Oprah winfrey

Monday

James Forsyth

Can Boris sustain his royal silence?

From our UK edition

Boris Johnson is clearly determined to avoid being dragged into this Harry and Meghan story. At his press conference this afternoon, he said that he has the ‘highest admiration for the Queen’ but emphasised that he wouldn’t be commenting on the story. One can understand why Boris Johnson doesn’t want to get involved in this intra-family row; it is hard to see how Keir Starmer’s opining on the matter is going to help him politically.  But Johnson’s line might prove difficult to hold. The racism charge against the royal family is incendiary.

Steerpike

Fact check: did Harry and Meghan have a secret wedding?

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Not content with having claimed that baby Archie was denied his rightful title, last night’s interview with the Sussexes saw them boast of having conducted a secret marriage with the Archbishop of Canterbury three days before the public ceremony in May 2018. Meghan told Oprah: 'You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that. We called the Archbishop and we just said "Look this thing, this spectacle is for the world but we want our union between us".'  She added that they exchanged personal vows during a backyard ceremony in the grounds of Kensington Palace – 'just the two of us'. Prince Harry meanwhile sang 'Just the three of us,' Harry to the tune of the 1980 hit 'Just the Two of Us'.

Steerpike

Fact check: why isn’t Archie a prince?

From our UK edition

Viewers watching Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah last night were treated to a host of bombshells on everything from the couple’s secret marriage to the gender of their new baby. Allegations levelled by the pair include claims that a member of the royal family made racist comments about Archie’s skin colour and that the firm stopped Meghan from getting help for her mental health. One claim that can be rebutted however is the issue of why Harry and Meghan’s son Archie does not have the title of prince like Prince George or Princess Charlotte. In her interview, Oprah Winfrey asked Meghan if her son was denied the title of prince because he is mixed-race amid Palace concerns that Archie would be 'too brown'.

Peter Hunt

What the Oprah interview means for the monarchy

From our UK edition

An institution that weathered and survived the abdication crisis and the aftermath of the death of Diana Princess of Wales is now left reeling by a two-hour long programme on primetime American television. It’s a broadcast in which the grandson of a queen and his wife made crystal clear that marrying into the British royal family in the 21st century is no fairytale. It’s a one-sided account of Megxit that will incense those who insist they did try to help the newest Windsor The claim of racism is one that will endure. No Palace spin can erase it from the collective memory. The charge is that one of Harry’s relatives asked him, when Meghan was pregnant with Archie, 'how dark his skin might be when he is born'.

Sunday

Mary Kate Skehan

The Windsors are the first and best reality TV family

Isn’t it nice to think about someone else’s problems for a change?  I think this must be the experience of the millions of Americans who tuned into Oprah’s exclusive interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, earlier tonight. Our politics are dysfunctional, sure, but have you heard about the British royal family, who in addition to a long history of presiding over murderous colonial regimes, are also not very nice?  Of course, there’s no reason that any American should care about the wife of a rich guy who’s sixth in line to an entirely symbolic office in a faraway country. Even if the British sovereign made meaningful policy decisions, Prince Harry is in no danger of becoming king.

harry meghan oprah

Saturday

Esther Watson

Meghan is filling the gossip-shaped hole in our universe

Tomorrow night, Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey will air. CBS reportedly paid $7-9 million for the rights to the two-hour conversation in which 'no topic is off limits'. Millions will tune in. I’ll be one of them. I don’t subscribe to the view that Meghan is a hero sticking it to the establishment. Nor do I think she is the Antichrist. Yet I’ve spent countless hours reading every bit of Harry-Meghan content on the internet. Like half the planet, it seems, I’m transfixed. Why? The cause is simple. The pandemic has deprived me of gossip and I’ll do anything for it now. The past year has been many things — scary, frustrating, lonely. More than anything, though, for most people, it has been boring. Saying so is taboo.

Thursday

Justin Lee

Jeanine Cummins is guilty — of writing a bad book

Flatiron Books has canceled the promotional tour for Jeanine Cummins’s new novel American Dirt due to ‘safety concerns’. Cummins’s novel, which follows a Mexican mother and her young son as they flee cartel violence and seek asylum in the United States, is intended to spur readers’ sympathy at a time when Americans are increasingly indifferent to the plight of refugees. Instead she is the target of rancor and her book the target of censorship.‘I’ve never in my life seen this kind of public flogging,’ said novelist Ann Patchett, defending Cummins even as other writers signed an open letter asking Oprah Winfrey to rescind her endorsement.The outrage is following a familiar script.

american dirt jeanine cummins