Oprah Winfrey has admitted that even she was surprised with certain revelations made by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry during their recent sit-down interview.
Last month, Oprah’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made headlines the world over, after the couple made a series of shocking claims about royal life.
Among these were allegations that a senior royal had expressed racist concerns about the colour of her son’s skin to Prince Harry before Archie was born.
Meghan also told the US broadcasting legend that she had experienced suicidal feelings as a member of the Royal Family, but after asking “the institution” if she could “go somewhere to get help”, this was apparently denied to her.
Reflecting about the interview on Nancy O’Dell’s TalkShopLive show, Oprah said she was surprised to hear Meghan go “all the way there” with her allegations of racism.
“I was surprised,” Oprah said. “I was surprised at the amount of, you know... literally with that thing that’s now become a meme. That’s like, ‘what?’. I’m like, ‘what? You’re going there? You’re going all the way there?’.”
Oprah was referring to her stunned response to Meghan’s racism allegations, which has since become a reaction meme on social media.
She continued: “The reason why it was such a powerful interview... is when you have somebody else who is willing to be as open, as vulnerable, as truthful as they were.”
During her discussion with Nancy O’Dell, Oprah revealed she had contacted Meghan and Harry via text message before their interview went ahead.
“[I told them that] intention is very important to me, tell me what your intention is, so that we can be aligned with our goal,” Oprah explained.
“Our shared intention was the truth. They wanted to be able to tell their story and tell it in such a way that allowed them to be as truthful as possible.”
Although Meghan and Harry both declined to elaborate on which senior royal had expressed racist concerns about Archie, Oprah later said that the couple had turned her off-camera that it was not the Queen or Prince Philip.