It has been announced today that the Queen and the Royal Family will be our TV screens just hours before the internationally much-anticipated interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Supported by Prince Charles and Prince William the Queen will address the nation before the Sussexes’ controversial conversation with their friend Oprah Winfrey is broadcast in America – and potentially in the UK, as TV companies are currently locked in an international bidding war for the rights to the provocative programme. ITV are understood to be in the driving seat in Britain with a UK deal expected in the coming days.
The Queen’s broadcast will be on BBC One on the evening of Sunday 7th March. This is just a few hours before Harry and Meghan’s 90 minute intimate interview with Oprah Winfrey is screened on CBS at 8.00 p.m. EST in the USA (around 1.00 a.m. UK time on Monday 8th March). And, in the special BBC broadcast hosted by Anita Rani, the Royal Family will show explicit unity with the monarch. Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, will all be taking part.
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah has already been recorded. One insider warned the Royal Family that the CBS show would be a good ‘time to hide behind the sofa at the Palace’. However, today another media insider said Harry and Meghan Markle’s provocative interview may have to be toned-down by re-editing or even partially re-shooting due to the rift it has caused with the Royal Family, adding that there is also concern centred on the continuing hospitalisation of 99 year old Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Whatever, such is the deep interest, clips of the Oprah interview will be all over the international TV news and online media minutes after it is shown in America.
