Another Royal Speaks Out After Prince Harry and Meghan’s Interview With Oprah, Says She Was Told to ‘Shut Up’
Many royal watchers are still talking about Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex‘s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. During their conversation with the legendary talk show host, the couple claimed they weren’t treated fairly when they were senior members of the royal family.
Following the pair’s sitdown with Oprah, the palace released a statement saying that the recollections of Harry’s family members “vary” from what the Sussexes said happened. Questions have since been raised about that and some claims Meghan made have been debunked leaving fans to wonder what to believe. Now, one princess has talked about doing such interviews and explained that when it comes to airing the royals’ dirty laundry, it’s something she was forbidden from ever doing.
Before Oprah, Meghan and Harry did another candid interview
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with the TV personality wasn’t the first time they opened up to a journalist about their private battles behind palace walls.
During the 2019 documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, Meghan told news anchor Tom Bradby that she struggled to deal with the constant media attention. “I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a ‘stiff upper lip.’ I really tried, but I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging,” she said, adding, “I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile.”
Princess’s comments about royals giving interviews
Someone who isn’t a fan of royals giving interviews like the ones Meghan and Harry did is Princess Olga. She is a cousin of the queen. Olga’s father is Prince Andrei Alexandrovich. He was Tsar Nicholas II’s eldest nephew and escaped Russia on a British warship in 1919. Tsar Nicholas II was the first cousin of King George V, who is Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather.
The princess spoke to ITV’s Lorraine Kelly about royals doing television interviews. She stated that she was told not to do them and never publicly air out her family’s dirty laundry.
“Do you think [interviews are] the way ahead to modernize the royal family or do you just think people should shh?” Kelly asked Olga (per the Daily Mail). The princess replied: “I was told to sit down and shut up and never wash your dirty linen in public, whatever it happens to be. So I think the queen does it right.”
Olga is referring to the fact that Queen Elizabeth doesn’t do TV interviews herself. In 2018, the monarch did talk to BBC for a documentary about her coronation, but other than that she doesn’t give journalists on-camera interviews.
Prince Harry and Oprah have teamed up
Prince Harry and Oprah are working together post the Sussexes’ tell-all interview. But this time Lady O won’t be asking the duke any questions. The two are the executive producers of a documentary about mental health titled The Me You Can’t See.
“Featuring high-profile guests, alongside a wide range of people from across the globe living with the challenges of mental health issues and addressing their emotional well-being, the series transcends culture, age, gender, and socioeconomic status to destigmatize a highly misunderstood subject and give hope to viewers who learn that they are not alone,” a press release said.
The docuseries premieres May 21 on AppleTV+.
