ITV will air bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview with Harry and Meghan next Monday

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ITV has today been branded ‘deplorable’ after it bought up the Duke and Duchess and Sussex’s ‘grossly insensitive’ two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey for £1million despite warnings its broadcast could detonate a ‘diplomatic bomb’ if the Duke of Edinburgh’s health deteriorates, it was revealed today.

Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special will be shown in the UK at 8pm on Monday, March 8, around 24 hours after it is first shown in the US on Sunday night. 

The deal is said to have cost ITV around £1million, having beaten Sky to the rights after talks with ViacomCBS were completed yesterday. It was a largely open field in the UK after the BBC declined to broadcast it.

But some experts have questioned whether ITV will make any money from the £1million deal because businesses may not want to advertise during the ‘toxic’ two hour show because Philip is battling heart problems in hospital and claims the public have more affection for him than Meghan and Harry. 

Some ITV viewers have already vowed to boycott the show completely due to the ‘horrendous timing’.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, who was editor of International Who’s Who for 25 years, told MailOnline today: ‘ITV’s decision to purchase the rights to Harry and Meghan’s highly sensational interview with Oprah is deplorable. Who knows how matters linked to the Duke’s health will play out over the coming days. ITV have made the wrong decision and they would do well to await events before deciding when to screen it here’. 

But the couple’s decision to sign up with a commercial broadcaster means they are unlikely to be able to stop it, with PR guru Mark Borkowski declaring: ‘The timing is just horrendous. This could be a real reputational mess for everybody involved. I think brands have to take a considered view about whether they want their advertising anywhere near this’.

Royal expert Phil Dampier, author of Royally Suited Harry and Meghan in their Own Words said: ‘They can only hope and pray that the Duke recovers and goes home. If something happens to him it would look terrible. Even if Harry and Meghan wanted to stop it they probably can’t and it’s out of their hands’. 

One TV insider said that the interview would be a ‘diplomatic bomb’ if it goes ahead and Philip’s health worsens, telling the Mirror: ‘CBS has sold millions of dollars worth of advertising around the interview, but bosses are aware of the delicacy of the Duke’s health.’ The newspaper’s Royal Editor Russell Myers added: ‘The history is there with these types of interview – they never end well – this is a disaster waiting to happen’.

But Prince Charles’ biographer Tom Bower hopes it goes ahead. He said: ‘I think ITV was right to buy the interview. We want to see how Harry and Meghan have sold their souls and are wilfully destroying themselves’. 

MailOnline has asked ITV to comment as critics demanded they reverse their decision to show it. 

The sit-down, which Oprah promises will be ‘shocking’, has been extended by half an hour, from 90 minutes to two hours, to allow CBS to rake in more money from advertising – a 30-second slot is reported to be costing $200,000, around £144,000. ITV will also set to try to cash in on the deal with up to 24 minutes of advertising time available during the 120 minute show. 

But media consultant Chris Hayward believes that ITV may not make money from the £1million deal, however, the broadcaster will believe it will be worth because of the press coverage and getting one over rivals including Sky and streaming giants Netflix and Amazon Prime.

He said: ‘If the idea for ITV was to buy it to draw in advertisers, then I don’t think it will work because Meghan and Harry’s decision to exile abroad is a Marmite subject. But ITV won’t worry about that if they get a big audience because this is about making a big noise and securing one of the biggest TV shows of the year’. He added: ‘This is about PR, and battling Netflix and Amazon’.  

The row over the Sussexes’ bid to break America with Oprah’s help came as: 

• Experts warn that ITV is taking a gamble by buying the Oprah interview because businesses may be put off advertising during the show with viewers also vowing to boycott it;
• A sombre-looking Prince Harry and Meghan drive themselves around California with her mother Doria after recording Oprah interview about their ‘unbelievably tough’ exit from ‘un-survivable’ royal life;
• The Royal family are ‘united in prayers’ for Prince Philip, 99, as he begins first full day under care of specialist heart doctors at St Bartholomew’s hospital and experts claim he may be there for six weeks;
• Philip’s poor health means the royals have ‘more important things to worry about’ than Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ‘shocking’ bombshell interview, Buckingham Palace aides insisted;

Brand guru Mark Borkowski told MailOnline that going ahead while Prince Philip is severely ill ‘could herald terrible consequences’ for the royal couple, and damage the ‘caring’ brand they want to build in the US that experts believe could be worth £1billion.

He said: ‘A sensible call would be to put the encounter on hold. It would demonstrate sensitivity. Which lies at the heart of their brand. However the genie is out of the bottle, it might be impossible to halt transmission as it’s scheduled. From the shape of the hype this is going to be a disruptive storm. I believe this might not end well. It just can’t be all about their narrative whilst Harry’s grandfather is ill’. 

He added: ‘But I don’t think ITV will lose money. The eyeballs are on this huge TV moment. But the downside for all involved is huge if Prince Philip takes a turn for the worse. No one knows outside Buckingham Palace knows the true extent of his health emergency. 

“Anybody who looks at this though the optics of a caring family, even a family who are estranged from one another, it’s very uncomfortable as you edge towards Sunday’. 

Mr Borkowski added: “This could be a real reputational mess for everybody involved.

“Harry and Meghan are supposed to be a sensitive, caring and empathetic brand.

“Surely the disruption, particularly to the Queen… but they’re going ahead with this juggernaut.”

If Philip’s health were to worsen, Mr Borkowski said Harry and Meghan’s fate would be “in the lap of the gods”.

“If you were strategically giving advice about mitigating reputational damage, you would show huge empathy by postponing,” he said.

Mr Borkowski said a deterioration in Philip’s health would also raise serious issues for ITV as to whether the screening should go ahead in the UK, and could cause problems for advertisers airing commercials during the programme. 

Royal biographer Robert Jobson told MailOnline: ‘With the Duke of Edinburgh clearly very unwell, the fact that the couple plan to go ahead with airing their self-indulgent, no holds barred interview with chat show queen Oprah Winfrey makes them appear heartless, thoughtless and supremely selfish. 

‘For US broadcast network CBS this interview is a coup, all about securing big viewing figures and big advert sales around the airing of their exclusive interview. So even if they wanted to Harry and Meghan probably couldn’t dictate terms to Oprah Winfrey and the network now. Too much has been invested. I can’t see them having the clout to pull it’. He added: ‘This is the problem when royals swap big bucks for duty and sign up to big paying commercial contracts. They lose the power to dictate terms’. 

Harry and Meghan are being urged to ask CBS to postpone the broadcast of their bombshell interview after the Duke of Edinburgh was moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London because of ‘a pre-existing heart condition’ hours after a 30-second trailer of the Sussexes’ tell-all interview with their friend Oprah was released. 

With Philip set to be in hospital for the rest of the week at least or even longer, royal experts and fans have suggested that Harry should step in and ask for a postponement ‘out of respect’. 

Other royal experts have suggested that Prince Charles may have reassured his father about Harry and the continuing turmoil in the Royal Family caused by Megxit during a visit a week ago.

While Grace Armstrong-Jones tweeted: ‘I would hope, given his grandfather’s deteriorating health, that Harry would ask Oprah to postpone the broadcast of the interview. This is the last thing the Royal Family need with Prince Phillip so unwell’.  Sandra Meier said: ‘Prince Philip is seriously ill. I hope CBS or Oprah will postpone or cancel Harry and Meghan’s interview’. Another wrote: ‘Out of respect to Prince Philip, they should postpone this fantasy drama fest’. 

MailOnline has asked CBS to comment. 

Oprah Winfrey’s assertion that Meghan Markle may have been ‘silenced’ by the Crown is ‘ridiculous’ and unfairly paints the Queen as a mob boss like Don Corleone from The Godfather, royal experts told MailOnline. 

Buckingham Palace should also be ‘scared’ after it emerged that the Sussexes’ tell-all interview due for broadcast on Sunday night has been extended from 90 minutes to two hours at the 11th hour. 

Oprah pushes Meghan Markle on whether she was ‘silenced’ by the Crown while Prince Harry claims he emigrated to LA with his family because he feared ‘history repeating itself’ after the death of his mother Princess Diana, a new trailer shows.

The Duke of Sussex also describes leaving the Royal Family as ‘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 March 7. 

Oprah promises viewers there will be ‘shocking’ revelations and ‘no subject off limits’ in the over produced teaser complete with dramatic music released online by CBS in the US overnight. In more bad news for the royals, who have already been warned to ‘hide behind their sofas’ on Sunday, the broadcaster also revealed the show has extended from 90 minutes to a two-hour special that will be watched by tens of millions of people worldwide. 

Robert Jobson said the trailer was packed with ‘over the top, melodramatic nonsense’.

He said: ‘The Queen and the Royal Family are not the Corleone family of Windsor. There are no hit men or heavies going around silencing people. Meghan, whilst a working royal, was always protected by a team of Scotland Yard officers. Thankfully, she was never in danger physically and Harry knows that. Talk of being ‘silenced’ is just ridiculous. It suits a narrative, I suppose, but at what cost to the Queen, Prince Philip and the Royal Family and our reputation as a country’. 

On the late decision to extend the show, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: ‘An extra 30 minutes could be scary for the Palace. Was this because Harry and Meghan were angry at having their patronages removed or had it always been planned? The interview with Oprah will determine their future relations with the royal family for the foreseeable future’.

Another critic tweeted sarcastically: ‘It’s been so unbelievably tough moving into our $11million home, signing huge deals with Netflix and Spotify, and drawing on my huge trust from my Royal lineage. Like if you want a quiet life, go have one, keyword being quiet’. 

The extra half-hour of the show will allow CBS to rake in more advertising, with a 30-second prime time slot believed to cost around $200,000. According to Page Six, the Sussexes are not being paid for the Oprah interview, but experts believe it is part of their plan to build a billion-dollar brand in the US after signing mega-deals with Netflix and Spotify worth at least $100million. 

The teaser trailer 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 while it is not clear exactly how Harry compares their treatment to Princess Diana’s, royal experts have already criticised his decision to raise it. 

During the trailer a visibly pregnant Meghan, wearing a $4,700 black Armani dress and £13,000 bracelet belonging to Diana, says nothing, and is only shown looking emotional or nodding while either cradling her baby bump or holding on to her husband’s hand on location in Santa Barbara, California.

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. 

Harry, wearing a smart grey suit and white shirt, also said he was ‘relieved and happy’ to have his wife by his side, hinting he feared that Meghan would suffer the same fate as his mother, who died 23 years ago. 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.’ 

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. 

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 royals and 99-year-old Prince Philip’s hospitalisation. 

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 last week.

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 UK 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. 

In another extraordinary moment Harry raps the theme tune to The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air outside the mansion where it was filmed before the royal and Mr Corden head off to complete a muddy army assault course together, ferried around LA on an open-top tour bus serving afternoon tea.

But critics have questioned the timing of his ‘prancing’ TV appearance, released last night just as the Queen gave a rare public statement encouraging all Britons to ‘think about others’ and have the Covid-19 jab.

Palace sources told MailOnline the timing of Harry’s TV appearance is ‘unhelpful, and has caused ‘disquiet’ at the palace, especially with Prince Philip spending his 11th day in hospital battling a nasty infection.  ‘When the Queen speaks as she has done about the vaccine it is accepted that she has a clear field’, the insider said.

Others watching the film, where Harry complains about the ‘toxic’ media attention he received in the UK during a TV interview watched by millions, urged him on social media to ‘stop bl**dy whining’ and ‘re-writing history’. 

The prince was also accused of ‘ignoring’ the multi-million dollar deals he and his wife have signed with Spotify and Netflix, with Harry even praising the streaming giant’s The Crown, despite its negative portrayal of his family, including his parents Charles and Diana.  

Royal expert Phil Dampier said: ‘As The Queen urges us to think of others, Prince Harry prances about in LA and makes the absurd claim that he hasn’t walked away from the royals. What planet is he on? Hollywood I suppose.’   

Prince Harry used the interview to point the finger at the British press for his decision to emigrate with Meghan, 39, and Archie, one.

‘It was never walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down, there was a really difficult environment as I think a lot of people saw,’ Harry said.

‘We all know what the British press could be like, and it was destroying my mental health, I was like this is toxic. So I did what any husband and what any father would do is like, I need to get my family out of here.’

Critics of the couple, who announced this month they were expecting their second child, have said they are keen for publicity but only on their own terms. An in-depth interview they have given to U.S. chat show host Oprah Winfrey is due to be aired on March 7.

During his interview, carried out on a tour of Los Angeles, Harry told Corden that Netflix’s hit series ‘The Crown’, a fictional account of the life of the queen and her family, was ‘loosely based on the truth’, before again pointing a finger at the press.

‘It gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that,’ he said.

‘I’m way more comfortable with the Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family or my wife, or myself, because … that is obviously fiction, take it how you will, but this is being reported on as facts because you’re supposedly news.’

How CAN Prince Harry’s TV show go on while his grandfather is so sick? As Oprah’s explosive interview with Harry and Meghan nears – and with Prince Philip still receiving treatment in hospital – RICHARD KAY asks an urgent question

Timing is everything, especially bad timing.

And what could have been worse than for Prince Harry to be gazing out of television screens all over the world yesterday with another incendiary blast about the misery of his privileged life just as his grandfather Prince Philip was leaving one London hospital by ambulance for another?

Even allowing for the fact that Harry had no control over when the trailer for his and Meghan’s upcoming ‘no subject off-limits’ interview with Oprah Winfrey was to be aired — there is another question here: a question of taste.

His comments, recorded last month, that the couple’s decision to leave Britain for a new life in Los Angeles had been ‘unbelievably tough’ are not new, but the implied criticism of the Royal Family in the melodramatic trailer — at a time when the focus is on Philip — looks both insensitive and thoughtless.

When someone of the Duke of Edinburgh’s great age — 99 — is in hospital there are always uncertainties. 

Although for so long a man of robust health, his move from the King Edward VII Hospital to Bart’s suggests a concerning escalation in his welfare.

How much better it would have been to have ensured that no advance publicity for the interview was authorised until the news about Philip had been a little more positive.

That would, of course, have required an element of wisdom from Harry.

Just imagine if he had sought the views of his famously blunt-speaking grandfather and paused to compare the cossetted life he has enjoyed with that of Philip before giving full rein to his complaints on camera.

Might he have thought twice had he considered his loving upbringing with that of Philip?

For Harry the death of his mother when he was just 12 was profound and the loss has shaped him ever since.

But his grandfather too knew tragedy: the loss of a father, a gambling reprobate he barely knew, and an eccentric mother who had little involvement in how her son was raised or, indeed, who was responsible for it. 

Uprooted from his family home, he was moved between uncles and aunts, and when war came was separated from those he loved most, his three surviving sisters (one sister died aged 26 in a plane crash) who had married into the Prussian aristocracy.

Instead of complaining about his lot, Philip seized the opportunities he was offered.

Like Harry he made a success of his military career, serving with distinction in the Navy throughout World War II.

But then came the crushing disappointment of having to give up a life at sea for one of duty on the death of King George VI when his wife, Princess Elizabeth, succeeded as Queen. Never once did Philip allow personal interests to overcome this sense of obligation.

His unflinching dedication saw him become the architect of the modern Royal Family in which public service has been central to everything that he and the Queen have represented for more than seven decades.

Atruly curious Harry might also have wondered how Philip had handled speculation about his private life.

No royal has put up with more gossip than Prince Philip; rumours of affairs have followed him throughout his married life. How has he handled this gossip? By ignoring it.

But even if Harry chose to discount all that his grandfather might have to offer on so many aspects of being royal, there is surely one key facet he — or Meghan — should have solicited help on.

For like the Duchess of Sussex, Prince Philip was an outsider marrying into the Royal Family.

No one was better placed to guide the former American actress into the protocols and pitfalls of royalty, what was worth fighting for and what was not, how to fit in but also how to retain that spark of independence, so critical in Philip’s make up. 

Indeed, nearly 30 years ago Philip was using that experience in an exchange of letters with Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, as she struggled to save her marriage to Prince Charles.

In the carefully curated extract from next Sunday’s interview, trailed by the American television station CBS yesterday, Harry says he cannot imagine how his mother coped.

Drawing parallels between Diana’s situation and his own, he speaks of his mother ‘going through this process by herself all those years ago’.

But here he is wrong. Diana was sometimes lonely but she was never alone. She had her sons, she had her own family in the Spencers, she had a loyal staff and she had her friends.

Harry’s attempt at equating what he perceives as the ill-treatment he and Meghan claim to have received from the media with Princess Diana’s own battles over privacy and intrusion are hopelessly muddled and woefully ill‑thought out.

There really is no comparison with what Diana endured in terms of media interest over 17 years and what Meghan had to put up with for 20 months.

For the last four years of her life Diana, at her choice, had no police bodyguards to fend off the paparazzi. They swarmed around her — her every move was photographed and no aspect escaped scrutiny.

But as Harry well knows there was a paradox to his mother’s relationship with the Press. 

She had friends who were journalists — I was one of them — and despite the provocation, she never once described the media as ‘toxic’ as Harry did, in another interview, with presenter James Corden last week.

For her brief spell as a working royal, Meghan was never without Scotland Yard protection. Her movements and Harry’s were shrouded in secrecy — as they should be. They took holidays with no one knowing where or when, and if they were seen in public it was because they chose to be seen.

When Oprah Winfrey came to see Diana at Kensington Palace, the Princess saw through her flattery. She gave her tea and sent her away empty-handed.

It’s too late for Harry now, the interview is in the can. But maybe there is still time for some nobility. Out of respect to his grandfather, might Harry see if Oprah will reschedule?

It surely can’t hurt to ask.

 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose a rustic garden with ‘touches of the English countryside’ and shapes that ‘foster trust’ for their explosive Oprah interview, experts reveal

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose an outdoor setting with ‘touches of the English countryside’ for their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, experts have revealed. 

Prince Harry, 36, and Meghan Markle, 39, filmed the 90-minute TV special in a beautiful garden at an unknown property in Santa Barbara, California, near their £12million mansion.  

It was originally thought the couple invited Oprah to film the interview at the home they share with 10-month-old son Archie, however this is not the case. 

Speaking to Femail, British interior designer Benji Lewis of online advisory service Zoom That Room explained how the couple chose a ‘rustic’ and ‘relaxed’ garden with nods to traditional English design as the setting for the explosive tell-all. 

‘My first thought is that the scene suggests reassuringly peaceful, smart English country house garden idyll,’ he explained. ‘We’re channelling a kind of Highgrove that comes to the West Coast vibe. It’s chic and very cleverly crafted, slightly grand and yet not overly complicated.’

He added they are surrounded by circular shapes that ‘foster trust’ and ‘promote harmony’. 

Here,  Benji and Heather Barrigan of home renovation service MyJobQuote break down the key features of the outdoor setting… 

1. SOFT PAVING STONES THAT BRING ‘ENGLAND TO CALIFORNIA’

Benji said: ‘Instead of choosing paving that is uniformly coloured, textured, and sized, the stone here has been laid more casually; the wider mortar lines in the further part of the terrace seemingly broken up in parts with moss. 

‘This softer approach covers the ground between formal (i.e. we have gone to the extent of paving) and informal (i.e. but the paving we chose and how we had it laid is relaxed and rustic).’

Heather added: ‘The barely visible paving stones are typically seen in English gardens. This adds a hint of traditional décor, which works perfectly next to the more exotic elements.’ 

2. BRINGING THE ‘INSIDE, OUT’

Benji said: ‘They have very much dressed the setting in the way you would an interior with natural textures playing a key part (we’re thinking cotton and linens and timber and stone) – the herringbone sisal rug on the old York stone paving and the cut grass lawn beyond – accessorising the furnishings with soft linen cushions and including a coffee table and side table, suggesting ‘you have a comfortable place to sit and even more than that, a table close by on which to put your cup of tea’. 

‘The seating is comfortable and supportive and loungey but not at all floppy or over relaxed.’

Heather added: ‘The woven-style rug is the epitome of indoor/outdoor living which is a staple of Californian homes. This is a complimentary contrast to the traditional-style paving stones underneath, creating an authentic British-American fusion.’

3. CREATING A ‘CIRCLE OF TRUST’

Benji said: ‘There’s a gentle formality about the scene I suppose but no hard edges, the round coffee table could have been square, but they rightly chose a circle. The circle of trust.’

4. DRESSED TO MATCH

Benji said: ‘The colour palette wise has all been gently layered to deliberately not contrast with the rustic setting, and I love how they’ve worked their colour palette up, starting with soft creamy tan tones on the floor, working soft grey into the clothing they have dressed Prince Harry in, the charcoal dress on Meghan with Oprah cleverly dressed in tones of dusty pink, ivory and going into shades of light rosewood on her skirt.’

5. ‘REGAL’ SCENTED VINES

Heather noted: ‘The vined columns, which date back to the second renaissance, help create a regal but wild feel to the garden. This incorporates royalty-style décor with the new trend of garden rewilding.’ 

Benji said: ‘The creeping foliage on the old square stone posts looks like it could be jasmine and the pots of lavender means it is an all-round feel for space with the impression of scent as well.’ 

6. & 7. PLANTING WITH SOFT EDGES AND A WILD MEADOW

Benji said: ‘The line of hedge trailing away down the hill in the yonder shows a degree of tailoring but there are no hard lines or edges, similarly, the creeping jasmine softens the architecture of the posts.

‘The grounds are bountifully pleasing in their fullness and greenness – with the slightly wilder looking woodland trailing off down the hill, the charmingly almost non maintained hedge providing a break point suggesting that this side of the hedge we’re into the formal garden and yet before we reach the daisy lawn there’s an area of what looks like it could be allowed to run into a wild meadow. Different textures all the time to create interest.’

Heather noted: ‘You will notice that the garden is not overloaded with flowers. Instead, there is more relaxed planting visible at the back of the garden near the grass.’

8. DESIGN THAT ‘FOSTERS HARMONY’ 

Benji said: ‘The use of round potted plants indicates a soft boundary from the terrace to lawn. The shape of the round pots being echoed by the coffee table to create a sense of harmony. It’s a very gentle vibe they’ve created, reassuring, trustworthy and not confrontational.’

Meghan Markle’s ‘enigmatic’ smile in response to Oprah’s explosive questions echoes Princess Diana’s Panorama interview while her gestures show she’s ‘protective’ of Prince Harry, body language expert claims

The ‘Sphinx-like’ Duchess of Sussex maintains an ‘enigmatic’ smile as she speaks to Oprah Winfrey in the first trailer for their bombshell interview in echoes of Princess Diana on Panorama, a body language expert has claimed.

During the 30-second trailer, Meghan Markle, 36, does not speak but is seen smiling slightly in response to Oprah saying ‘no topic was off limits’ for their TV special, which airs this Sunday.

It calls to mind Princess Diana’s behaviour during her 1995 tell-all interview with Martin Bashir, body language expert Judi James told FEMAIL. 

The teasers reveal Meghan will discuss what made royal life ‘almost unsurvivable’, and show Oprah asking: ‘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.’

Elsewhere in the trailer, filmed at the couple’s £12million California manion, Meghan clutches Prince Harry’s hand in a ‘protective’ fashion as he compares their situation to the one faced by his mother and says he fears it would be a case of ‘history repeating itself’.

Here, Judi breaks down the key moments of the TV trailers…

ECHOES OF DIANA 

The Duchess of Sussex doesn’t say anything during the interview – but her facial expressions and gestures still convey plenty of meaning, Judi James noted.

At one point Meghan smiles slightly as Oprah, a close friend, says to the camera ‘nothing is off limits’ during their chat. 

The moment, which is captured in the trailer, has clear parallels to the way Diana reacted to questioning during her own explosive TV moment: the Panorama interview that aired in November 1995.  

However while Diana was clearly racked with sadness as she discussed Prince Charles’s infidelity, Meghan seems more composed.    

‘Meghan’s very subtle mouth-smile in response to Oprah’s dramatic claims does throw up hints of Diana’s interview back in the day,’ Judi explained. 

‘But while Diana’s sadness was etched on her face, Meghan’s expressions looks far more enigmatic here.’

However the sneak peek suggests Meghan will not hold back on the night. 

REGAL AND READY TO TALK 

‘Meghan’s poise here looks regal and suggests confidence, rather than anything more defensive and wary. 

‘Her back is straight and she sits central in her chair and we can see both arms splayed in a pit-bare gesture to suggest feelings of self-control rather than any self-diminishing or barrier rituals to hint she might have felt the questions were getting beyond her here.’

It suggests Meghan was well prepared for the questions coming her way. 

MEGHAN, THE SILENT MOVIE STAR 

‘With the sinister-sounding music swirling about their heads to build up the drama, Meghan is presented as a silent movie star here with only a few meagre crumbs of hints about her verbal and emotional input,’ Judi said. 

‘Oprah is in full-on jaw-drop mode though, using terms like ‘silenced’ and ‘unsurvivable’ while Meghan sits, sphinx-like and beautiful, with only a head-tilt and small swallow suggesting depth of emotion in terms of her responses.’

PROTECTIVE OF PRINCE HARRY 

Judi continued: ‘Meghan looks protective of Harry though and the way that she cradles her baby bump with one hand (also displaying her wedding band) and places her left hand on top of Harry’s when he joins her suggests she is keen to protect both.’

‘Harry sits across his seat in a way that suggest he is keen to talk, but his air of awkwardness is in contrast to his wife’s poise. His hand looks balled into a fist beneath Meghan’s reassuring hand and his free hand is placed between his legs in a ‘fig-leaf’ pose, suggesting a very basic desire to form a protective barrier.’

NO MORE PLAYFUL ‘HAZ’ 

Meanwhile the Duke of Sussex’s serious expression is worlds apart from the light-hearted goofiness he demonstrated during his interview on the Late Late Show With James Corden, which aired last week.

Judi added: ‘After seeing Harry living his best life recently, sitting barefoot on the grass with Meghan or rapping and exchanging banter with James Corden, the body language in this clip suggests a complete change of mood, with the comical ‘Haz’ swapped for a man sitting on all sorts of anguish and even fear related to the fate of his beloved mother and worries about history repeating itself.’    

LA girl glam! How Meghan Markle ‘stepped up’ her usual low-key look for ‘red carpet style makeup’ for Oprah Winfrey interview with lash extensions, bold eyeliner and a soft buttery lip

Meghan Markle swapped her usual low key look for a ‘red carpet style makeup’ for her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, an expert has revealed.

The mother-to-be, 39, proudly cradled her baby bump in a teaser trailer for her tell-all with the media mogul, which is her most high-profile appearance since she and Prince Harry, 36, revealed they are expecting their second child later this year. 

The royal stepped away from her usual signature ‘natural’ style of makeup, and instead opted for a gorgeous glamorous look, adding lash extensions, heavy eyeliner and a pale pink lipstick.

Make-up artist Lisa Little told FEMAIL the Duchess had ‘settled back into LA girl glam’ with the look for the explosive discussion, saying: ‘Megan has really stepped it up when it came to her makeup look for the Oprah Winfrey interview.

The Duchess showed off her growing stomach in the £3,300 dress for the interview, which was belted above her stomach and featured floral embroidery over one shoulder. 

The mother-of-one could be seen wearing a dazzling diamond tennis Cartier bracelet from Princess Diana‘s jewellery collection, which retails for an eye-watering £17,700. 

But it was her make-up look which has stunned many, with Meghan opting for a more glamorous look, with a sweep of highlighter, added lash extensions and rimming her eyes in dark liner. 

It was a step away from the mother-of-one’s usual subtle, nude style of make-up which she is renowned for.

Make-up artist Lisa revealed: ‘Megan had opted for the more demure soft makeup application for the last couple of years, but for the show she gave us full glam. 

‘Showing us true la red carpet style makeup, the Duchess chose a heavy smokey eye which made her eyes really pop with the eyeliner application on both the lid and the water line.’

‘These were a real focal point for me teamed with a set of false lashes, which were fuller on the outer part of the eye to give that cat lifting eye effect we are seeing everywhere at the moment.’

The expert continued: ‘Although Megan was wearing foundation, it was sheer coverage which allowed her freckles to remain poignant and giving her that sun kissed glow. 

‘Teamed with perfectly placed contour and a pop of heavy blush Megan truly looked like she had settled back into her previous la girl glam!

‘With a heavy eye and popping blush Megan balanced her look with a soft buttery lip giving them just enough colour to tie the whole look together.’