Why Oprah’s Interview with Meghan and Harry Was a Smashing Success

Oprah Winfrey has become such an indelible part of pop culture––her image captured in memes eternal––that it’s easy to forget about her background in journalism. It’s even easier to forget that she’s a skilled interviewer and that she has a history of directing tough, at times pointed questions to some of the world’s biggest names. In 1993, she asked Michael Jackson whether he’d lightened his skin to deny his Blackness. In 2013, she grilled Lance Armstrong about his drug use amid the fallout from a highly publicized doping scandal. And in 2021, she’s largely earned praise for her handling of the no holds barred royal interview. 

Much has been written about “The Oprah Effect” and Winfrey’s extraordinary ability to influence public opinion. In allowing Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to speak candidly about racism, white supremacy, and the royal family’s sins, she has successfully galvanized advocates who’ve long urged society to engage in a continuing conversation about mental health and racial inequity. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, corporate media reporter Meg James praises Winfrey, who she says  “once again reminded the world of the power of broadcast TV,” noting that the interview drew 17 million viewers and managed to create “reverberations around the world.”

"Were you having suicidal thoughts?" she, visibly concerned, asked Meghan, who had detailed the lengths of her emotional distress. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said in response to Meghan’s admission that she felt she couldn’t be left alone. She was noticeably taken aback when Meghan revealed that her in-laws had speculated on the skin color of her then-unborn son Archie and balked at offering them a security detail.

She also pushed Harry to be more specific about the couple’s decision to relocate to the United States: "I want clarity. Was the move about getting away from the UK press? ... Or was the move because you weren't getting enough support from The Firm?"

Winfrey was in her element, proving herself to be both a good listener and a master of timing, reframing questions that she felt had not been adequately answered once the moment allowed and giving equal attention to both of her subjects. Nor did she necessarily take their word on all they shared, pointing out that it had been the two of them who had decided not to be photographed with their newborn son Archie, in a break from royal tradition.

She was also upfront about not being entirely impartial: Harry and Meghan are her neighbors. She also attended their wedding in 2018. Given Winfrey’s status as a media titan, these facts grant her unparalleled access to two of the most photographed people in the world. It is highly unlikely that anyone else could have secured this interview. It is even unlikelier that Harry and Meghan would have felt comfortable disclosing their experiences with anyone else in any other environment. And because they were, Winfrey was able to tackle delicate topics with a degree of sensitivity that has largely evaded the British press, which continues to be taken to task for its often harsh headlines about Meghan when compared to favorable, even fawning coverage of her sister-in-law Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

The effects of Winfrey’s interview will continue to be felt for some time, especially in an era characterized by more invigorated challenges against racism and more public pursuits of accountability. Speaking to reporters earlier this morning, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, said he had not spoken to his brother yet (but would) and insisted, "We're very much not a racist family."

But that is not up to him to decide. Though support for the Sussexes is largely split along age lines in the United Kingdom, per a recent YouGov poll, the matter of Harry and Meghan has ceased to remain a private one, vulnerable to being squirreled away and left unaddressed. In Winfrey’s deft hands, it is very much a public matter, a necessary one for an interconnected global community more apt to voice its frustration with the legacy of colonial attitudes and their impact worldwide.