Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview sends British media into a frenzy

Harry and Meghan have long loathed tabloids and pinpointed them as one of the reasons why they left the royal family in 2020 for paparazzi-infested California. They also claimed much of the coverage had racist undertones towards Meghan as the first mixed-raced member of the royal family.

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In a moment from the interview that did not make it to the final broadcast, Harry told Oprah that he was at a fundraiser in Britain when a well-connected person warned him not to take on the press.

“He said you need to undertand that the UK is very bigoted. I stopped and said ‘the UK’s not bigoted, the UK press is bigoted- specrifically the tabloids –is that what you mean?’ and he goes ‘No the UK is bigoted’.

“I said I completely disagree but unfortunately if the source of information is inherently corrupt or racist or biased, then that filters out to the rest of society.”

Meghan and Harry regularly and wrongly conflate negative press coverage with racism but their latest claims might prompt some internal reflection from media outlets in the highly competitive British market.

Steven Barnett, a professor of communications at the University of Westminster, optimistically wondered whether the Winfrey interview might lead to the decline of a tabloid culture that treats celebrities and ordinary citizens as sensationalist fodder.

“Every soap opera needs its heroes and antagonists,” he wrote in The Conversation. “Britain’s tabloid press has demonstrated over the years how adept it is at creating fairy tale princesses and pantomime villains, regardless of the impact on the individuals themselves. Stories are embellished, distorted or simply manufactured to generate more clickbait and thus more revenue.

“The tabloid media’s ever-expanding charge sheet of distortion and vindictiveness towards the Sussexes is extensive, and sometimes beyond parody: one particularly absurd Daily Mail headline from 2019 read: ‘How Meghan’s favourite avocado snack … is fuelling human rights abuses, drought and murder’.”

Back on Morgan’s Good Morning Britain, Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton suggested Harry’s late mother might have relished the royal furore.

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“It’s almost like Diana’s getting her revenge from beyond the grave,” he said. “Remember Diana is the trailblazer on this. She put the boot into Prince Charles 20 odd years ago – she talked about wanting to be the queen of people’s hearts which prompted the Queen herself to get involved in their divorce.“

Morgan’s co-host Susanna Reid attempted to defend Harry and Meghan but struggled to get a word in. Les Hinton, an Australian-born former top executive for Rupert Murdoch’s UK operations, summed it up best: “They’re one of TV’s great double acts but for Susanna Reid, debating Piers Morgan looks like having an argument with a brass band.”

And it’s all music to the ears of viewers and readers who can’t get enough.