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It can be a kind of American coronation.
When Oprah Winfrey’s highly anticipated and potentially explosive interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex airs in its prime-time spot Sunday night, it is expected to be watched by millions across the United States. It will be the couple’s first interview since leaving their royal duties in early 2020, but it could also mark the moment when the Sussexes evolve from British royalty to Hollywood elite.
“Having a great interview with these royals, or former royals, and having Oprah Winfrey do it, raises the question, as it always does, who is the biggest star here, the interviewer or the interviewees?” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and film at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School.
While Meghan already had a successful acting career and was well known in the U.S. Prior to her marriage to Harry, since moving to the United States last year, the couple have dominated drugstore magazines and drug sites. online gossip, all obsessed with tracking down their lives in California. as well as every twist and turn of his rifts with the royal family, which seemed to deepen even further this week.
While some in the UK have been concerned about the timing of the interview, as Prince Philip remains in the hospital, commentators in the US have mostly focused on claims that the palace appeared to be attempting a campaign to “defamation” prior to broadcast, and new disclosures that may be in store.
“You’ve said some pretty shocking things here,” Winfrey tells the couple in a teaser clip for the two-hour interview released this week.
“How do you feel about the palace hearing you speak your truth today?” Winfrey asks Meghan at the beginning of another. “I don’t know how they could expect that after all this time, we would still be silent,” Meghan replies.
Having struck lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify that will fund their new independent lives, the couple have been talking about a variety of hot topics in the US, from racism and police brutality in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder to the right to freedom. vote.
A January cover story in People magazine credited the “progressive” couple with “changing the royal family forever” and continuing to “shake up the monarchy” as they settled into their lives in California with their young son, Archie.
In the interview, Britain, as well as the couple, will be under the microscope. Winfrey is expected to question the couple about the racism Meghan faced while living in the UK, how the couple felt “harassed” by the British tabloid press and the role they played in her decision to move to the United States.
“I know many women of color have been quite appalled by the undercurrents of racism and classism that have defined much of Meghan Markle’s coverage, particularly in the British press,” said Keli Goff, an American columnist.
Maiysha Kai, managing editor of Glow Up and co-host of The Root Presents: It’s Lit, said the pair had been strategic in choosing the interviewer.
“I don’t think their stripping away from the daily obligations of being royalty means they are going to leave behind a great betrayal, but I do think there is an opportunity here to shed some light on the record of what the world came to know as’ Megxit ‘A term that we have all used but that is implicitly racist, ”he said.
“Meghan’s color should have been irrelevant to the issue, but then we saw that despite the endorsement of the marriage by the royal family, we saw a backlash from some in the media and the public.”
Winfrey has played a prominent role in the couple’s lives in the United States, initially helping them find a temporary home (the Beverly Hills estate of her friend Tyler Perry, the film’s producer). Now the Sussexes and Winfreys are neighbors in a Santa Barbara County coastal enclave, home to a host of Hollywood heavyweights, and they even exchanged Christmas presents.
To complete what Thompson called “a ritualistic transition,” the couple will “face entering the new territory and exiting the old.” And it is Winfrey, as she has for decades with many others, who will be a ceremonial guide, and is expected to draw her loyal audience of millions to see her.
“A primetime Oprah interview is maybe one of the really symbolic moments of arrival because Oprah is, and always was, always about reinvention,” added Thompson.
Although a recent Morning Consult poll found that the queen is still the favorite queen among Americans, with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, in second place, Harry and Meghan ranking high, in third and fourth place respectively. But it remains to be seen whether they will attract audiences that rival those of Netflix drama The Crown (watched by 78 million households worldwide, according to the streaming service).
Buckingham Palace announced last month that Harry and Meghan would not return as working members of the royal family after their 12-month trial separation. The declaration meant that the couple, and their son Archie, would formally, and eventually, walk away from royal duties.
Mark Borkowski, a British branding expert, believes this formalized breakup could give the couple the freedom they need to complete their reinvention or rebrand in more contemporary terms.
“The point is, they’re on a journey and a lot depends on the momentum they get around them,” says Borkowski. “This is where it could be 15 or 20 years from now. Could you get a chance at the presidency? I think I could probably do it. “
