Chatting with Oprah: Five royal interviews that went viral [video]

A day after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they are expecting their second child, CBS revealed that Oprah Winfrey is going to have an “intimate conversation” with the couple for a 90-minute primetime special airing Sunday, 7 March.

In two promotional videos, aired on 28 February by CBS and shared with BAZAAR.com, fans got their first look at the in-depth interview that took place with the Sussexes at their California home. In one clip, Winfrey tells viewers, “Just to make it clear to everybody, there is no subject that is off-limits.”

Tell-all interview

Now, reports reveal that the upcoming interview has made the Palace ‘nervous’, and there is already much discussion about what the couple will reveal. CBS did say that Oprah 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”.

“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,” CBS stated further.

No subject was off limits. The world’s first look at “Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special” pic.twitter.com/8hoxc023mX

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) March 1, 2021

By looking at the history books, it seems the royal family are right to be worried, as they don’t have a great history when it comes to ‘tell-all’ style interviews. Over the years, many members of royal family have decided to sit down with journalists to put their side of the story across – and it has often ended in disaster.

Princess Diana’s Panorama interview

Most famously, Princess Diana spoke to Panorama about the breakdown of her marriage to Charles, famously saying her marriage was “a bit crowded” due to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. This is said to be the ‘most famous’ royal interview after it was watched by more than 22 million viewers at the time.

Sarah Ferguson on her divorce

Meghan and Harry won’t be Oprah’s first royal interview, and she managed to secure a chat with Sarah Ferguson in 1996 in which she said marrying a prince “wasn’t a fairytale”. She also talked about the drawbacks of living in Buckingham Palace after marrying Prince Andrew.

She said: “We had one bedroom, two bathrooms, a dining room cum study cum nursery and a sitting room and that was it. It was all burgundy and very dark, and the lightbulbs are only 30 amp so they don’t give out any light.”

She also discussed all the rules she had to follow in her own home, including how far she could open the windows. She later appeared on the show ahead of Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton, which she wasn’t invited to.

Prince Charles admission of his own infidelity

A year earlier Prince Charles made the jaw-dropping admission of his own infidelity. Speaking to presenter Jonathan Dimbleby, Charles said he was faithful to Diana “until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.” It was the prince’s first acknowledgement of his rumoured extramarital affair with Camilla. The interviews spelt the end for Charles and Diana’s marriage and set alight a conversation as to whether the heir would ever be accepted as king, according to Hello Magazine.

Prince Andrew’s interview with BBC Newsnight

In November 2019, Prince Andrew believed his interview with BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis had gone “pretty well”. In reality his catastrophic performance, where he made excuses about his friendship with sex offender Epstein and suggested he didn’t sweat, spelt the immediate end of his royal life. He was subsequently ordered to move his private office out of Britain’s Buckingham Palace. A slew of other companies and institutions also severed ties with Andrew and his initiatives on the heels of the interview.

Meghan and Harry’s Africa documentary

Meghan spoke to ITV news anchor Tom Brady in South Africa in October 2019, which ultimately paved the way for her and husband Harry to quit their royal roles just weeks later, when she admitted she was “not okay”.

“Not many people have asked if I’m okay, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes”, she said. 

In the same documentary, Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, Harry confessed his relationship with brother William was indeed strained, admitting they had “good days and bad days”.