CBS releases new clip from bombshell interview: Meghan claims she was stopped by Palace aides from talking to Oprah ‘personally’ when host tried to set up interview with her before her wedding and says that she’s now ‘ready to talk’
- Fourth clip from Oprah interview airs on CBS This Morning ahead of premiere on US network on Sunday night
- Duchess of Sussex claims royal aides blocked her from having a personal conversation with Oprah Winfrey
- Meghan says she remembers chat with Oprah ‘very well’ and there had to be other people in the same room
- She adds that it’s ‘really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege’ to say ‘Yes, I’m ready to talk’
- Two-hour interview which also features Prince Harry will have its UK premiere on ITV next Monday at 9pm
The Duchess of Sussex has claimed royal aides blocked her from having a personal conversation with Oprah Winfrey in the months leading up to her wedding to Prince Harry, in the latest preview clip released by CBS two days before the full bombshell interview comes out.
Oprah revealed she called Meghan in February or March 2018 – two or three months before the royal wedding at Windsor Castle in May that year – to ask for an interview, but she declined because it was not ‘the right time’.
The Duchess said she remembered this talk with the US chat show queen ‘very well’ and ‘wasn’t even allowed to have this conversation with you personally’ because there had to be other people in the same room.
Their discussion confirms that Oprah – who attended the wedding and now lives near the Sussexes’ £11million mansion in Montecito, California – had been wooing Meghan for a tell-all interview for at least three years.
It comes as Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip continues to recover from heart surgery at King Edward VII Hospital in London after being transferred there today following his operation at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Buckingham Palace will braced for a weekend of potentially damaging revelations and will no doubt be nervously watching developments in the US to see what further claims are made in the interview.
Meanwhile other Royal Family members carried on with their engagements – including Prince William and Kate who had a videocall with the parents of a boy helped by a mental health text helpline that they are supporting.
The Queen has also continued working while her 99-year-old husband has been in hospital – including encouraging people to get the Covid-19 vaccine, holding phone calls with Armed Forces chiefs and virtually unveiling a new statue of herself in Australia.
But a Hollywood insider told DailyMail.com today that Meghan has now accused the Palace of using the Duke’s ill-health as an excuse to ‘muzzle’ her, and insisted she would never ask to delay the release of the interview.
CBS will show the full two-hour chat with Oprah on Sunday night at 1am UK time, before ITV broadcasts it the following evening, on Monday, from 9pm. It will come after the Royal Family in Britain take part in a show of unity for a Commonwealth Day service this Sunday, which will be shown at 5pm on BBC One.
In the latest Oprah clip, Meghan was asked why she was speaking out now. She gave a long pause before saying: ‘Well, so many things. That we’re on the other side of a lot of – a lot of life experience that’s happened, and also that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that I couldn’t have said yes to you then.’
Meghan and Harry’s bombshell tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey (pictured) will be aired first in the US on Sunday night
CBS is set to broadcast the full two-hour chat on Sunday night at 1am UK time, before ITV shows it the following evening
The 39-year-old Duchess added: ‘That wasn’t my choice to make. So as an adult who lived a really independent life to then go into this construct that is different than I think what people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some ways to be able to say yes, I’m ready to talk.’
Oprah described Meghan as being ready now to ‘say it for yourself’, adding that the Duchess did ‘not to have to consult with anybody at this point’. Meghan added: ‘Yeah, to be able to just make a choice on your own and be able to speak for yourself.’
Oprah raised eyebrows when she attended the wedding in May 2018 among many observers who had no idea the billionaire US chat show legend even knew the couple.
She is thought to have only met the Duchess once face-to-face before being invited to the star-studded nuptials and given a plum seat next to senior royals.
Their sit-down at Kensington Palace months before the ceremony was reportedly initiated by Gayle King, a mutual friend and presenter on CBS This Morning, who is said to have set up the initial phone call between the pair.
Oprah has also promoted the Duchess’s range of vegan coffee to her 19million Instagram followers, visited her mother Doria for ‘kumquats and yoga in the garden’ and even teamed up with Harry to secure an Apple TV deal.
A fourth clip from the chat, filmed last month, was revealed today on CBS. The release follows two clips which came out together in the first preview on Monday, and a third which was issued in a second preview yesterday.
After playing the latest clip today, Ms King, who is good friends with Oprah, told the breakfast programme: ‘Listen to those words. The right and the privilege to be able to speak.
‘I heard Oprah say what was her intention in doing this interview? To give them the opportunity to say in their own words. Because a big question is how did they leave, why did they leave, what happened, did something happen, what is it all about? To give them the opportunity in their own words to speak their own truth about what went into their decision.
‘I think by the time the interview is over, people will have a very clear understanding about what went into their thought process. I believe that that will be the case. And then people can make up their own minds.
‘Because ‘vilified’ is the word for what has happened to Harry and Meghan, Meghan in particular. And when I heard Oprah say, you know, it’s the best interview she’s ever done. And I asked her, what do you mean by that?
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