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'Were you silenced?': First look at Duchess Meghan, Prince Harry's interview with Oprah Winfrey

Maria Puente, USA TODAY
3 min read

Duchess Meghan, pregnant with her second child, is joining Oprah Winfrey for an "intimate conversation" in her first major broadcast interview since moving back to the U.S.

CBS revealed glimpses of the two-hour "Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special" will air on Sunday, March 7 (8 EST/PST).

The network said Winfrey spoke with the Duchess of Sussex in "a wide-ranging interview covering everything from stepping into life as a royal, marriage, motherhood (and) philanthropic work, to how she is handling life under intense public pressure."

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In two promos that aired Sunday, Meghan doesn't speak, but Winfrey appears to quote her calling their frustrations "almost unsurvivable."

Harry harkened back to the troubles his mother, Princess Diana, had with the British media, and says he shares her frustration: "My biggest fear is history repeating itself," he tells Winfrey at one point. "It has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we have each other."

Winfrey is seen interviewing Meghan alone and with Harry. It marks the first time she's done a major TV network interview since she and Harry gave up their senior royal roles and moved back to her home state of California. In February, Meghan, 39, announced her second pregnancy and won a major victory in a privacy lawsuit against the British tabloid Mail.

Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry sit down with Oprah Winfrey for a 2-hour interview airing March 7 on CBS.
Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry sit down with Oprah Winfrey for a 2-hour interview airing March 7 on CBS.

The pregnancy reveal had a special connection to Diana, who made headlines on Valentine's Day in 1984 when she announced her second pregnancy. She gave birth to Harry on Sept. 15 of that year.

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Baby No. 2: Duchess Meghan, Prince Harry share pregnancy announcement (with a connection to Diana)

Winfrey and the Sussexes are now neighbors in Montecito, California, occupying nearby sprawling estates.

Winfrey was one of multiple celebrity guests who attended the May 2018 wedding of the former actress, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry, 36, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II.

Meghan and Winfrey now call each other friends, exchanging gifts when Sussex baby Archie, who turns 2 in May, was born, and later when Harry and Meghan moved into their new home in Santa Barbara County.

It was unclear whether the interview has already taken place and if so, whether it was conducted remotely under pandemic protocols. It was produced by Winfrey's Harpo Productions and sold to CBS, where Winfrey has links, including "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King, Winfrey's longtime best friend.

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Neither Meghan nor Harry have been seen much in public since November, when they visited the Los Angeles National Cemetery to lay a wreath on Nov. 8 in honor of British Remembrance Day.

Oprah Winfrey arrives for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018.
Oprah Winfrey arrives for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018.

The couple have been seen in Zoom video interviews online with such publications as Fast Company, Fortune and The 19th, but these were on Zoom.

The last major TV interview the couple did was for Britain's ITV at the end of 2019 when they first spoke openly about their unhappiness with their royal lives in the United Kingdom, specifically Harry's rift with his brother, Prince William, and Meghan's distress over media coverage that they considered invasive and abusive.

In January 2020, they announced they were stepping back from their royal roles and moving to North America in search of more freedom, privacy and financial independence. They have since signed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify to produce entertainment, documentaries and podcasts.

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The couple also have filed four lawsuits in the U.K. and in California alleging invasion of privacy, and have won three of them. In the most recent victories, The Mail on Sunday apologized, issued a correction and paid damages over a story that wrongly reported Harry had "turned his back" on his prized military associations.

Last week, Meghan scored a major victory, winning a summary judgment in her contentious lawsuit against the Mail of Sunday for invading her privacy when it published parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father.

'Damage runs deep': Duchess Meghan wins privacy lawsuit against British tabloid

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry: See Oprah interview royal couple for CBS

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