*Trigger Warner: Article discusses suicide and racism towards biracial Royal Family members*

On Sunday, March 7, Oprah Winfrey hosted a two-hour CBS primetime Sunday TV special with “ex” royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. After announcing that they would be stepping down from their senior roles as Royals in Jan. 2020, the couple had yet to sit down for a tell-all interview after a year of swirling rumors and speculations. Finally, the world got one with none other than Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey had reportedly been trying to interview the couple for a few years and sold CBS the rights to air the interview via her production company, HARPO, for somewhere between a whopping 7 to 9 million dollars. Reports also indicate commercials were being sold for over $300,000, double what they usually cost during that time slot. At the time of this writing, the first data showed that over 17.1 million Americans watched the tell-all. This audience surpasses the recent 2021 Golden Globe Awards, which pulled roughly seven million viewers and is the highest rating one-on-one interview since Stephanie Clifford (also known as Stormy Daniels) sat down with

60 Minutes

in 2018 and received 22 million viewers. The special did not disappoint, as a slew of headlines dominated the media and press Monday morning, and will surely be continued to be talked about for weeks to come.

At the beginning of the special and before diving into some of the more controversial aspects of the interview, Markle revealed that she will be due for her second baby in the summertime.

Later, Markle revealed that her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, made her cry in the weeks leading up to her wedding after she critiqued Markle’s choices for flower girl dresses, putting a longtime rumor to bed that it had been Meghan who made Kate cry instead.

Markle also admitted she had suicidal thoughts while pregnant with her son, Archie, due to lack of support from “the Royal Institution” when Markle received poor coverage in the tabloids.

The interview made it very clear that it was not the couple’s choice to leave Archie without a royal title, but rather the Royal Family’s. The couple argued that this decision stripped Archie of security, a major concern for Meghan and Harry.

Markle dropped the biggest bombshell of the interview when she disclosed that a member of the Royal Family had concerns about how “dark” Archie’s skin tone would be since Markle is biracial. Winfrey reacted strongly to this statement, as she was dumbfounded that the Royal Family even had this conversation. Prince Harry supported his wife by confirming that he did have a conversation with someone who had asked this, but he would not share who it was.

Harry and Meghan also set the record straight that they think very highly of and have a great relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip, clarifying that they were not the ones who asked the racist question. The couple also claim that they did not blindside the Queen when they decided to step down from their professional roles, but did indicate that the family was not happy about their decision. Harry discloses that his father, Prince Charles, stopped taking his calls and Harry awkwardly admitted that there is “space” in his current relationship with his brother William.

Buckingham Palace responded to the interview on Tuesday, March 9 saying that they were “saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” and “while some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.” Additional reports suggested that Prince William was “devastated” and “incandescent with anger” over the accusations that he was “trapped” in the institution, had “work to do” when it came to racial issues, and that his wife, Kate, made Meghan cry.

When discussing why the couple would even sit down to do the interview, some pundits have argued the CBS primetime special provided them a platform to take low ball shots at the Palace. Others said that the goal was to win over an American audience. In my opinion, it seemed like the overall goal was to try to gain the support of the public. The couple set out to re-define the narrative, accusing the Palace of wrongdoings and explaining that their departure was not a narcissistic “Megxit,” but rather something that could have been avoided if the Palace had worked harder to support them. However, several American critics and conservative commentators peddle the line that the couple are portraying themselves as “victims” when they should not be. Some audiences also have a hard time empathizing with some of Markle’s complaints, who said that she had to Google the British National Anthem and scramble to learn how to curtsy, or even believing her when she said she had never googled Prince Harry. Others do not pity the couple’s desperation to pay for security when they left the institution, since it was reported that the late Princess Diana left around $16–20 million to Harry in case something like the couple’s exit were to happen.

At this time, the interview has created a divide in public opinion, which is not the home run that the couple had probably hoped for. Although united in supporting the couple’s accusations of racism in the Royal Family, and sympathy for Meghan and her struggles with her mental health, conservative reporters like commentator Piers Morgan and journalist Megyn Kelly continue to be major critics of the Royal Family, including Meghan and Harry. However, the vast majority have demonstrated support for the couple, including the outspoken Wendy Williams, who exclaimed that the interview made her like the couple more, and Press Secretary for President Biden, Jen Psaki, who stated that the White House respects Meghan and Harry’s courage for coming out with their story.

Regardless of where viewers stand, we know a few things for sure. If Meghan and Harry are telling the truth, then the Royal Family needs to do better when responding to racism and mental health issues within the family. Additionally, the couple’s sentiments that the institution was “toxic” and made the couple feel “trapped” is a serious problem that needs to be fixed within the palace. As for Harry and Meghan, they have landed million-dollar deals with Spotify and Netflix, which signifies that these “ex” royals are here to stay in the public eye.