[ad_1]
YesYou could have forgiven the British Royal Family for giving prime-time interviews plenty of room for the predictable. The evisceration of Prince Andrew by the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in 2019 succeeded in achieving the near-impossible: to make the Duke of York appear more dubious and less likable.
But if we’ve learned one thing about the Sussexes, Harry and Meghan, it’s that they intend to do pretty much the opposite of what other royals want them to do. So next Sunday, March 7, a 90 minute special, Oprah with Meghan and Harry, will air on the US network CBS. There would also be a bidding war between UK broadcasters – but not the BBC – for the interview, which it is promised will be “intimate” and “broad”.
“Most royal interviews are horrific car accidents,” says Jonny Dymond, BBC News royal correspondent. “Princess Diana has garnered tremendous sympathy, but did it work out the way she thought it would? No, no doubt. Prince Charles and Jonathan Dimbleby, Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis. Now Meghan is going to be easier to drive from Oprah, I don’t think there is any doubt about that. But you must be wondering how this is going to play out. “
The bulk of the program will consist of a conversation between Oprah Winfrey and Meghan; Harry is expected to only join for a future-oriented concluding segment. And it seems clear that the reason this is happening is because of the growing closeness between the two women. They first met in March 2018, when Winfrey was visiting London and was invited to Kensington Palace. Two months later, she was invited to the Sussex wedding at Windsor Castle. Winfrey then wrote in her magazine, THE: “All mature beings have recognized it as the beginning.”
If it was a courtship, it was mutual, sometimes played on social networks. Winfrey, 67, sent ‘Welcome to the World’ gifts for the couple’s baby, Archie. In December, Meghan, 39, sent Winfrey a basket of Clevr Blends, a company she has invested in that makes vegan ‘superlattes’. “My new drink of choice for morning and evening,” Winfrey told 19.3 million Instagram followers. Last summer, the Sussexes moved to a $ 14 million house in Montecito, Calif., Not far from Winfrey’s $ 100 million mega-ranch, Promised Land.
“We now have the great advantage of hindsight, but why you would have someone at your wedding that you specifically met once is a curiosity,” Dymond says. “Maybe they got along really, really well, but it seems like it’s been a relationship that certainly flourished in a fairly short period of time. Now [with the interview] this is to their mutual benefit: Oprah is a great platform for Meghan, and Meghan is a fantastic opportunity for Oprah.
For Kitty Kelley, an American author who published a controversial unauthorized biography of Winfrey in 2010, and has also written extensively on the royal family, the friendship makes sense. “The two have a lot in common – they know what it takes for a woman of color to excel in a racist society,” Kelley says. “Yet everyone has achieved the American dream of global success and Midas wealth. The two women exude an immense charisma and know how to dazzle the media, a bit like the late Princess of Wales. Oprah and Meghan have had to fight fathers who give embarrassing media interviews.
Kelley speaks from experience. Winfrey is notoriously guarded, and many of the more salacious sections of Kelley’s book come from a three-hour conversation she had with Oprah’s father, Vernon Winfrey, at her hair salon in Nashville. “Each one sees himself in the other,” Kelley says. “Oprah always wanted to be an actress and cited ‘dramatic performance’ as her talent when she ran for Miss Black Nashville in 1971. In their personal lives, every woman seems to be the driving force: Meghan the push behind Harry as Oprah is with [long-term partner] Stedman Graham. “
For Meghan, Winfrey’s endorsement could have powerful (and lucrative) benefits. Winfrey turned unknown books into bestsellers, turned diets into overnight thrills, and his support for Barack Obama from 2006 may have even shifted the balance for him to become president. “Oprah could see herself becoming to Meghan what Maya Angelou was to her: a mentor and a best friend,” Kelley says. Winfrey, of course, has a considerable earlier form when it comes to global scoops. In 1993, Michael Jackson gave him a tour of his Neverland ranch and his first interview for 14 years. The program was watched by 90 million people: a record for television interviews that still stands. Tom Cruise hopped onto his couch in 2005 to proclaim his infatuation with his new girlfriend Katie Holmes.
Along the way, a new term, “oprahfication,” was coined, a form of therapy in which public confession becomes the first step on the road to forgiveness. When cyclist Lance Armstrong finally decided in 2013 to make his drug use clear, it seemed inevitable that he would spill everything on Winfrey.
She also has a history with the royal family: Sarah Ferguson made two memorable appearances, then made a six-part series, Find Sarah, with Winfrey’s television network, OWN.
There is no doubt that Winfrey can get tough. “It was a boost,” Armstrong said after his appearance. She was particularly ruthless to American author James Frey, whose memoir on drug addiction, A million little pieces, which Winfrey selected for his book club, turned out to have been substantially invented. “The nation saw Winfrey skin it, gut it and fillet it, brush it with vitriol and bake it in a 10,000 degree oven for an hour,” Nancy Franklin reported in the New Yorker.
The exchange between Winfrey and the Sussexes should only be a light grill. Granted, Kelley doesn’t expect to see an on-air run-down like the Duke of York’s. “I don’t see Prince Andrew’s train wreck from an interview arriving at Meghan and Harry with Oprah because at least two of those three are too high profile,” she said.
So what can we expect from the 2021 televised event so far? Following the recent confirmation that Harry and Meghan will not be returning to the UK as full-time royals, it seems clear that there is sadness and bitterness on both sides. Harry would be particularly disappointed to relinquish his honorary military commands, as he spoke to James Corden on Thursday. The late show that his relationship with the British press was “toxic” and that “it was destroying my sanity”.
Meghan’s concerns are believed to have more to do with the lack of support she received after their wedding and tensions with courtiers and royals. Find freedom, a behind-the-scenes book by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, has already detailed some of this, as a senior royal referring to Meghan as ‘Harry’s showgirl’. The Sussexes haven’t worked with the perpetrators directly, but it has since emerged that Meghan has allowed at least one friend to speak on her behalf.
“It will be fascinating to see what his big beef is,” Dymond says. “The crown has been around for 1,000 years and has had some pretty horrible embarrassments in its day. Hearing that Meghan doesn’t like Kate or that Prince Charles is wearing a dingy old dressing gown – I’m not convinced that’s really going to rock the crown in its foundations.
More likely, echoing what happened with Sarah Ferguson, the interview will be part of an ongoing collaboration between Meghan and Winfrey. They’re already teaming up with a mental health series for Apple TV, and the Sussexes clearly want to build a media portfolio. The mutual benefits are clear, says Kelley. “Huge global ratings for Oprah and worldwide sympathy for the excommunicated royals, who wanted to retain their royal benefits in America …
[ad_2]
Source link