Meghan and Harry's Oprah interview: live updates as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reveal all
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The Duchess of Sussex claimed the Duchess of Cambridge apologised for making her cry ahead of her wedding, she revealed in the opening minutes of her blockbuster television interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The Duchess has also revealed she married Prince Harry three days before their public ceremony.
The couple plan to reveal the sex of their second baby later in the show.
Racism, rifts, and a falling-out with The Firm - nothing will be off -limits, with the Royal family braced for a slew of damaging revelations.
The interview, being broadcast in the US on CBS, will be shown in the UK at 9pm on Monday on ITV. But we'll be bringing you the latest on it here now in our live blog.
03:01 AM
'I love William to bits'
Asked about his relationship with his older brother, Harry said: "I love William to bits, he's my brother, we've been through hell together, we have a shared experience, but we were on different paths."
Winfrey pressed Harry to disclose the content of a conversation Meghan referred to earlier in the interview about Archie's skin tone.
Harry said: "That conversion, I am never going to share. At the time it was awkward, I was a bit shocked."
He said he was "not comfortable" sharing the question he was asked by the unnamed person, but said it happened "right at the beginning" of their relationship.
He said members of his family suggested Meghan "carried on acting because there was not enough money to pay for her".
He added: "There were some real obvious signs, before we even got married, that this was going to be really hard."
02:58 AM
Harry: 'My father and brother are trapped'
Prince Harry said he still felt compassion for his father and brother because they are also "trapped".
"They don't get to leave," he said, adding he has "huge compassion for that".
Asked if he would have stepped back had he not met Meghan, Harry said: "No, the answer to your question is no."
He said that despite being "trapped", he "didn't see a way out" or realise he was trapped until he met Meghan.
02:52 AM
Harry feels 'let down' by Charles
Prince Harry has divulged that his relationship with his father has still not been repaired.
"I feel really let down" by him, he said, "because he's been through something similar", adding "Archie is his grandson."
Prince Harry added that he will always love his father but "there's a lot of hurt that's happened".
He also revealed that "my family literally cut me off financially".
The prince said he had been able to restart their lives in the US with money his mother had left him.
02:50 AM
Diana would be angry at split, says Harry
Asked how his mother would have reacted to the developments of the last year, Prince Harry said she would "feel very angry with how this has panned out and very sad."
The Prince said the turning point for the couple came after their tour of Australia.
"They saw how good she [Meghan] was at the job," he said, adding: "That brought back memories."
Oprah asked Prince Harry whether he was suggesting the Royal family were "jealous" of Meghan, in the same way the recent Netflix series The Crown had suggested they were of his mother.
Asking whether the couple have watched The Crown, Harry replied: "I've watched some of it. We've watched some of it."
Meghan, laughing, added: "I've watched some of it."
02:43 AM
Harry: Royal family has 'contract' with tabloids
Prince Harry says there were many opportunities for his family to show their support for Meghan but they were "scared" of antagonising the press.
“I’m acutely aware of where my family stand and how acutely scared they are of the tabloids turning on them,” he told Oprah.
The Prince claimed there is an “invisible contract” between the royal family and the tabloids, adding the dynamic is one of “control by fear”.
“The institution survives based on” its relationship with the press, he said.
The Duchess added that the press coverage's racial overtones changed the level of threat to the couple.
“It changed the death threats,” she added.
02:34 AM
Harry: My dad stopped taking my calls
Prince Harry revealed that his father Prince Charles stopped taking his calls while discussions about the couple's future role were ongoing.
The prince denied blindsiding his grandmother the Queen with his plans to quit the UK, saying he had too much respect for her.
"I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, can you put this all in writing?"
Asked why Prince Charles had stopped taking his calls, Prince Harry said: "By that point I took matters into my own hands, it was like, I needed to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody. It's really sad that it's got to this point, but I've got to do something for my own mental health, my wife's and for Archie's as well."
Harry said he ultimately decided to step back because of a "lack of support and lack of understanding" from both the British press and the Royal institution.
02:18 AM
Harry: 'I was desperate'
Joining his wife for the second part of the interview, Prince Harry described the circumstances leading up to them stepping back from the Royal family.
The Duke of Sussex also revealed their security detail was removed when they stepped back from being senior members of the family.
Gripping Meghan's hand, he said: "Their justification was a change in status. I pushed back and said is there a change of threat or risk?
"Eventually, I got the confirmation that no, the risk hasn't changed but due to our change of status - we would no longer be 'official' members of the Royal family."
Prince Harry said the couple had done everything they could to try to remain a part of the Royal family and considered living in a Commonwealth country like Canada or New Zealand in order to satisfy the Palace.
Asked about the "tipping point" which led the couple to quit the UK, Prince Harry replied: "I was desperate.
"I went to all the places which I thought I should go to, to ask for help - we both did, separately and together."
Oprah asked: "You left because you were asking for help, and didn't get it?"
Harry replied: "Yeah. Basically. But we never left."
Meghan said: "We never left the family."
02:11 AM
Sussexes reveal they're having a girl
Prince Harry has joined the couch for the second part of their interview. The couple revealed they are expecting a baby girl.
The Prince said he was "just grateful".
"To have any child, any one or any two, would have been amazing. But to have a boy and then a girl, I mean what more can you ask for? Now we've got our family, we got the four of us and our two dogs."
Asked if they were "done" with two children, Prince Harry said "done" and the Duchess said: "Two is it."
Meghan also confirmed the baby is due in the "summertime".
01:53 AM
'I didn't want to be alive anymore'
The Duchess said she reached "a breaking point" where she came to find her life unsurvivable and began to have suicidal thoughts.
"I just didn't want to be alive anymore," she said.
The Duchess said her friends and family's reactions to the negative press coverage of her made her all the more aware of her impossible situation.
The Duchess grew tearful as she told Oprah: "I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it, to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he suffered.
"But I knew that if I didn't say it that I would do it, and I just didn't...I just didn't want to be alive anymore".
The Duchess described Harry cradling her and looking back on an event where he gripped her tightly by the hand to protect her.
But she added that the wider Palace institution denied her access to mental health help.
"I went to the institution, and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help. I said that I've never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. And I was told that I couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution," she said.
01:43 AM
Meghan: 'Royals aired concerns about Archie's skin colour'
The Duchess of Sussex said that when she was pregnant with Archie there were "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born".
Meghan said she would not reveal who was involved in the talks, but said there were "several conversations" about Archie's skin tone and "what that would mean or look like".
"That was relayed to me from Harry," she said. "Those were conversations family had with him."
Pushed by Winfrey on who had those conversations, Meghan said: "I think that would be very damaging to them".
The Duchess added that the decision not to give Archie a title was made by the Palace.
"They didn't want him to be a prince or princess, not knowing what the gender would be, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn't going to receive security," she said.
"In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, you won't be given security, not gonna be given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."
01:40 AM
Meghan: I was silenced
The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah she was "silenced" when she joined the Royal family, while everyone in her circle was instructed to say "no comment" to questions which she said they did.
Meghan said the reports around her incident with the Duchess of Cambridge was "the beginning of a real character assassination".
The Duchess said "people within The Firm" told her she was "everywhere" in press coverage, and a member of the family suggested that she "lay low" for a while.
"I said: 'I have left the house twice in four months, I am everywhere but I am nowhere'," the Duchess told Oprah as she described her loneliness.
Winfrey asked Meghan: "Were you silent? Or were you silenced?"
"Everyone in my world was given very clear directive from the moment the world knew Harry and I were dating, to always say 'no comment'," she replied.
01:31 AM
Things 'worsened' once we were married
The Duchess has claimed the Palace was willing to "lie" to protect "other" members of the Royal family rather than correct reports about her.
"It was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family," she said. "But they weren't willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband."
However the Duchess stressed that the Queen was nothing but lovely to her, comparing their relationship to one of grandmother and grand-daughter.
01:19 AM
'Kate made me cry'
Contrary to reports that the Duchess of Sussex made the Duchess of Cambridge cry at her wedding rehearsal, Meghan says the "reverse" was true.
Oprah raised the rumours that Meghan had made "Kate", as she referred to her, cry during a rehearsal for the flower girls.
Reports after the Sussexes' wedding suggested Meghan's demands had left the Duchess of Cambridge in tears during the rehearsal.
She said in fact the "reverse happened" and the Duchess of Cambridge made her cry. She later apologised, brought her flowers and took accountability for it.
Meghan said she was not sharing the information to be "disparaging", but added it was "really important for people to understand the truth".
"She's a good person," the Duchess added.
Meghan said the Duchess of Cambridge was "upset about some things and she owned it and apologised".
The Duchess described later press reports that distorted the incident as a “turning point”.
01:16 AM
Harry and Meghan married days before their wedding
The Duchess revealed that she married Prince Harry three days before their Royal wedding at St George's Chapel in Windsor.
The formal ceremony was done by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
01:15 AM
Duchess invokes Diana
The Duchess opens the interview by invoking the infamous interview done by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1995.
The interview with the BBC revealed intimate details of Diana's marriage to Prince Charles and was watched by millions. It was also said to have infuriated the Queen.
The Duchess said she entered the Royal family "naively", but had since become aware of Diana's "famous" tell-all interview.
The Duchess said she did not research Prince Harry or his family beforehand, and had a very limited understanding of what marrying into the family would entail.
"I didn't romanticise any element of it, but I think as Americans especially - what you know about the royals is what you read in fairy tales," she said.
Meghan revealed the first time she met the Queen, Prince Harry asked her if she knew how to curtesy.
"He said: 'Do you know how to curtesy?'
"That was the first moment that the penny dropped."
She said she and Harry then practiced her curtsey before meeting the Queen.
"We sat there and we just chatted. And it was lovely and easy," she said.
01:03 AM
'No subject is off limits'
And we've begun. Oprah has opened the interview by reminding viewers that no subject is off the table. The Duchess of Sussex has not been paid for her participation.
The Duchess of Sussex said she knows the gender of her baby and it will be revealed later on during the interview, which was filmed at a friend's house.
01:01 AM
Oprah's most memorable and revealing interviews
To give you a taste of what is to come, The Telegraph looked back over the course of Oprah Winfrey's 25-year television career and the interviews that made her TV royalty.
From Lance Armstrong’s guilt to Rihanna’s forgiveness, for some of the most memorable moments in modern pop culture, you need look no further than Oprah’s sofa.
Have a look back at her greatest TV moments here.
12:58 AM
Palace 'bullying' investigation will only feature Duchess
Allegations of bullying against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have surfaced in recent days ahead of their tell-all interview.
The Telegraph's Victoria Ward has this report revealing that the Buckingham Palace investigation into bullying will be confined solely to allegations concerning the Duchess - and no other members of the Royal family.
The review will be deliberately limited in scope, focusing on a specific time period, and will invite only members of staff from the time to give evidence, The Telegraph understands.
12:44 AM
Princes hope to reunite this summer
The Duke of Sussex is determined to stand shoulder to shoulder with his brother at the unveiling of a statue of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, whatever the fallout from his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Victoria Ward has spoken to a royal source who believes tonight offers the Sussexes' a chance to "draw a line under that chapter of their lives".
The source, who is close to Prince Harry, insisted that whatever had been said and done, he desperately hoped to attend the event at Kensington Palace to mark his mother's 60th birthday on July 1.
12:36 AM
'Today's the day'
The Queen of chat show has been counting down the hours until the interview airs on her social media accounts.
12:34 AM
Meghan's sorority watching along
Students from Northwestern University in Chicago, Meghan's alma mater, will be eagerly watching tonight's interview.
Members of the Duchess' former sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, say they are marking the occasion with British-themed food and memorabilia from the royal wedding.
Despite coronavirus restrictions, Northwestern graduate Alexis Barber, 22, told the New York Times she will be taking to Instagram to share her obsession with the Duchess with friends.
“I just need to know what’s going on,” she told the newspaper.
12:15 AM
PR savvy or a faux pas?
Oprah Winfrey is the queen of the chat show, but is she the right person to interview Harry and Meghan? The Telegraph's Robin Aitken has his reservations about the move.
He writes: "I can see the temptation – it gives them a huge audience and an opportunity to enlist the sympathy of the credulous – but it comes at a cost. The thing which Harry and Meghan stand to lose is their authenticity. How can we take them seriously when so much about their lives now seems so phony and fake?
For one thing the idea that this is any kind of normal journalistic interview is wrong. Oprah Winfrey is no even-handed inquisitor. She has built a reputation and media empire by monetising flattery - the same technique employed with huge success by Hello! magazine.
If you look at Oprah’s back catalogue (and it’s vast; she has interviewed more than 30,000 people in her long career) what stands out is the way she shamelessly massages the egos of her famous guests; but then occasionally she goes on to be unexpectedly sharp and insinuating.
It’s a technique that can pay dividends but it doesn’t entirely dispel the suspicion that she often pulls her punches.
11:59 PM
'Were you silent, or were you silenced?
This was the first teaser CBS released, and in it Oprah Winfrey reveals "there is no subject that is off-limits". She asks the Duchess of Sussex: "Were you silent, or were you silenced?"
11:48 PM
Your essential pre-interview read
The Telegraph's Associate Editor, Camilla Tominey, has written this forensic account of how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ended up here, beginning back in October 2017. She writes:
The Telegraph has spoken to a number of well-placed insiders who witnessed first-hand the turmoil within the royal household from Meghan's arrival as Prince Harry's girlfriend to the couple's decision to stand down as working royals last year. All spoke on the condition of anonymity amid claims they had been operating in a "climate of fear", where employees were routinely "humiliated" in front of their peers and repeatedly subjected to "unreasonable demands" by both Meghan and Harry.
It's an unmissable piece and you can read it in full here.
11:41 PM
Five thorny issues we can expect to crop up
The tiny crumbs from the interview that CBS has already thrown out tell us that it is going to be unmissable.
The slickly produced, dramatic teasers have quashed any lingering hopes that the couple might stick to more mundane and diplomatic subject matters. Instead, they will lift the lid on life behind palace walls in a manner no member of the family has done for decades.
Here, Victoria Ward highlights five issues likely to be hot topics, with racism top of the list. As she writes:
From the moment Meghan Markle arrived on the royal scene, the couple have claimed that press coverage has contained undercurrents of racism. She will almost certainly talk about race in Britain but more damaging would be claims that the royal institution itself was racist.
