US

Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey is set to be the TV viewing appointment of the year – possibly the decade.

Snippets released in the run-up to the highly-anticipated broadcast with the US chat show queen have shown the former royal couple have not held back in their criticism of “The Firm”.

Here is all the information you need ahead of the interview:

When will it be broadcast?

American audiences will be the first to get to see Harry and Meghan‘s first major interview after stepping down as senior royals and moving to the US.

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Meghan: ‘I can now speak for myself’

The two-hour long “Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special” will play out on CBS and CBS.com on Sunday, 7 March at 8pm Eastern Time (1am GMT Monday).

UK viewers will get to watch it a day later on Monday from 9pm on ITV and on ITV hub.

More from Meghan Markle

What can we expect?

The interview is understood to have been filmed at a house close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s home in Santa Barbara, California.

Preview clips show the couple sitting in wooden chairs with big cushions on a patio with plant-clad stone columns surrounded by a garden with lots of trees.

Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey will air on Sunday Pic: CBS
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Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey will air on Sunday in the US and Monday in the UK. Pic: CBS

Meghan, who is pregnant with her second child, is expected to talk to Oprah on her own at the beginning about her experience of becoming a royal and a mother as well as her charity work.

Harry is then set to join the two women so the couple can discuss stepping down as senior royals, their move to the US, their plans for the future and how he feels about leaving his family role.

What do we know already?

CBS has released four 30-second teaser clips to pull audiences in.

They have been quite revealing, showing how the couple will not be shy in talking about the pain they say they have been through and their concerns.

In the first clip, Harry talks about his mother, Princess Diana’s death and how hard it must have been for her when she left the Royal Family after her divorce from Prince Charles.

“I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side,” he says.

“Because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself all those years ago because it’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us.

“But at least we have each other.”

In a second clip, Oprah asks Meghan: “Were you silent or were you silenced?

“I just want to make it clear to everybody there is no subject that’s off-limits.”

It then goes to a part of the interview where Meghan appears to have just spoken and Oprah quotes her as saying “almost unsurvivable”.

Harry then says: “My biggest concern was history repeating itself.”

Oprah ends the clip by saying the couple have said “some pretty shocking things” then asks them to “hold up, wait a minute” as if they have just said something astounding.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.  The photo was taken remotely by friend and photographer Misan Harriman.
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Meghan is pregnant with the couple’s second child

In the third clip, Meghan talks about the palace hearing the interview, saying she does not know how “they could expect that after all this time we would still just be silent” as she accuses “The Firm” of perpetuating falsehoods about them.

She adds: “There’s been a lot that’s been lost already.”

The fourth clip shows Meghan telling Oprah it was “liberating” to make their own choices and to be able to agree to the interview and speak for herself.

The interview will be aired as Prince Philip, 99, recovers in hospital from a procedure on his heart, prompting critics to say it should be delayed out of respect.

Several UK newspapers have reported that the Queen will not watch the programme and is instead focusing on national issues.

The Sunday Times claimed royal advisers are “prepared to retaliate with fresh disclosures about the couple’s behaviour if the monarchy is attacked”.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the reports.

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