![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="439" width="780" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
In a trailer video for her big interview with Oprah Winfrey, the former Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, tells Winfrey that Palace aides banned her from granting an interview with Winfrey previously.
You can watch the clip below; it’s one of several trailers released before the interview airs on Sunday, March 7, 2021.
The latest clip raises the ante in what is already becoming a tense back-and-forth of allegations between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Palace, which has now announced that it will investigate claims that Markle bullied Palace staff. In response, the Duchess’s friends have leapt to her defense, saying the bullying claims are strategically designed to discredit the Duchess before the Winfrey interview.
There are also calls for the Sussexes to suspend the interview out of respect for Prince Phillip, who is currently in the hospital dealing with heart issues. So far there is no indication they plan to do so.
The new clip was released by Gayle King on CBS This Morning on March 5. She explained that the video shows why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “did not feel free to speak candidly sooner.”
The program, Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special, will air on CBS this Sunday at 8/7c.
Here’s what you need to know:
Meghan Told Winfrey That She ‘Wasn’t Even Allowed’ to Have a Conversation With Her
The new video shows Meghan being interviewed by Winfrey without Harry present. “I called you either or February or March 2018 before the wedding asking, ‘Would you please get me an interview,’ and you said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s not the right time,’” Winfrey tells Meghan.
“I remember that conversation very well. I wasn’t even allowed to have the conversation with you personally, right?” Meghan responded. “There had to be people from the comms [team] sitting there.”
“There were other people in the room when I was having that conversation,” Winfrey said. “You turned me down nicely and said ‘Perhaps there will be another time, when there’s the right time.’”
Meghan Said It Was Difficult to ‘Go Into This Construct’
Winfrey then pressed Markle to explain why she had decided to speak out now, asking, “What is right about this time?”
“Well, so many things. That we’re on the other side of a lot of, a lot of life experience that’s happened,” Meghan said. “And also that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way that I couldn’t have said yes to you then, that wasn’t my choice to make.”
She added: “As an adult who lived a really independent life to then go into this construct that is, um, different than I think what people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some ways to be able to say, ‘Yes … I’m ready to talk.’”
Of course, what else Meghan and Harry will say in the big Winfrey interview won’t be clear until it airs on Sunday.
“And to say it for yourself. And not to have to consult with anybody at this point,” Winfrey continued in the released clip.
The duchess responded: “Yeah, to be able to just make a choice on your own. And just to be able to speak for yourself.”