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Oprah Winfrey Says Even She Was Surprised By Revelations In Meghan And Harry Interview

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Oprah Winfrey has admitted that even she was surprised with certain revelations made by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry during their recent sit-down interview.

Last month, Oprah’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made headlines the world over, after the couple made a series of shocking claims about royal life.

Among these were allegations that a senior royal had expressed racist concerns about the colour of her son’s skin to Prince Harry before Archie was born.

Meghan also told the US broadcasting legend that she had experienced suicidal feelings as a member of the Royal Family, but after asking “the institution” if she could “go somewhere to get help”, this was apparently denied to her.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speak to Oprah Winfrey

Reflecting about the interview on Nancy O’Dell’s TalkShopLive show, Oprah said she was surprised to hear Meghan go “all the way there” with her allegations of racism.

“I was surprised,” Oprah said. “I was surprised at the amount of, you know… literally with that thing that’s now become a meme. That’s like, ‘what?’. I’m like, ‘what? You’re going there? You’re going all the way there?’.”

Oprah was referring to her stunned response to Meghan’s racism allegations, which has since become a reaction meme on social media.

She continued: “The reason why it was such a powerful interview… is when you have somebody else who is willing to be as open, as vulnerable, as truthful as they were.”

During her discussion with Nancy O’Dell, Oprah revealed she had contacted Meghan and Harry via text message before their interview went ahead.

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Oprah Winfrey

“[I told them that] intention is very important to me, tell me what your intention is, so that we can be aligned with our goal,” Oprah explained.

“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.”

Although Meghan and Harry both declined to elaborate on which senior royal had expressed racist concerns about Archie, Oprah later said that the couple had turned her off-camera that it was not the Queen or Prince Philip.

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Meghan And Harry Back Racial Justice Movement And Mental Health Charity

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation has named new causes it would be supporting, including an online racial justice movement and mental health charity Mind.

It made the announcement on Friday, less than a week after their televised two-hour tell-all primetime show with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast.

During the programme, Meghan told the chat show host she had been suicidal while in the royal family and claimed she received no help after telling staff about her suffering.

She and Harry also made explosive allegations of racist comments about their one-year-old son, Archie.

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The British royal family has been left reeling by allegations of racism by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan and Harry, pictured here during their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey

In an update from the foundation, it said it would be providing support to Colour of Change, Mind, The PressPad Charitable Foundation and URL Media.

UK-based charity Mind was among those who supported Meghan’s openness about her mental health struggles during the interview.

They tweeted: “We applaud Meghan Markle for speaking out about her experiences of suicidal thoughts. We know that opening up in this way can be really difficult, but when high-profile people talk about these experiences, it helps to break down the stigma around mental health issues.”

Colour of Change describes itself as the US’s “largest online racial justice organisation” and works across criminal justice, voting freedom and economic justice, adding: “We cannot end racism in one area without tackling it in all areas.”

The PressPad Charitable Foundation works to improve diversity within the media by “lowering the financial barrier for young people who want to become journalists”.

Social enterprise PressPad wrote on Twitter: “We are delighted to announce that we have just registered a sister charity, The PressPad Charitable Foundation, and are thrilled that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their Archewell Foundation will be among our first donors.

“We’re excited by such positive action after difficult yet important moments of reckoning for the UK media.

“We’re proud to say our values of action, compassion & community align with the #archewellfoundation. Thanks to everyone who spoke their truth.”

URL Media describes itself as a “multi-platform network of high-performing Black and Brown media organisations” and was launched in January.

On their website, they said: “As the US enters a new chapter, we offer an alternative to business as usual.”

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Racist Archie Comments Didn’t Come From Queen Or Prince Philip, Oprah Reveals

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Appearing on CBS This Morning on Monday to discuss the interview, Oprah said: “He did not share the identity with me but he wanted to make sure that I knew, and if I had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather [who] were a part of those conversations.

“He did not tell me who were a part of those conversations – as you can see, I tried to get that answer, on camera and off.”

Meghan previously told Oprah that the conversations about Archie were relayed to Prince Harry.

“I think that would be very damaging to them,” she said.

Prince Harry also said he would not reveal what transpired in the conversation, saying: “That conversation I’m never going to share. At the time, it was awkward. I was a little bit shocked.”

Meghan went on to talk about the importance of representation and how the disparaging remarks about Archie’s skin colour were hard for her to understand.

She explained: “I could never understand how it wouldn’t be seen as an added benefit and a reflection of the world today, especially right now, to go how inclusive is that that you can see someone who looks like you in this family, much less someone who was born into it.”

Buckingham Palace is under pressure to investigate the claims, with shadow education secretary Kate Green telling Sky News: “If there are allegations of racism, I would expect them to be treated by the palace with the utmost seriousness and fully investigated.”

The interview also saw Meghan candidly opening up about feeling suicidal during her time as part of the Royal Family, while Harry also revealed that his father, Prince Charles, stopped taking calls from him following the couple’s decision to step down from their roles as senior royals.

CBS Presents Oprah with Meghan and Harry airs on ITV at 9pm tonight and on ITV Hub

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Meghan Markle Claims She Had To Turn Down Previous Oprah Interview: ‘It Wasn’t My Choice To Make’

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Meghan Markle had to turn down a previous chance of an interview with Oprah Winfrey, claiming that was “not her choice to make”. 

US television network CBS has released a full excerpt from Oprah’s upcoming interview with Meghan and Prince Harry, which is set to air in the US on Sunday.

In the clip, Oprah reveals she called Meghan prior to the couple’s wedding in 2018 to ask her for an interview, to which the Duchess Of Sussex claimed she couldn’t even speak about the possibility of it without royal interference. 

Meghan says: “I remember that conversation very well, I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you personally, right? There had to be someone – people from the comms – sitting there. Everything was…”

Oprah says: “Yeah, there were other people in the room when I was having that conversation. You turned me down nicely and said, ’Perhaps there will be another time, when there is the right time.’” 

Asked what made now the right time, Meghan takes a long pause, before saying: “Well, so many things, that were on the other side of life experience that’s happened, and that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that I couldn’t have said yes to you then. That wasn’t my choice to make.”

Explaining the difficulties she faced living with the restrictions of royal life, Meghan continues: ″As an adult who lived a really independent life, to then go into this construct that is… different than what I think people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege, in some ways, to be able to say yes and that I’m ready to talk.

“To just be able to make a choice on your own and be able to speak for yourself.”

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will open up to Oprah Winfrey

In one of two clips released earlier this week, Harry said he feared “history repeating itself” in a reference to his mother’s death as he recounted his royal life with Meghan. 

In the second video, Harry said he is grateful to have had Meghan’s support throughout his exit from royal life, while also expressing admiration for what his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, had to endure under similar circumstances.

He told Oprah: “I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you, with my wife by my side, because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her, going through this process by herself, all those years ago.

“Because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other.”

Another trailer was then released on Wednesday, in which Meghan claimed the palace is “perpetuating falsehoods about us”. 

Asked how she felt about the “palace hearing you speak your truth”, she replied: “I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there is an active role that The Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us. 

“And if that comes with risk of losing things, I mean ― there’s a lot that has been lost already,” the Duchess added. 

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