Oprah Winfrey is revisiting the time she asked Duchess Meghan that unforgettable question.
In a video shared by Vanity Fair, Winfrey rewatches some of the most “iconic moments” from her 40-plus years in the spotlight. Among them is a question she posed to Duchess Meghan during a 2021 interview that stunned much of the world and wreaked havoc among Britain’s royal family.
The interview, Winfrey says, “was postponed probably three times,” before it took place, citing the coronavirus pandemic as a reason. By the time Meghan and her husband Prince Harry sat down Winfrey believed “they were both ready,” to talk about their controversial decision to step back from life in the royal spotlight and leave the United Kingdom.
“They didn’t know obviously anything that I was going to ask them, but I had said to them ahead of time, I’m going to try to cover everything,” Winfrey said, noting that the interview took more than 3 hours.
“Were you silent? Or were you silenced?”
The video cuts to Meghan talking to Winfrey about how much she “valued independence” and how she had long been “outspoken, especially about women’s rights.” Meghan noted the irony that she had “for so long” urged women to speak up but then found herself having to keep quiet once she married into the royal family.
“I’ve advocated for so long for women to use their voice. And then, I was silent,” the duchess said.
Then Winfrey’s pointed question came: “Were you silent? Or were you silenced?”
“The latter,” Meghan replied.
More: Prince Harry and Prince William’s royal rift – Timeline
Rewatching the moment for Vanity Fair, Winfrey mocks the hand gesture she made while asking Meghan for clarification.
“I don’t know where the hell that came from,” she says, laughing. “I don’t think I’ve done it since.”
Winfrey then went on to explain her thought process behind the question.
“I wanted to be clear, because was she silenced? Were people telling her not to talk?” Winfrey said. “I said it for clarification, because I didn’t want later to hear, ‘Well, no, it wasn’t that. It really was that I was silenced. They wouldn’t let me talk.’ So it was all for clarification.”
Winfrey shared that her approach for interviewing the royal couple was to “carefully go through everything that had come up in the past.”
In their tell-all interview, the pair described a poisonous atmosphere that began building before they married in May 2018. The couple said an unnamed royal family member expressed “concern” when Meghan was pregnant about how dark their son’s skin color might be because the Duchess is biracial.
They also alleged cold indifference to Meghan’s suicidal pleas for help at the height of her unhappiness.
The royal fallout from the interview still lingers
The bombshell interview drove an even bigger wedge between the Sussexes and the wider royal family, a rift that is still yet to be smoothed over. The Sussexes live in Meghan’s home state of California and rarely travel to Britain as a family.
Harry and William have not been seen in public together since their father’s coronation in May 2023, though they both attended the private funeral of their uncle Lord Fellowes in August 2024. While both brothers attended the funeral, they did not speak, according to British media.
On Harry’s visit home earlier this month, the brothers did not reconcile, despite being only 12 miles apart at one point.
The visit was touch-and-go for weeks as negotiations about security and accommodations hinted at ongoing squabbles.
Meghan and their children Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, planned to meet Harry in London, but instead reunited in Gloucestershire, at the King Charles’ country estate, Highgrove House, on July 10.
It was the first time in four years that the children had seen their grandfather and Queen Camilla.
It was a small step toward reconciliation between the prince and the current king. But the gulf between the prince and the future king remains.
Contributing: Maria Puente, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oprah peels back the curtain on explosive Meghan and Harry interview
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