The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Oprah I - Pre-interview, Feb-March 2021


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Poor and Rich people have their own problems and hurdles in life. For some, small problems are actually big problems, and others face big problems with optimism. It really depends on the circumstances and mindset.


However, there is one thing that this pandemic taught me. There is no way that Harry and Meghan's problems (with the press/family/the Firm) are bigger than the struggle of a mother who tries to feed her children. This pandemic brought many serious issues worldwide, such as the increase in unemployment, domestic violence, hunger, suicide, and many other issues. Many people are struggling to put some food on the plate. I saw on TV that a young woman suicided because she lost her job and she couldn't eat much less pay the bills...


So, what kind of problems are Harry and Meghan going to share in that interview? If their view is optimistic as they try to put an end to it and move forward, then fine. But, what if their approach is to complain and complain and complain??? I mean, of course no voice needs to be silenced, but sensitivity during this troubled times is very much appreciated.
 

Posts about bullying accusations have been moved to the News and Events thread in the Sussex forum.
 
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So, what kind of problems are Harry and Meghan going to share in that interview? If their view is optimistic as they try to put an end to it and move forward, then fine. But, what if their approach is to complain and complain and complain??? I mean, of course no voice needs to be silenced, but sensitivity during this troubled times is very much appreciated.

I mean, define complain? It's all in the eye of the beholder. If someone generally has a negative view of them, pretty much everything they're gonna say that isn't overtly positive is gonna be written off as "complaining".
 
Chris Ship has announced that ITV will broadcast Harry & Meghan's Oprah interview on Monday 8th March, but at 9-11pm (rather than 8pm as rumoured earlier). This is the official announcement with the ITV Managing Director, Kevin Lygo making a statement.
Chris Ship @chrisshipitv
NEW: For the first time @ITV has now confirmed that it will broadcast Harry and Meghan’s big @Oprah interview next week. It will air in the UK on Monday 8 March, 9pm-11pm
11:07 PM · Mar 3, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

Chris Ship @chrisshipitv
Replying to @chrisshipitv
On agreeing to air the Oprah interview, Kevin Lygo, ITV Managing Director said: "This interview is already a national talking point and ITV is pleased to be able to offer UK audiences the opportunity to see it."
11:08 PM · Mar 3, 2021·Twitter for iPhone​

From ITV Press Centre:
ITV Press Centre @itvpresscentre
Oprah With Meghan and Harry broadcasts at 9pm on Monday 8 March on @ITV. Video - https://bit.ly/3rgQMAX
3:04 AM · Mar 5, 2021·Twitter Web App​

ITV Official announcement including the program promo introduction:
ITV acquires Oprah With Meghan and Harry. To be broadcast at 9pm on Monday 8 March
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/pre...han-and-harry-be-broadcast-9pm-monday-8-march
 
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I mean, define complain? It's all in the eye of the beholder. If someone generally has a negative view of them, pretty much everything they're gonna say that isn't overtly positive is gonna be written off as "complaining".
You are quite right. I was just speaking generally, and indeed, it will be all in the eye of the beholder. Haters will hate obviously.
 
"I don't know how they could expect that after all this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us" — Meghan
 

Thank you ACO for the tweet and short clip. :flowers:

It seems that the CBS is releasing this segment in response to the Times articles on Meghan allege bullying of staff. And Meghan also mentioned that the Firm is releasing false information about the Sussexes (at least that is what I'm getting at).

The word "silent" is used again.

It sounds that Meghan would do everything to speak out even if that means losing everything.

Like the previous two clips, as some posters have pointed out, the music is making everything overtly dramatic.
 
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"I don't know how they could expect that after all this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us" — Meghan

I've always thought the "firm" meant the royal family, rather than the staff. I hope they aren't going to say things they will regret. Harry loves his family and I don't think he wants to hurt them.
 
"I don't know how they could expect that after all this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us" — Meghan

What falsehoods is the Palace perpetuating? I thought the complaint came from their own staff, not the Palace? no logic at all
 
Thank you ACO for the tweet and short clip. :flowers:

It seems that the CBS is releasing this segment in response to the Times articles on Meghan allege bullying of staff. And Meghan also mentioned that the Firm is releasing false information about the Sussexes (at least that is what I'm getting at).

The word "silent" is used again.

It sounds that Meghan would do everything to speak out even if that means losing everything.

Like the previous two clips, as some posters have pointed out, the music is making everything overly dramatic.

Do you think they just reshot the segment again? That it was not in the original?
 
Do you think they just reshot the segment again? That it was not in the original?

I would not be surprise if the scene is actually reshoot, but at the same time I think Meghan could be talking about the Birth Certificate change fiasco (before the bullying allegation), where the a Palace spokesperson and other royal sources reportedly hit back the Sussexes' claim that the birth certificate changes were "dictated by the palace".

Here is the Mirror article with the exchange between the Sussexes and Palace staff: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/meghan-markles-extraordinary-rebuke-palace-23422958

The interview was extended from 90 minutes to 2 hours, which comes after Harry and Meghan have lost their royal patronages. Perhaps this could be the topic that may have been filled in. This could be what Meghan mentioned about "losing things", but this is only my thoughts :unsure: ;)

Anyway, welcome to the royal forum!! :flowers:
:welcome:
 
The suggestion seems to be that the palace is leaking partial information. And the lack of a full statement is leading to more speculation and rumors. If they were going to make public the information about the earrings, then the full story should have been known. Instead of allowing rumors to run around.

As for the employee. A former staff member. Who hasn't had issues with their former employers :ermm:

Again with only partial information released, rumors spread like wildfire. For all we know the employee could have been pissed that the Sussexes moved to the US, and they had to find other work. Even if they just moved households.

Certainly Meghan is not the first royal to have rumors that she has been rude to employees. Likely could make a list of them.


Unfortunately what gets brushed off as 'rumors' or 'disgruntled' and so on when it is stories about other royals, people lap up as truth for Meghan and Harry.


People have been desperate for Meghan to be proved the wicked witch, ever since the dumb rumor about her making Kate cry came out.
 
Another clip was released from the Oprah interview:

Do you think they just reshot the segment again? That it was not in the original?

No, I doubt they reshot anything. They may have re-edited to add parts not originally slated to air.

Personally, I think M&H finally made a decision that they are tired of constantly being mischaracterized, and that in recent months when Meghan was out of sight pregnant and nesting at home, and the daily U.K. articles continued, it all (especially the stuff about Archie's bc) just became the final straw for them. Also, the continued negative coverage in the U.K. media after Meghan won her legal suit, certainly didn't help matters. Plus, the awful way some U.K. papers treated the reports of their new pregnancy with defacing them in the b&w photo, was so belittling. That surely didn't help either.

If Oprah had been offering M&H for some time the opportunity to tell their story, probably M&H finally looked at each other, especially once Harry knew it was all over with the taking back of the military honors and the patronages, and Harry probably said, "I'm done. Let's tell the truth."

Meghan: "There's a lot that's been lost already..."
 
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"The suggestion seems to be that the palace is leaking partial information. And the lack of a full statement is leading to more speculation and rumors. If they were going to make public the information about the earrings, then the full story should have been known. Instead of allowing rumors to run around."

Well, I hope Oprah will Meghan a question about the earings, just to set the story straight
 
The suggestion seems to be that the palace is leaking partial information. And the lack of a full statement is leading to more speculation and rumors. If they were going to make public the information about the earrings, then the full story should have been known. Instead of allowing rumors to run around.

As for the employee. A former staff member. Who hasn't had issues with their former employers :ermm:

Again with only partial information released, rumors spread like wildfire. For all we know the employee could have been pissed that the Sussexes moved to the US, and they had to find other work. Even if they just moved households.

Certainly Meghan is not the first royal to have rumors that she has been rude to employees. Likely could make a list of them.


Unfortunately what gets brushed off as 'rumors' or 'disgruntled' and so on when it is stories about other royals, people lap up as truth for Meghan and Harry.


People have been desperate for Meghan to be proved the wicked witch, ever since the dumb rumor about her making Kate cry came out.

Email was sent in 2018. I didn’t think staff was looking for job back then. Especially someone as high profile as he is.
 
And on that note let's keep this thread reserved for the Oprah-interview while we discuss the alleged bullying, the Saudi jewels and the kitchen sink in the News & Events thread in the Sussex forum:

Sussex News & Events
 
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Robert Jobson has released two tweets on Meghan's comment on the Firm and how the phrase is more associated with The Queen & Royal Family rather than The Palace. The term "Firm" or even "Fold" have been used widely on this forum and by royal watchers. On most occasions, the term has been used to describe working royals. He also commented on how attacking the Firm on Oprah is upsetting The Queen and the Royal Family, potentially breaking the promise of not "upsetting the Queen".

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor
If #MeghanMarkle is using @Oprah to accuse “The Firm” (name used for the Royal Family) of “perpetrating falsehoods” about her & #Harry - effectively “lying” - I trust she has provable specifics. Pretty heavy stuff after claims she wouldn’t say anything to upset the Queen.
6:09 PM · Mar 4, 2021·Twitter for iPhone​

Robert Jobson @theroyaleditor
Last week #HarryMeghan camp were claiming the interview with @Oprah wouldn’t contain anything to upset the Queen. I would suggest that accusing “The Firm” - name for the Royal Family not the Palace btw - is pretty upsetting. This was recorded two weeks ago remember.
6:23 PM · Mar 4, 2021·Twitter for iPhone​
 
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The Firm is often used to designate the institution separately from the family. The Firm being the family business.

I’ve seen this done on social media for some time and it is how I personally separate them as well.
 
That's a very small snippet in which Meghan mentions 'the Firm', too short to see in what context she is using it or to jump to any conclusions IMO. If she's speaking for instance about the mix up with the birth certificate that will be one thing, if she's talking about family relationships it's another.
 
A lot of people would see The Microsoft Corporation and think of Bill Gates. To me, the "Firm" is the institution of the monarchy and the people who work for it with The Queen being CEO and "Boss Lady". The Queen goes home to her family whereas the people that work for the "Firm" go home to their totally unrelated family that has no connection with the BRF.

Official "Firm" events are in the court circular. Private events are not. Angela Kelly is an employee of the "Firm". The Queen's Head Gardener, Martin Woods, at Sandringham is not.
 
We all have heartache. Scores to settle. Situations where we weren't heard. Marriages that break down. We don't all go on Oprah to talk about it.

I dont see how the firm are continuing to perpetuate lies about them either. All I see was people continuing with their lives. Denying stories when they were brought up and the fingers were ointed at them by the Sussexes.

Meghan was massively unsuited to royal life. She thought she could do what she liked and that isn't the way it works.

But Harry should have learnt the lessons of his mother. The interview shouldnt have been given.

You fling out words only a saint would say nothing in response and if there is nothing personally involved, such as children, why wouldn't you respond.

I think this interview might have the potential to be their version of Panorama. If it does, it would be interesting to see what would The Queen do. She told Charles and Diana to divorce because of it, is it possible that Harry and Meghan might lose their royal titles because of this interview?
 
I agree, a lot of unnecessary damage has been done in the way Harry & Meghan have conducted themselves in 2020 and 2021 (I am delibrately restricting my comments to this period). If they wanted to leave the Firm, they could have agreed the position with the senior Principals (HM, Charles and William) and exited with grace and dignity. Instead, what we have is a constant attempt at being too cute, trying to undermine the Firm, and unnecessary one upmanship. And I am not sure what washing ones dirty linen in public ever achieves much in the long run. But let history be the judge of that.



I agree. Also, it provides rich pickings for the very taboids that H&M despise so much.

What it achieves, in the short term, is huge ratings for the Oprah interview, which in turn generates $$$$$$$$ for the Sussexes.
If they'd exited "with grace and dignity" and stayed under the radar, who would care? By doing this, they get to cash in - at least for now.
 
I think this interview might have the potential to be their version of Panorama. If it does, it would be interesting to see what would The Queen do. She told Charles and Diana to divorce because of it, is it possible that Harry and Meghan might lose their royal titles because of this interview?

It would involve more than the Queen to do that, but something definitely needs to be done. They are doing incredible disservice with no thoughts to anyone but themselves. It’s quite disturbing.
 
I think this interview might have the potential to be their version of Panorama. If it does, it would be interesting to see what would The Queen do. She told Charles and Diana to divorce because of it, is it possible that Harry and Meghan might lose their royal titles because of this interview?


I am not so sure. The Queen is older now and has much more urgent concerns than the Sussexes. Any decision on titles, even in the case when it can be made on the Queen's own discretion only, will probably involve consulting the government, which is dealing right now with major issues like the Covid pandemic, Brexit, the economic crisis, etc. and, quite frankly, probably wants to stay out of this family feud.



As the Sussexes are cut off from the RF and live their lives in California, they might remain celebrities in the US, but their relevance to the people of the UK and the Commonwealth will naturally decrease over time. It is in the best interest of the Palace simply to ignore their whining. Getting into a war of words with the Sussexes only feeds their victimization narrative with no obvious gain to anybody but Harry and Meghan, who get the media attention they crave for that way.
 
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I'm finding all this very sad.


I hope Harry's happy with the damage he's done. If he wanted to leave royal duties and move away to start a new life, fine. But all this nastiness, which is all over the front pages of today's papers, with headlines like "All out war at Palace", could have been avoided - but, oh no, he and Meghan had to do the Omid Scobie book, and now the Oprah interview, and create this ongoing cycle of unpleasantness.


Yes, the Queen's said that they remain much-loved members of the family, but, whilst we can't know what Charles and William are saying about everything that's going on at the moment, I'd hazard a guess that it involves a lot of very rude words.
I hope Harry understands the damage he and his wife are doing. Maybe he thinks they're attacking "The Firm" and not his family, but who is "The Firm"? His grandmother, his father, his brother and his nephew - I hope Harry grasps that attacking the firm means attacking them.
I've got a question here. All of this about "bullying"charges against Meghan resurfacing now and supposedly an "investigation" to "look into it" is front page news. Correct? Can anyone tell me what judgment or settlement would even come out of any such "investigation"? As I see it, this is a matter being looked into concerning ex-employees and ex-bosses(employer). What are they going to do? Hit the reset button where the ex-employees get their job back or the ex-boss(employer) gets a dressing down from the CEO she worked for years ago? What outcome will ever come of this? It just doesn't make sense to me at all.

Haven't people better things to do than revisit the past hoping to change it? I kind of think that when people start pointing a finger, they forget the the other three fingers on their hand is pointing back at them. :D
This is the weirdest and most hurtful response I've seen so far. Please let me ask you this, should this investigation not happen because it's in the past or because it's about Meghan? Would you have the same opinion if it was Andrew, who has also retired from royal duties lately?

It's not about changing the past. It's about ensuring that, for one, the former employees are treated with respect, their voice and their side is heard, which is an important step in the recovery proces. It's also about all of the current and future employees of the BRF, so that they have a good enough system in place and such situation will not happen again.
 
A lot of people would see The Microsoft Corporation and think of Bill Gates. To me, the "Firm" is the institution of the monarchy and the people who work for it with The Queen being CEO and "Boss Lady". The Queen goes home to her family whereas the people that work for the "Firm" go home to their totally unrelated family that has no connection with the BRF.

Official "Firm" events are in the court circular. Private events are not. Angela Kelly is an employee of the "Firm". The Queen's Head Gardener, Martin Woods, at Sandringham is not.
So basically you mean that they are not attacking Harry's family, they're attacking The Firm, so CEO of The Firm, so HMQ, so Harry's grandmother.

That's a lot of mental gymnastics just to try to explain that your faves are not attacking the Queen, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Princess Anne and Earl and Countess of Wessex. Because that's "The Firm", they are "The Firm".
 
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I wonder why Harry and Meghan didn't sit down with the queen, prince Charles and William in November or December 2020 to have a conversation about their situation in the Royal Family, reach to an agreement and then issue a joint statement about their future plans and role. So all of this could had been avoided. They had a problem with the Firm - they should have talked with the Boss first and then issue statements. It would have been more elegant and clear. It would have left far less room for speculation.
What they(Harry and Meghan) are doing now with these interviews is just tasteless IMO.
 
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