What You Didn’t See from Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s Televised Interview with Oprah

Last night, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s nearly two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS.

Due to time restraints, some parts of the interview were cut from the telecast, including Meghan’s discussion of her father as well as Harry’s canceled visit with the Queen.

In a newly released clip, Meghan opens up about feeling betrayed by her father Thomas Markle, who worked with the paparazzi on some photos before her 2018 wedding.

Meghan tells Oprah, “We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I said, ‘You know, the Institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our kids one day.’ I said, ‘We won’t be able to protect our own kids one day,’ and I said, ‘I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can help.’ And he wasn’t able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.”

“Everyone has accountability. They hunted my mom down,” Markle points out about her mom Doria Ragland. “You never heard her say a word. She’s remained in silent dignity for four years watching me go through this.”

As for her half-sister Samantha Markle’s tell-all, Meghan asserts that they are like strangers, saying, “I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me. This is a very different situation than my dad, right? When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with. I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know.”

In another clip, Prince Harry shares his thoughts on his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who he believes has received “really bad” guidance from her advisors.

Harry recalls their planned visit with the Queen, which was abruptly canceled after they finalized their plans to step down as senior members of the royal family. He says, “That announcement that we put out on the 8th of January in 2020. The contents of that was put into a letter to the institution, to my father [Prince Charles], which was then shared at the end of December while we were in Canada. And to then get back on the 6th, after my grandmother had said, 'The moment you land come up to [Sandringham House estate], we'd love to have a chat. Come for tea — why don't you stay for dinner?'”

The Queen, however, apparently had a change of heart, since Harry says he received a message saying, “Please pass on to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that he cannot come to Norfolk. The Queen is busy, she's busy all week."

Harry says he decided to call his grandmother, telling her, “I was thinking about coming anyway, but I hear you're now busy.” He says the Queen noted her “busy” schedule, so Harry “didn't want to push because I kind of knew what was going on.”

When Oprah asks in the clip, “Doesn't the Queen get to do what the Queen wants to do?" Harry answers with some hesitation, “No. When you're head of the Firm, there is people around you that give you advice, and what has also made me really sad is that some of that advice has been really bad."

Meghan also mentioned Kate Middleton in another untelevised clip while discussing the media scrutiny she faced. She said, "Unfortunately, if members of his family say, ‘Well, this is what’s happened to all of us,’ or if they can compare what the experience that I went through was similar to… Kate [being] called ‘Waity Katie’ [for] waiting to marry William… While I imagine that was really hard — and I do, I can’t picture what that felt like — this is not the same. If a member of his family will comfortably say, ‘We’ve all had to deal with things that are rude,’ rude and racist are not the same.”

Markle pointed out that the royal family "had a press team that goes on the record to defend you, especially when they know something’s not true, and that didn’t happen for us.”

During the highly anticipated interview Sunday night, Harry and Meghan revealed that someone had voiced concerns over their son Archie’s skin color before he was born.

While Harry and Meghan didn’t reveal who voiced the concerns in the televised interview, Oprah noted that Harry made it clear that it wasn’t “his grandparents,” Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

Winfrey elaborated on Monday morning, “He did not share the identity with me, but he wanted to make sure that I knew and if I had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather that were a part of those conversations.”

“Neither his grandmother nor grandfather were a part of those conversations,” Winfrey emphasized. “He did not tell me who were a part of those conversations. As you can see, I tried to get that answer — on camera and off.”