Meghan Markle claims palace staffers sat in the room when Oprah called for interview and she had to decline offer
Meghan Markle has hinted that royal officials insisted on being in the same room as her when she spoke to Oprah Winfrey over the phone after the TV personality called her to have an interview a few years back. In a preview clip of her bombshell interview with Oprah, which is due to air on Sunday, March 7, Meghan recalled how she wasn't allowed to talk to the TV star "personally" and that there "had to be people sitting there."
Oprah noted that she had reached out to Meghan at the start of 2018 to ask for an interview shortly before her wedding to Prince Harry. However, the former actress turned the TV host down, saying it wasn't "the right time."
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"I remember that conversation very well," Meghan told Oprah, three years into her marriage. "I wasn't even allowed to have that conversation with you personally, right. There had to be people sitting there."
Oprah then asked Meghan why she had turned her down three years ago but agreed to do an interview now. "We're on the other side of a lot of life experience that's happened," the former royal responded. "And also 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."
"So as an adult who lived a really independent life to then go into this construct that's different than I think what 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," Meghan added, before noting she was glad she could finally "speak for herself." "Were you silent or were you silenced?" Oprah asked Meghan, prodding her about the apparent division between the former actress and the royal family.
Harry and Meghan's full two-hour interview with Oprah will air on Sunday on Sunday, March 7, at 8 pm EST/PST.
Yesterday, MEAWW reported how the Duchess of Sussex also accused Buckingham Palace of “perpetuating falsehoods” in a shocking preview of the interview. Oprah was seen asking Meghan, "How do you feel about the Palace hearing you speak your truth today?"
Referring to the royal family as "The Firm", Meghan responded, "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." With a brief pause and a hint of emotion in her voice, she adds, "'And, if that comes with risk of losing things, there is a lot that has been lost already."
The Times recently carried out an in-depth article with royal aides and officials at the Kensington Palace branding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as "outrageous bullies". According to the report, Meghan was accused of "driving out" two PAs and also shattering the confidence of another staff member. Accusations of bullying were brought on by one of Harry and Meghan's most senior advisors, Jason Knauf, who previously worked as communications secretary to the Sussexes and now heads the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's charitable foundation.
"I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year," Knauf alleged. "The treatment of [X] was totally unacceptable. The duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behavior towards [Y]," he added.
Meghan and Harry responded to the reports by accusing palace staffers of perpetrating a "calculated smear campaign" ahead of their bombshell interview with Winfrey.