大象传媒

Prince Harry and Meghan: Why is their interview with Oprah a big deal?

Prince Harry and Meghan.Image source, Reuters

The Duke and Duchess are going to talk about their decision to step away from their royal duties for the first time.

Prince Harry and Meghan are going to do a 90-minute television interview with the American talk-show host, Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah With Meghan And Harry: A CBS Primetime Special has been described by the US television network as an "intimate conversation".

It follows the news that the royal couple are expecting their second child.

Here's why it's got a lot of people talking.

Image source, Reuters

Prince Harry and Meghan made the decision to quit their roles as senior working royals in March last year.

This meant they were free to move away to live wherever they wanted, and stopped using the royal title, "His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness".

Senior royals, although not an official term, usually refers to members of the Royal Family who are high up and regularly perform royal duties in the Queen's name.

It caused a lot of controversy because it's thought that no other royal, including the Queen, knew about the decision before Harry and Meghan released their statement to the public.

However, there had been hints of the couple's unhappiness with the media spotlight brought on by the role.

In 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan spoke in a documentary about how media attention affected them and Meghan admitted that adjusting to royal life was "hard".

大象传媒 royal correspondent, Jonny Dymond, said of the decision to step away: "This is clearly a major rift between Harry and Meghan on one part, and the rest of the Royal Family on the other."

Who is Oprah?

Image source, Reuters

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful chat-show hosts in America and has a history of securing really important interviews.

She first became famous in 1986 with the Oprah Winfrey Show. It ran for 25 years before she turned her success into her own TV channel - the Oprah Winfrey Network.

She has also done a huge amount of charity work, including setting up two of her own foundations and donating millions of her own money.

She is a personal friend of Meghan and attended the couple's wedding in 2018.

What will they talk about in the interview?

Image source, Reuters

According to CBS - the television network running the interview - Meghan will be interviewed about "stepping into life as a royal, marriage, motherhood" and "how she is handling life under intense public pressure".

She will then be joined by Prince Harry and the couple will talk about their move to the United States and their future plans.

It's not known whether the couple told the royal household about their plans to be interviewed. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

The interview will be broadcast in the US on 7 March, but it isn't known yet which broadcaster, if any, will show it here in the UK.