Were Meghan Markle and Harry paid $7M for Oprah interview? False claim goes viral despite denial by Sussexes
A false claim that Meghan Markle was paid $7 million for her interview with Oprah Winfrey started circulating on social media after it was aired on March 7 and quickly started dominating headlines all across the globe.
The controversial and much-anticipated interview had everything that made it gossip-gold - Claims of racism against the royal family, the Duchess of Sussex having suicidal thoughts, Prince Harry revealing that he had been financially cut off by Prince Charles last year, the gender reveal of the unborn baby number two of the couple and so much more. A whopping 17.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the interview which naturally meant that it would undoubtedly have created a buzz on Twitter. But no one could have predicted the kind of fallout it would evoke.
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Were the Sussexes paid millions for the interview?
Amidst it all, the fake news spreaders reared their ugly heads and tried to accuse the former royal couple of making millions off the Oprah interview. A post shared by Click It Conservative News on Facebook reads, "When a Hollywood actress gets paid $7,000,000 to complain to a billionaire talk show host about how becoming a princess made her a victim, it becomes clear that America is in dire need" of a "better class" of attention seekers. An image accompanying the post was that of Meghan, Harry and Oprah from the interview. The post has over 1,700 shares and 3,000 reactions. Another user wrote in a March 8 post, "Meghan and Harry made 7 million dollars from talking to Oprah. How much did we make for talking about it all damn day?!"
Both the claims had no merit whatsoever as Meghan clarified at the very beginning of the interview that she was not being paid for what they were about to reveal. "Before we get in to it, I just want to make it clear to everybody that even though we’re neighbors ... that there has not been an agreement, you don’t know what I’m going to ask, and there is no subject that’s off-limits and you are not getting paid for this interview," Oprah said, to which Meghan responded with, "That is correct."
A representative for the Sussexes also later confirmed to Business Insider India that the couple was not paid to take part in the interview.
What might have caused the confusion?
Since there is no basis to question Meghan's statement or reports to suggest otherwise, it has to be pointed out that the claim that Meghan and Harry were paid $7 million for their interview with Oprah Winfrey is not true.
However, there is an explanation behind how one could draw up the exact figure while making up the inauthentic claims. CBS' parent company, ViacomCBS, paid $7 million to $9 million for the rights to air Meghan and Harry's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, The Wall Street Journal reported. The license fee gave ViacomCBS the right to air the interview in US and international markets. In the UK, ITV secured rights to air the interview rights and reportedly paid 1 million pounds for it, the Guardian reported.
The $7 million figure that people are claiming Meghan and Harry pocketed actually went to ViacomCBS.