Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were slammed for "breaking King Charles' heart" as their infamous interview with Oprah Winfrey was revisited on podcast The Royals Uncensored.
Oprah reflects on 2021 interview
US TV host Oprah Winfrey discussed the 2021 interview in California, opening up about the moment Meghan said there were "concerns and conversations about how dark Archie's skin was going to be." Oprah told Vanity Fair that she asked the now-infamous "were you silent or were you silenced?" question because she wanted absolute clarity. She said: "I didn't want, later, to hear 'Well, no, it wasn't that. It really was that I was silenced.' So it was all for clarification."
Royal experts weigh in
Royal expert Sarah Hewson said: "The royal racist and absolutely no questions, no follow-up questions. I mean, you know, you're a journalist. You're sitting there doing one of the most high-profile interviews that will ever exist and you don't ask the absolutely most important question and you don't challenge."
Jo Elvin responded: "It's been one of the most unfair things that has just hung over the royal family like this terrible stink, isn't it? It just begs the question, well, who would have said such a thing if they ever actually did? What are your thoughts, Andrew?"
Andrew said: "Oprah Winfrey was expressing such shock. She said, 'What?' She um so I think the whole thing was utterly ridiculous. And also, I mean, of all people, the royals led the way in being anti-racist."
King Charles' heartbreak
Andrew spoke of the royals' attempts to be as inclusive as possible, saying: "The king is so inclusive. He just had so many faiths involved in his coronation and all of those things. I think it must have broken his heart to hear."
Jo said: "I was surprised that Oprah wanted to revisit that. I mean because she did get a lot of stick for it at the time and rightly so."
Katie agreed, adding: "We're all journalists. Um, I would say we're good journalists and we would have asked probing questions."
Jo concluded: "It all felt so engineered and that was really annoying. I just found that really annoying. Not Oprah's finest moment."
