LONDON – Prince Harry’s biggest fear before leaving the royal family was the “history repeating itself” over the intense investigation his late mother, Princess Diana, faced, according to a clip released before ‘ a much anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The interview, which will be presented on Sunday, will be the couple’s first long interview since they left the royal family and moved to the United States last year.
In a separate interview released last week, Harry told the Brit and TV host James Corden that Britain’s ‘toxic’ media had driven him and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, to leave the royal family.
One of the two tracks released before the Winfrey interview showed a photo of the young prince with his mother as he discussed the pressure she was facing. Diana died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 when she was chased by paparazzi.
“For me, I am just very relieved and glad that I sat here and talked with my wife by my side, because I can not imagine what it must have been like for her to go through this process,” the Duke of Sussex said, holding his wife’s hand.
“It was incredibly difficult for the two of us, but we at least had each other,” he added.
During their marriage, Diana and Prince Charles’ relationship – and their separation and divorce – were constant sources of media speculation and often appeared on the front pages of Britain’s infamous tough press. Harry has in the past criticized the photographers who followed his mother on the night of her death.
Royal interviews are historically rare. Diana herself had a much-publicized sit-down interview with the BBC, where she famously said “we were three in this marriage, so it was a bit stressful”, referring to Charles’ relationship with his now second wife , Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
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The excerpts from Winfrey’s interview show the couple in a lush garden. Harry is already talking, while Meghan says nothing in the recordings released so far.
“Were you silent, or were you silenced?” Winfrey asked Meghan, who was wearing a long black dress, with embroidery on her shoulder.
“You said some shocking things here,” Winfrey said in another case, without any indication of what she was referring to.
According to Winfrey, who hosted the couple’s wedding in Windsor in 2018, no topic was off limits.
Harry and Meghan, a former actress in the series ‘Suits’, finalized their separation from the British royal family last month when Buckingham Palace confirmed that they would not return as working members of the royal family.
In the 17-minute segment with Corden that aired Thursday night, Harry said that despite their decision to leave and move to California, his’ life is always about public service. Meghan signed up for this and we both like to do it. ”
“It never walked away, it stepped back, rather than retiring,” Harry said. He is the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and sixth in line.
The couple pushed back against the media’s coverage of their lives, and Meghan won a privacy lawsuit against the British newspaper Mail on Sunday last month, in which parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, was published. . In court documents, she said the intrusion caused her “very real sadness” and damaged relationships.
In the UK, Harry and Meghan are divided over public opinion. Harry, who was once one of the most popular royals, is now the eight most popular, according to the YouGov polls.
Asked whether it was appropriate or inappropriate to interview Oprah, 46 percent of respondents to a YouGov poll released on February 16 said it was inappropriate, compared to 29 percent who said it was.
The couple’s interview with Winfrey comes just weeks after Harry and Meghan announced on Valentine’s Day that they were expecting their second child.