Harry and Meghan join veteran broadcaster Jane Pauley Sunday for what would be their first joint interview since they set off a media firestorm by talking to Oprah Winfrey in 2021 and appearing in their 2022 Netflix documentary.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appear to be gearing up for some new media blitz, with “CBS Sunday Morning” revealing that the couple have filmed a sit-down interview with Jane Pauley that will air this weekend.
The chat would be the first time the California-based couple have participated in a joint interview since their blockbuster sessions in 2021 with Oprah Winfrey and in their 2022 Netflix documentary series. In these interviews, taking place after they stepped away from royal duties in 2020, they fomented a three-year media firestorm in which they shared sensational revelations about the British royal family, alleging forms of racism, cruelty and dysfunction and amplifying critiques of certain members in particular.
But a brief clip of Harry and Meghan’s interview with Pauley, posted on social media, suggests that the California-based couple may steer clear of talking about Harry’s relatives, from whom they have become notoriously estranged. Indeed, a People magazine report this week said that King Charles III has stopped taking his son’s phone calls. For the American and U.K. public, Harry and Meghan’s revelations also have become increasingly polarizing, as evidenced by the controversy that followed Harry, as he received an award at the ESPYs named in honor of American war hero Pat Tillman.
The CBS Sunday interview may just focus on yet another new initiative that the Duke and Duchess are trying out with their Archewell Foundation, this one centering around children and social media, Page Six reported.
The clip shows the couple talking about a continuation of their work with parents who have lost their children to online bullying and abuse. Last October, the couple headlined a Project Healthy Minds festival in New York City, during which they discussed the harmful effects that social media can have on young people’s mental health.
This “CBS Sunday” interview comes in the midst of what could be yet another big media cycle for the couple, who are still trying to gain a foothold as media moguls, entrepreneurs and influential public figures.
Meghan has been the subject of reports about finishing filming on a new cooking series for Netflix, which was part of her and Harry’s five-year, $100 million deal with the platform. Harry also is supposed to be working on a show of his own about professional polo. Meghan, moreover, has announced plans to sell luxury home and lifestyle goods, via her new American Riviera Orchard brand. However, no launch dates have been announced for the cooking and polo shows or Meghan’s lifestyle band.
Still, the couple have kept themselves in the news lately. After the ESPYs controversy, Harry garnered more global headlines by giving an interview to British TV about his high-profile legal battle against the U.K. tabloids for their past phone-hacking and other illegal practices.
However, the once popular British duke sparked new criticism when he said in the documentary, “Tabloids on Trial,” that his determination to crusade against the tabloids was the “central piece” in his broken relationship with his father, his brother, Prince William, and his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton. In various online forums, people blasted Harry for blaming his rift with his family on his court battles, instead of taking responsibility for his choice to “talk incessantly about his family on a global level.”
As part of Harry and Meghan’s new media cycle, the duke also is the cover star for this week’s People magazine, with a lengthy story that focuses on his other legal fight: to get the British government to give him armed police protection when he visits the U.K. with his wife and family. Harry wasn’t interviewed for the story, but “sources” close to him were, suggesting that he or his P.R. team sanctioned the story.
The story allows Harry to put forth argument that his estrangement with his family also stems from the fact that he can’t get the police protection he automatically enjoyed when he and Meghan were working members of the royal family. The Harry sources say he doesn’t feel safe bringing his wife and children, Archie and Lilibet, to visit the U.K. and is frustrated that his father, as king, won’t help.
“Harry is frightened and feels the only person who can do anything about it is his father,” a royal insider told People. Another source close to the situation said: “Harry is determined to protect his own family at all costs.”
Ever since Harry lost the automatic right to police protection, he has waged a losing court battle with the U.K. government to have his security reinstated. He believes that Charles could easily make that happen.
But People, citing Buckingham Palace sources, reported that, constitutionally, the monarch has no governmental power in the U.K., and the authority to bestow police protection doesn’t lie with Charles but with the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC), which operates on behalf of the U.K. government.
While people close to Harry said that this issue has created “an impenetrable wall” between him and his father, sources close to the king have accused his son of resorting to “emotional blackmail,” threatening the king with the possibility that he’ll never see his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, unless he rectifies his son’s security concerns.
