Oprah Winfrey's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry won't be forgotten anytime soon. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were extremely open about their experience as full-time members of the royal family, to a point that even surprised the seasoned host. Recently, while opening up about her feelings on the interview, Oprah shared the request she made of Harry and Meghan ahead of their tell-all.
While being interviewed herself by Nancy O'Dell, Oprah shared that whenever she interviews someone about a "significant" topic, she talks to them ahead of time to make sure they're on the same page. Read on to see what she asked of Harry and Meghan in their pre-interview text message conversation. And for more news on the couple, here's The One Thing Harry & Meghan Must Do Now That Philip Has Died, Sources Say.
Oprah made sure their intentions were aligned ahead of the conversation.
Speaking to O'Dell, Oprah explained that she wanted to be sure of Meghan and Harry's goals for the interview ahead of time.
"Whenever I'm doing interviews with anybody for anything that is significant, I have a conversation with them before," Oprah said. "I didn't see Harry and Meghan before, but I did text them and say, 'Intention is very important to me, tell me what your intention is, so that we can be aligned in our goal.' And 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."
Read about Meghan and Oprah's relationship prior to that bombshell moment in The Real Story Behind Meghan Markle's Friendship With Oprah.
Oprah has sworn by this strategy for a long time.
The day after the interview aired, Oprah appeared on CBS This Morning to speak about the conversation and share a behind-the-scenes look into how it went down. On the show, she touched on the idea of always trying to see if she can align her intentions for an interview with those of the person she's speaking with. "I don't want you to finish an interview and at the end of the interview you say, 'I wish I had said,'" Oprah explained of talking to her subjects.
Read about one of the emotional topics Meghan opened up about in Meghan Finally Broke Her Silence on Her Sad Relationship With Her Father.
Even knowing what Harry and Meghan wanted to get across, the interview still surprised Oprah.
Oprah knew that Harry and Meghan wanted to be truthful, and in the CBS This Morning interview she said she knew they wanted to set the record straight because they had been the target of so many hurtful lies in the media. Still, she was surprised at just how open the couple were.
In the time since the interview aired, a moment where Oprah could only manage a shocked "What?" in response to something Meghan said has gone viral online. The reply was prompted by Meghan saying that there were conversations within the royal family about "how dark" the color of her baby's skin would be. (Harry later clarified that neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince Philip made the comment.)
"Literally that thing that's now become a meme that's like, 'What?'" Oprah said of her now-famous reaction. "I'm like, 'What? You're going there? You're going all the way there.'"
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Oprah doesn't take credit for how "powerful" the interview was.
In her conversation with O'Dell, Oprah said, "I had no idea that [the interview] would have the reverberating impact it has had and continues to have."
She went on to explain that while she's an expert at her job, she doesn't take all the credit for how successful the primetime special was.
"I know how to ask questions, and you know how to ask questions. We all know how to do our jobs," she told O'Dell. "But what makes it powerful is when you have somebody else who is willing to be as open, as vulnerable, as truthful as [Meghan and Harry] were. So I don't give myself credit for that. I give myself credit for asking the questions, but the reason the interview was what it was was because they answered the way they did."
Take a look back at a past Oprah interview that's being reexamined with This Resurfaced Oprah Interview With Mary-Kate and Ashley Has Fans Livid.
Lia Beck Lia Beck is a writer living in Richmond, Virginia. In addition to Best Life, she has written for Refinery29, Bustle, Hello Giggles, InStyle, and more.Read moreFiled UnderCelebrities • Entertainment • News • Royal FamilyRead This NextThe Most "Shocking" Part of the Royal Tell-All
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