Unless you've been in hiding, you might be aware that a certain royal couple are due to appear on television this week.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Oprah Winfrey TV interview will be broadcast this weekend in a two-hour special on US TV network CBS.
A special trailer of the interview was shares on Monday with chat show queen Oprah Winfrey hinting that no subject is off limits.
The interview will air on Sunday 7 March at 8pm Eastern Time in the United States but where will it be made available for a UK audience?
According to reports in I News, ITV looks set to land the rights for the eagerly anticipated interview ahead of Sky for £1million, with ViacomCBS eager to see the interview air on a terrestrial channel.
The report suggests the interview will be aired on Monday night in the UK.
US television network CBS has released two 30-second excerpts from Oprah With Meghan And Harry: A CBS Primetime Special, which is set to air at 8pm Eastern Time in the US on Sunday – or 1.00am Monday UK time.
CBS Presents Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special in one week. #OprahMeghanHarry pic.twitter.com/WCyoHDMCaP
— CBS (@CBS) March 1, 2021
In clips released by CBS, Prince Harry said he feared “history repeating itself” in a reference to his mother’s death as he recounted his royal life with wife Meghan in the couple’s much anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey.
One video begins with Oprah asking the Duchess of Sussex if she was “silent or silenced”, with Meghan’s answer not revealed.
She then asks the duchess: “Almost unsurvivable. Sounds like there was a breaking point?” The clip then quickly cuts to the duke commenting: “My biggest fear was history repeating itself.”
In the second video, Harry says he is grateful to have had Meghan’s support throughout his exit from royal life, while also expressing admiration for what his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, had to endure under similar circumstances.
He tells Winfrey: “I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you, with my wife by my side, because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her, going through this process by herself, all those years ago.
“Because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other.”
It comes days after Harry’s appearance on US talk show The Late Late Show, in which he told host James Cordon the “toxic” atmosphere created by the British press is what forced him and his family to leave the UK.
What’s the story so far?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped away from being serving royals in 2020 and made the move to California, where they established Archewell Inc., an organisation aimed at non-profit activities and exploring the couple’s media opportunities.
A deal with Netflix has been signed to develop programmes with the streaming service, while they have also inked a contract with Spotify to produce and host audio programmes.
However, perhaps the most-anticipated programme the pair will appear in is an interview with Oprah Winfrey, currently scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday, March 7 in the US, which looks set to go into detail over the reasons for the couple to step down.
Anticipation has already been building after CBS, the US network broadcasting the interview, released two teaser clips for the full special. In them, Prince Harry draws parallels between what happened to his mother, Princess Diana, and his wife.
He said: “For me, I'm just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you with my wife by my side.
“I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like for her [Princess Diana] going through this process by herself all those years ago, because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us - but at least we had each other."
He added: “My biggest concern was history repeating itself.”
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