In a recently released preview of Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, she spoke about how she wasn’t able to make a choice on her own and speak for herself while in the royal family.
She said stepping back as a working member of the royal family has been really “liberating” as she now has the “right and priviledge” to finally be able to make her choices and speak for herself.
Oprah brought up a phone call she made to Meghan in 2018 before the royal wedding, asking for an interview and how Meghan turned her down.
Responding, Meghan said she wasn’t even “allowed” to have a conversation with Oprah personally.
She added that there “had to be people sitting there” with her during the call with Oprah.
In the latest clip, shown on CBS’s This Morning show, Oprah said to Meghan:
“So I just want to say, I called you either February or March 2018 before the wedding asking, would you please give me an interview. And you said ‘I’m sorry, it’s not the right time’. Finally we get to sit down and have this conversation.”
Meghan replied: “I remember that conversation very well. I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you personally, right? There had to be people from the communications team sitting there.”
Asked why now was the right time, Meghan said: “Well, so many things. That we’re on the other side of a lot of life experience that’s happened and also that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that I couldn’t have said yes to 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 is 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, I’m ready to talk, to say it to yourself.
“To be able to just make a choice on your own and to be able to speak for yourself.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit their roles as senior working royals in March 2020, and now live in California.
Prince Harry recently said he had to step back from royal duties to protect himself and his family from the “toxic” situation created by the UK press, as it was “destroying his mental health”.
