Oprah Winfrey Reveals She Approached Meghan Markle For An Interview In 2018, But Duchess 'Wasn't Allowed' To Have A 'Personal Conversation' With Her
March 5 2021, Updated 2:13 p.m. ET
The truth is finally coming out! Oprah Winfrey revealed she previously approached Meghan Markle for an interview, but the Duchess had to reject the offer since she was living under the royal family's rules at the time.
"So, I just want to say that I called you either February or March 2018 — before the wedding — asking, ‘Would you please give me an interview?’ And you said, ‘I am sorry. It’s not the right time.' And finally, we get to sit down and have this conversation," the talk show host says in the new clip, which CBS This Morning shared on Friday, March 5.
Meghan replies, "Well, I remember that conversation very well. I wasn't even allowed to have that conversation with you personally, right? There had to be people from the comm., sitting there."
“You turned me down nicely and said, ‘Perhaps there will be another time, when there is a right time.’ What is right about this time?” Winfrey asks.
"Well, so many things," the 39-year-old replies. "That we're on the other side of a lot of life experience that's happened and also that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that I couldn't have said yes to you then, that wasn't my choice to make."
She adds, "So as an adult who lived a really independent life to then go into this construct that is different than I think what people imagine it to be, it's really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some ways to be able to say yes. I mean, I'm ready to talk. To be able to make a choice on your own and just be able to speak for yourself."
Earlier this week, the former actress didn't hold back when speaking about the palace.
"I don't know how they could expect that after all of this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us," Meghan says, referring to the royal family. "And if that comes with risk of losing things, I mean I — there's a lot that's been lost already."
The interview airs in the U.S. at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, and the following day at 9 p.m. on ITV in the U.K.
