Insider Reveals The Bombshell Conversation Prince Harry Had With Oprah Ahead Of UK Exit
Prince Harry has been through a lot in his 37 years. It can't be easy being born into the royal family, where your every move is watched people all over the world. Millions watched the royal go from a young boy to a "Party Prince" to a father-of-two who made the jump across the pond permanently with his exit from the royal family (via BBC).
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to leave the royal family, the world was shocked. The now California resident made the leap to the States in March 2020 after living temporarily in Canada for a few weeks (via Heart Radio), in the search for a more peaceful life away from prying eyes.
It turns out that there was one person that might have known before the rest of the world, and, no, it's not Queen Elizabeth II. Instead, the Duke of Sussex reached out to a surprising person for support.
Oprah might have known about the royal exit before the queen
According to The Mirror, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were thinking about leaving the royal family as early as 2018. Per royal biographer Andrew Morton, Prince Harry confided in Oprah Winfrey, who might have been one of the first people to know that Meghan and Harry were planning on moving. Harry reportedly turned to her just a month after it was announced he and his wife were expecting their first child (via Town & Country).
"Harry was having conversations in a London hotel with Oprah Winfrey back in November 2018, just six months after they'd been married," Morton said on the podcast "Pod Save the Queen" (via The Mirror). "So, they were thinking about a different direction of travel pretty early on."
According to the timeline of the exit, that means that Oprah might have even known about Meghan and Harry's plans to step down as senior royals even before Queen Elizabeth did.
The queen likely had a feeling about the exit
While Meghan Markle and Prince Harry may or may not have told Queen Elizabeth II that they were leaving first, that doesn't mean that she didn't already have an inkling that they needed to branch out of Great Britain. As Marie Claire states, royal biographer Andrew Morton points out that Harry talking about leaving in November 2018 was a bit ironic. He draws a connection to the time of first talks of the exit to when Queen Elizabeth named him as Youth Ambassador to the Commonwealth, according to The Mirror.
"The irony is they had been given the keys to the first class lounge when Prince Harry was given the position of Youth Ambassador to the Commonwealth," Morton said on "Pod Save the Queen" (via The Mirror). "This was effectively the Queen's way of saying 'you do the rest of the world, leave William and Catherine to do the UK where they will eventually be the Heads of State.'"
After all, the royal family is not just a business, it's a family. There's no denying that, as busy as she is running the country, his own grandmother would be able to notice if she wasn't happy. Unfortunately, that role was not enough for the royal couple, and they decided to make the exit anyways.