THE moment Oprah Winfrey arrived at St George’s chapel at Windsor Castle in a pink Stella McCartney dress, you knew this was going to be a different kind of royal wedding.
She was just one of a constellation of stars including George and Amal Clooney who, before the big day, would have had trouble recognising Meghan in a police line-up.
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For Meghan is nothing if not strategic. Those golden wedding tickets came with strings attached — to act as her unofficial court, and to defend her honour and reputation in the choppy months to come.
The celebrities she barely knew that day came up trumps, lending her private jets, chateaux and most importantly their voices, trumpeting their defence of the royal couple. Oprah regularly took her side.
But on that sunny May day in 2018, Meghan was not the only one consumed by overwhelming ambition.
As Oprah watched her walk down the aisle without her father, she could feel a fireside confessional coming on. It has taken nearly three years but she has finally landed the royal catch of the year with the first sit-down interview with Meg and a walk-on role for Harry.
Doubtless Oprah, whose interview will air in early March, will begin by asking about that big day. Then the killer follow up — “But your father wasn’t by your side.”
Knowing her audience, she will want to know what it was like for an American — a successful, bi-racial divorced actress with her own career and humanitarian causes — to willingly integrate herself into a new country, new religion and new family.
Not any old family but the Royal Family . . . a family that genuinely cares about the precedent and position of who enters a room first and who curtsies to whom. Something had to give.
Oprah won’t let her have it her own way and will push back when Meghan opines that she didn’t fully realise what she was getting into.
Really? You thought it would be a walk in the park? You gave the gig a year before you and your husband threw in the towel.
Even Diana and Charles gave it longer and they couldn’t bear to be in the same room together.
Meghan’s 90-minute chat, though, will be no Panorama: The Remake. Like Harry and Meghan, Diana was trying to make a new life for herself independent of the House of Windsor. She was on her way, flying solo. Then her life was tragically cut short.
The mistake Diana made was to give Prince Charles a good kicking by suggesting he should never be King and offending the Queen when she said that she should be a “queen of people’s hearts”. After that, the royal shutters came down.
Meghan is way too smart to do anything other than smile coyly and express her admiration for Her Majesty. And thank Catherine Middleton for all her advice and support.
The men in grey at Buckingham Palace may get a thumping but for the most part she will be magnanimous in victory. She will leave the car crash confessional to Prince Andrew.
Now they are out of the “Firm”, Oprah would be justified in reading out the list of what they, especially Harry, have given up and asking: “Any regrets?” That same question was posed to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by American TV and radio host Ed Murrow.
It landed like a grenade between them. The seconds of silence that preceded a stuttering response told the viewer everything they needed to know about what the couple had given up to be together — she a twice-divorced American and he a former King who abdicated his throne for love.
Harry and Meghan are to embark on the next stage of their lives as humanitarians and media moguls and want to set the record straight as they see it. It was impossible for them to do that in the world they inhabited and were inhibited by.
That will probably be the only overt criticism they make of the royal system they have left behind. But it will be seized upon.
Now the remaining question is will we get a cameo appearance from young Archie? Over to you Meghan. It is a delicate decision for her. The three of them playing on the lawn. A happy family kissed by the Californian sun.
But young Archie might end up stealing the show. And that would never do.
- Andrew Morton’s latest book, Elizabeth and Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters is published on April 1 by Michael O’Mara Books.
