Meghan and Harry to lift lid on royal split in Oprah interview

London - Experts said the interview could damage the royal family, just as the split between Charles and Diana did.

A highly anticipated Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan airs on US television later on Sunday, amid what one royal watcher called a “toxic” atmosphere between the couple and the British monarchy.

Not since the late Princess Diana appeared on television to share intimate details of her failed marriage to Harry’s father, Prince Charles, has an interview with members of the royal family attracted so much attention.

Having severed their official royal ties, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will explain why they abandoned Britain to move to California and start new lives.

“I’m ready to talk,” Meghan, a former American actress, told Winfrey in an excerpt shown on US station CBS on Friday, saying it was “liberating” to be able to give the interview.

Meghan and Harry’s detractors say the couple want the glamour of their positions without the dedication it requires or scrutiny it brings.

To their supporters, their treatment shows how an outdated British institution has lashed out against a modern, biracial woman, with undertones of racism.

In another extract released ahead of the broadcast, Meghan accuses Buckingham Palace of “perpetuating falsehoods” about them, saying they would not be silent in telling their story.

A source close to Harry and Meghan said they wanted to have their say as they began a new chapter - moving home with a baby on the way after ending royal duties and on the back of a successful court case against a tabloid newspaper.

‘Revenge’

Some experts said the interview could damage the royal family, just as the split between Charles and Diana did.

“The interview is a form of revenge,” royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Reuters. “The link in people’s minds can only be the constant attacks on each other by Charles and Diana, which were so damaging to the monarchy in the 1990s.”

Since their wedding in May, 2018, which had all the pomp of a traditional British royal occasion with a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust, Harry and Meghan have become global celebrities.

But they have railed against media intrusion, successfully waging legal battles with photographers and newspapers, including a privacy case against the Mail on Sunday which printed extracts of a letter Meghan wrote to her estranged father.

Rifts within the House of Windsor also appeared, with Harry admitting he had fallen out with elder brother Prince William.

The decision to do the sit-down interview with Winfrey, recorded some two weeks ago, has already attracted criticism, partly because it will air while Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, is in hospital.