Prince philip oprah interview

In this file photo taken on 10 June 2011, Britain’s Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, attends a reception for the Action on Hearing Loss charity at Buckingham Palace, in central London, on June 10, 2011. Queen Elizabeth II’s 99-year-old husband Prince Philip, who was recently hospitalised and underwent a successful heart procedure, died on April 9, 2021, Buckingham Palace announced.
Image: John Stillwell / POOL / AFP

Prince Philip thought Harry and Meghan’s TV interview was ‘madness’

Prince Philip, in typically outspoken fashion, thought ‘no good would come’ from Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey just before his death.

Prince philip oprah interview

In this file photo taken on 10 June 2011, Britain’s Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, attends a reception for the Action on Hearing Loss charity at Buckingham Palace, in central London, on June 10, 2011. Queen Elizabeth II’s 99-year-old husband Prince Philip, who was recently hospitalised and underwent a successful heart procedure, died on April 9, 2021, Buckingham Palace announced.
Image: John Stillwell / POOL / AFP

Prince Philip thought “no good would come” from Prince Harry’s candid interview with Oprah Winfrey – and he reportedly thought that the tell-all TV interview alongside his wife Meghan was “madness”.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away at Windsor Castle on Friday 9 April at the age of 99, couldn’t understand what his grandson and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, were hoping to achieve when they sat down with the talk show host.

Gyles Brandreth, Philip’s biographer, revealed that the usually outspoken Royal also had his views on this matter:

“I know from someone close to him that he thought Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was ‘madness’ and ‘no good would come of it’. I was not surprised because that is exactly how he described to me the personal TV interviews given by Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, back in the 1990s.”

meghan prince harry oprah
Image: Nicholas Kamm, Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP

Prince Philip thoughts on Charles and Diana interviews

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were widely criticised for allowing the interview to air while Philip was in hospital, where he was treated for an infection and a heart condition. However, the royal expert doubts that would’ve bothered the Duke of Edinburgh. Gyles wrote in the Daily Mail:

“The fact that the Meghan and Harry interview was aired while Philip was in hospital did not trouble him. What did worry him was the couple’s preoccupation with their own problems and their willingness to talk about them in public.”

Couple’s ‘preoccupation with own problems’ against Philip’s ‘rules’

Philip ‘felt uncomfortable’ with the idea of the royals talking about their personal lives in public. Gyles further explained:

“Give TV interviews by all means, but don’t talk about yourself. That was one of his rules. I know he shared it with his children. I imagine he shared it with his grandchildren, too.”

The ‘Archie skin colour’ debacle

During the interview with Oprah, the Duchess revealed that one member of the royal family had raised “concerns and [had] conversations” about how dark her son Archie’s skin might be when he was born.

The Duke and Duchess – whose son is now 23 months old – both refused to reveal the identity of the family member, although it was subsequently confirmed that it wasn’t Queen Elizabeth nor Prince Philip – and on the last count, the utterance was rumoured to have been shared by Princess Anne.