Gayle King has opened up about best friend Oprah Winfrey’s bombshell interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which aired on CBS earlier in March.
As a guest on The Drew Barrymore Show, the CBS This Morning anchor said, “I think that interview opened up conversations that people weren’t prepared to have or didn’t want to have. But I think, ultimately, it’s about a family that wants to be united and be together and I’m hoping that will be the case.”
“Sometimes conversations are very difficult,” she said to Barrymore, adding, “There’s nothing healthy when you don’t talk, so let’s all wish that for all involved in that particular story.”
It has been a turbulent time for the Duke and Duchess, as their 7 March interview with Oprah, watched by millions around the world, saw them reveal for the first time why they decided to leave the Royal Family.
In the interview’s aftermath, in mid-March, King described hearing about a conversation between Prince William and Harry, though she described them as being “unproductive”.
She told CBS This Morning: “I did actually call [Harry and Meghan] to see how they were feeling, and it’s true, Harry has talked to his brother and he has talked to his father too. The word I was given was that those conversations were not productive.
“And I think what is still upsetting to them is the palace keep saying they want to work it out privately, but yet, they believe these false stories are coming out that are very disparaging against Meghan, still.”
After the interview aired, King also suggested that Markle had “plenty of receipts” to back up the claims the Duchess of Sussex made during her two-hour interview with Oprah, which included allegations of racism.
During the wide-ranging conversation, the duchess told the former talk-show host that, when she was pregnant with her and Prince Harry’s son Archie, there were conversations raised by an unnamed family member about “how dark” the child’s skin would be and “what that would mean or look like”.
“In those months when I was pregnant … we have in tandem the conversation of ‘He won’t be given security. He’s not going to be given a title,’ and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born,” she said during the interview.
