHS hospital where he had heart surgery and been moved back to the private King Edward VII’s hospital for continuing treatment, Buckingham Palace has said.
Philip, 99, had a successful procedure for an existing heart condition at St Bartholomew’s hospital in the City of London on Wednesday, three months before his 100th birthday.
Prince Andrew is still not taking part in any public duties after being named by Virginia Guiffre alleged that Andrew was among the men she was pressured to have sex with by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
The prince, 59, has consistently and categorically denied the allegations, which Buckingham Palace said were “false and without foundation”.
Here is more on that:
Cut to an ad break – but coming up, Oprah will ask Meghan, “Did you blindside the Queen?”