Meghan Markle and Harry's Oprah interview teased by CBS

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Royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah said history had revealed such set-piece interviews rarely went how the subjects expected and often led to later regrets. Diana, Prince of Wales, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew have all taken part in television interviews that had a much wider impact than they had anticipated.

It’s widely accepted that Diana later came to bitterly regret the interview she gave to Martin Bashir

Roya Nikkhah

Ms Nikkah told Sky’s Rhiannon Mills: “Lessons teach us that the big sit-down royal interviews of the last 20 or 30 years have probably not gone the way that the interviewees thought they would.

“I think it’s widely accepted that Diana later came to bitterly regret the interview she gave to Martin Bashir for Panorama and so it’s very high stakes.”

Diana’s now infamous Panorama interview was clearly the deciding factor in influencing the Queen to urge Prince Charles and his estranged wife to divorce.

The princess called royal officials “the enemy” and questioned the Prince of Wales’s suitability to be King.

The 55-minute broadcast in 1995 was seen as an attack on both Charles and the royal family, with Diana arranging the interview in secret without even telling senior members of her Kensington Palace household.

She told Mr Bashir: “I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don’t know whether he could adapt to that.”

Diana, who appeared sad-eyed and spoke with her head dipped, opened up about her struggles with royal life, how she felt isolated and unsupported and how her husband’s staff wanted to undermine her.

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She said: “The enemy was my husband’s department, because I always got more publicity, my work was more, was discussed much more than him.”

She confessed to adultery with cavalry officer James Hewitt, and said of Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

Diana also talked frankly about her post-natal depression, self-harm and bulimia, and her desire to become a “Queen of people’s hearts”.

Prince Charles had already set the pattern the year before Diana by appearing on a prime-time TV documentary in 1994 when he confessed to infidelity.

The Jonathan Dimbleby television scoop was an unprecedented bid for public sympathy for the future king in the 25th anniversary year of his investiture.

But he shocked the establishment by admitting to adultery during his marriage on national television, saying he was only unfaithful after his marriage had “irretrievably” broken down.

A more recent royal interview, which saw The Duke of York grilled by Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s Newsnight, was widely regarded as an unmitigated disaster.

Prince Andrew’s ill-considered appearance in November 2019 was an attempt to defend his reputation in light of his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But it had the opposite effect and within days he was forced to step down from public duties, such was the backlash from the businesses and charities with which he had links.

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In the interview, the duke denied an alleged sexual encounter with Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein, saying he had no recollection of meeting her and had been at a Pizza Express in Woking instead.

He also refuted claims he sweated heavily while reportedly dancing with Ms Giuffre in Tramp nightclub, saying he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.

Andrew was criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards the paedophile’s victims and for failing to show regret for his friendship with Epstein, who took his own life while in prison.

Oprah With Meghan and Harry is on ITV at 9pm on Monday March 8. You can watch the full interview afterwards on the ITV hub.

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