Meghan Markle should have stuck to royal rules and shown “restraint” during the Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021 as it would have prevented her and husband Prince Harry from being completely “cut off” from the Firm, a royal expert has claimed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been estranged from the Royal Family, ever since they quit their duties and moved to America in 2020.
A year later, they appeared in a special with Oprah Winfrey, where they unleashed a series of bombshell claims about the royals, including that one of them commented on Prince Archie’s skin colour.
At the time, Buckingham Palace released a statement saying the late Queen Elizabeth was “saddened” to have learned of Harry and Meghan’s experience and found the matter of race to be “concerning”.
But it also said: “While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
Now royal author Tom Quinn has claimed that had it not been for the Oprah interview back in 2021, the Sussex couple may not have been as isolated today.
He told the Mirror: “Everyone noted that William and Kate and the Royal family in general were quite restrained in their responses to the Oprah interview which made them look good.
“It would’ve been much better – and Harry and Meghan can see this now – if they had been similarly measured.
“They could’ve said to Oprah, ‘We know it wasn’t easy for anyone and we know the royal family has its traditions, but they could’ve been more flexible and welcoming for Meghan.’
“If they had approached it like that everyone, including the Royal Family, would’ve been far less slightly to cut the couple off so completely.”
The duchess spoke about the bombshell interview in her and Harry’s Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, released in 2022.
She said: “That interview, it was less about setting the record straight than at least filling in the blanks that other people were filling in for us.
“The more distance that came between us having a smaller role with the institution, coming over here, the more of a vacuum was being built.
“People just genuinely didn’t understand why we left.”