Prince Harry wanted to ‘rock that boat’ with Oprah interview, says Ingrid Seward

The repercussions of the interview would not have surprised the Duke of Sussex, claims the royal expert

Saman Javed
Friday 07 May 2021 09:47 BST
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Prince Harry during the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Harry during the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh (PA)

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Prince Harry knew what the fallout would be when he sat down for his bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, according to a royal biographer.

Ingrid Seward, author of Prince Philip Revealed: A man of his century, said she believes Harry knew that he would rock the boat and likely does not “regret it for a moment”.

Speaking to Page Six, Seward said she doesn’t understand the couple’s motive behind the interview.

“He knew what he was doing. I can swear to you that, and he wanted to rock that boat.

“Quite why, I don’t understand, but he did want to. And then he did, and I don’t think he’s surprised by the repercussions or that he regrets it for a moment,” Seward said.

“Nobody attacks the royals. I’ve never heard of a member of the royal family criticising them the way Harry or Meghan does,” she added.

In their first sit-down interview since stepping away from their official royal duties in January 2020, Harry and Meghan Markle gave Winfrey a revealing into their reasons for making the historic decision.

During the two-hour interview, which aired on 8 March, Harry also said he felt ‘really let down’ by Prince Charles, who he claimed had stopped taking his calls since the couple moved to California.

‘‘I feel really let down because he’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like and Archie’s his grandson,” he said.

Meghan also revealed she had experienced suicidal thoughts while pregnant with Archie but had struggled to get help while being a part of the royal family, despite claiming to have asked for it.

“I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution,” she said.

“I find that so difficult to understand … what she was trying to tell us there,” Seward said of the Duchess’s comments.

“You don’t go to the HR department in the UK. You go and see a doctor, or you say to your husband, ‘Darling, I feel dreadful, I need you to find someone’. Harry was in therapy himself, so he must have known people,” she added.

Meghan also said she had little knowledge about the royal family before meeting Harry because she didn’t grow up knowing much about them.

The British monarchy “wasn’t something that was part of the conversation at home” or “something that we followed”, she told Winfrey.

Seward said she thinks the actor “didn’t understand that as a royal duchess, you can’t have a voice”.

“I think she had no idea she wouldn’t be able to say what she thought or wouldn’t be able to voice her opinion. That’s what she was used to all her life, and suddenly she’s in a straitjacket,” she added.

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