Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to sit down for a ‘wide-ranging’ and ‘intimate’ TV interview with Oprah that will cover everything from their latest pregnancy and marriage to their exit from the royal family.
The 90-minute primetime special, entitled ‘Oprah with Meghan and Harry’, will air on 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’.
The interview is the latest in a line of carefully-planned publicity moves from the couple and the announcement comes less than 24 hours after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced that they are expecting their second child.
Meghan and Harry’s decision to record an interview with Oprah is unsurprising 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.
Opening up: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will sit down for a primetime TV interview with Oprah, it has been announced, one day after they revealed they are expecting a second child
Connections: It will likely come as no surprise that the couple have chosen to speak with Oprah, 67, who is a close friend of the couple and was a guest at their 2018 wedding
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.
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.
Close: The TV mogul lives a short distance from the couple’s $14.5 million Montecito home, and recently promoted a coffee brand that Meghan has invested in on Instagram (pictured)
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.
Their partnership with Netflix sparked furious controversy – and further questions about 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.
Oprah also boasts her own multi-year streaming partnership with Apple TV+, on which she recently streamed an interview with Barack Obama.
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.