Harry and Meghan open up to Oprah about ‘breaking point’ in ‘shocking’ interview 

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Prince Harry has told Oprah Winfrey that he emigrated to LA with Meghan Markle and their son because he feared ‘history repeating itself’ after the death of his mother Princes Diana while Meghan is asked if she was ‘silenced’ by Harry’s family, a teaser trailer of the 90-minute interview revealed today.

The Duke of Sussex says that leaving the Royal Family was ‘unbelievably tough’ and Oprah claims the couple both say ‘some pretty shocking things’ in the bombshell interview that is expected to upset the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William when the show is broadcast on Sunday, March 7. 

Harry also said he was ‘relieved and happy’ to have his wife by his side in an interview where Meghan appears to describe their life together in the UK as ‘unsurvivable’.

But there will be some disquiet at the palace because it has now emerged that Harry has chosen to reference Princess Diana, who died in 1997 in a Paris car crash along with her partner Dodi Fayed. 

He tells Ms Winfrey in the 30-second clip: ‘I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself all those years ago’. He added: ‘Because it’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we have each other.’ 

During the trailer a visibly-pregnant Meghan says nothing, and is only shown looking emotional while either cradling her baby bump or holding on to her husband’s hand.  But in a hint that Meghan will not hold back about Harry’s family, Oprah reveals the former actress calls her 20 months as a royal: ‘Almost unsurvivable’ and the interviewer brands her account: ‘Shocking’.

Ms Winfrey then tells her friend: ‘It sounds like there was a breaking point,’ before asking the former actress: ‘Were you silent or were you silenced?’ Oprah also says to the camera: ‘Just to make it clear to everybody, there is no subject that is off-limits’ in the interview the Sussexes plan to use to boost their popularity in the US and continue their war with the press.

The teaser will likely upset Buckingham Palace days amid fears that the interview will be a no-holds barred airing of the feud with her husband’s family. And it came days after Harry’s 17-minute interview with his friend James Corden on the Late Late Show last week.

On that show Duke of Sussex said the move to California last year was about ‘stepping back rather than stepping down’ as royals.  The Duchess of Sussex also made a brief appearance on the show during a FaceTime call, revealing her pet name for Harry is ‘Haz’, while her husband calls her ‘Meg’ throughout and reveals that his grandmother bought their son Archie a waffle maker for Christmas.

There is already tension between Harry and his family after their ‘horribly disrespectful’ swipe at The Queen after she took away their patronages, telling Her Majesty that ‘service is universal’, left Prince William and courtiers furious. 

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The way the couple blindsided the Palace and the Queen with the Oprah deal also sparked anger and prompted the announcement that they would lose their royal patronages.

In a second, 30-second teaser posted Sunday, Harry said he was ‘relieved’ to be opening up with Meghan by his side – and said he can’t imagine what his mother went through ‘going through this process by herself. Oprah’s with Prince Harry and Meghan is scheduled to air on CBS at 8pm on March 7. 

Oprah called her interview with the royal couple ‘the best she has ever done’, according to her best friend Gayle King.

King, 66, who is an anchor for CBS, made the comments on This Morning on Friday while reporting on the Duke of Sussex’s appearance on James Corden’s Late Late Show.

King said the interview with Oprah, which was filmed before Harry’s appearance with Corden, is the couple’s ‘first major broadcast interview since giving up their senior royal duties.’

‘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,’ King said.  

King 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. 

News of the interview 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. 

On Monday, it was revealed that the Queen address the UK in a pre-recorded speech that will air on BBC One before the interview with Harry and Meghan. 

The Queen was due to attend the annual Commonwealth Service on March 8 – but this has been cancelled for the first time in nearly half a century due to COVID-19, Westminster Abbey announced on Monday.

Instead, the Queen has chosen to share her annual message 24 hours earlier with a show of support from Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.

The Royal Family will also take part in the Queen’s A Celebration For Commonwealth Day show, hosted by Anita Rani to share their royal perspectives on the importance of Britain’s Commonwealth links.

On Monday, it also emerged that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s incendiary interview with Oprah may have to be re-edited or even partially re-shot due to the rift it has caused with the royal family and 99-year-old Prince Philip’s hospitalization. 

Some previously claimed that the interview, believed to be completed two weeks, could even be toned down – though new trailers show that seems unlikely.

It has also emerged that Meghan is expected to speak about the feud with her own family on her father Thomas’ side in the interview with Oprah.

This Morning host Holly Willoughby said that Oprah’s team had been in contact with ITV for footage of an interview with her half-sister. 

In the January 2020 broadcast Samantha Markle said the former Suits actress and Harry owed her and their father an apology for ‘incredibly wrong, untoward, and shocking’ behavior after the royal wedding in 2018.

‘Oprah Winfrey’s team contacted This Morning requesting footage from our interview with Samantha Markle in preparation for the interview with the Duchess of Sussex,’ Willoughby said on Monday.

She added: ‘So, we don’t know whether or not they used that in the interview, but what we do know is nothing was off limits.’

Insight into the no-holds-barred interview with Oprah has prompted further questions about why Harry and Meghan chose 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 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, Harry appears to know what was coming.

‘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,’ he said. 

Is Harry and Meghan’s rebrand a swipe at the palace? New Archewell logo features the word ‘service’ after Queen said their multi-million dollar US media career was not compatible with life of public service

Harry and Meghan rebranded their website yesterday in the build-up to their Oprah Winfrey interview – with a defiant new swipe at Buckingham Palace.

The pair dropped a photograph of Princess Diana and their ‘Letter for 2021’ from the home page of their Archewell website, and replaced them with a lofty new mission statement.

The Archewell logo was also updated, to include the words ‘Service. Compassion. Action. Community.’

The couple’s prominent use of the word ‘Service’ is likely to raise eyebrows at Buckingham Palace, following a row over whether the Sussexes could continue a life of public service after their decision to quit as working royals.

Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, are preparing for a ‘tell-all’ interview with chatshow host Oprah Winfrey to be shown in the US next Sunday. It is likely to be broadcast on ITV in Britain a day later.

The 90-minute chat is expected to focus on Meghan’s experiences as a member of the Royal Family, including why she and Harry decided to quit and make a new life for themselves and son Archie in the US, where they have signed lucrative media contracts with the likes of Netflix and Spotify.

Their updated Archewell website outlined their aims for their non-profit work in a mission statement written in the ‘woke’ language of their new home in California.

It said: ‘Welcome to Archewell. Through our non-profit work, as well as creative activations, we drive systemic cultural change across all communities, one act of compassion at a time.’

The home page previously featured photographs of Harry and Meghan as children with their mothers.

Those images have been replaced with a single picture of the Sussexes handing out supplies for low-income families at a charity event in Los Angeles last year.

A lengthy message, entitled ‘A Letter for 2021’, was also removed from the home page.

The message started with the words ‘I am my mother’s son’ and urged the couple’s supporters to help them ‘work to build a better world’.  

The couple, who are expecting their second child later this year, have insisted they will continue to ‘live a life of service’ outside the Royal Family.

When it was announced they would not be returning to royal duties, Buckingham Palace said their new life meant they could not continue ‘the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service’.

The Queen is understood to have told the couple that their commercial careers were incompatible with the impartiality required of those in public service, but insisted they remained ‘much loved members of the family’.

The pair issued an immediate response, saying: ‘We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.’

Their interview for US TV is likely to be one of the most-watched programs this year.

According to a close friend, Meghan declared ‘nothing is off limits’ for the show, entitled Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special. 

Last week Harry took a fresh swipe at the Royal Family when he insisted he had not walked away from royal duties.

The sixth in line to the throne appeared in a 17-minute skit with friend and TV host James Corden on the US entertainment programme, The Late Late Show.

It came as Prince Philip spent a second weekend in hospital battling an infection. The Duke of Edinburgh has been in London’s King Edward VII hospital for 13 nights.