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Tea time: Oprah snags first interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle since they quit royal duties

Free Press wire reports | 3/4/2021, 6 p.m.
Will Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spill the tea when they talk with Oprah Winfrey in their first major TV ...
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the duchess of Sussex, talk with Oprah Winfrey for television special. Photo by Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions

Will Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spill the tea when they talk with Oprah Winfrey in their first major TV interview since they quit their royal duties and bought a home last year in the United States?

Stay tuned.

The queen of TV interviews will ask all the good questions and more in a 90- minute “Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special” that will air Sunday, March 7.

Ms. Winfrey knows the couple well. She attended their wedding in 2018 and lives near them in Montecito, Calif.

“Winfrey will speak with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in a wide-ranging interview, covering everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure,” according to CBS. “Later, the two are joined by Prince Harry as they speak about their move to the United States and their future hopes and dreams for their expanding family.”

Buckingham Palace confirmed Feb. 19 that Prince Harry and his wife, Ms. Markle, will not be returning to royal duties, and Prince Harry will give up his honorary military titles — a decision that makes formal, and final, the couple’s split from the royal family.

The couple, however, remains committed to public service. After hearing about recent storm damage to a women’s emergency shelter in Texas, the couple surprised the shelter with a donation from Archewell Foundation, their nonprofit, for a new roof and money to cover immediate needs. They also have been spotted volunteering with Project Angel Food in Los Angeles, helping deliver food to people in need during the pandemic. Both were dressed down in jeans and jogging pants, shirts, baseball caps and masks.

When the couple stepped away from full-time royal life in March 2020, unhappy at media scrutiny and the strictures of their roles, it was agreed the situation would be reviewed after a year.

Now it has, and the palace said in a statement that the couple, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have verified “they will not be returning as working members of the Royal Family. “

It said Queen Elizabeth II had spoken to 36-year-old Prince Harry and confirmed “that in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family, it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service.”

The palace said Prince Harry’s appointment as captain general of the Royal Marines and titles with other military groups would revert to the queen before being distributed to other members of the family.

Prince Harry served in the British Army for a decade, including on the front line in Afghanistan, and retains a close bond with the military. He founded the Invictus Games competition for wounded troops, which first was held in 2014 at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The Invictus Games Foundation said Prince Harry would remain its patron. But he is relinquishing positions as patron of the Rugby Football Union, the Rugby Football League and the London Marathon Charitable Trust.

Ms. Markle, 39, will be stripped of her role as patron of Britain’s National Theatre and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

“While all are saddened by their decision, the Duke and Duchess remain much loved members of the family,” the palace statement read.

Ms. Markle, a former star of the TV legal drama “Suits,” and the queen’s grandson married at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son, Archie, was born a year later. The couple recently announced they are expecting their second child.

In early 2020, Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media toward the duchess, who identifies as biracial.

They retain their titles of duke and duchess, and Harry is still sixth in line to the British throne.