IN THE DARK
The Queen ‘does not have advance copy’ of Meghan and Harry’s Oprah interview and ‘everyone will watch at same time’
THE QUEEN has not been given an advance copy of Harry and Meghan's Oprah Winfrey interview and "everyone will watch at the same time", aides have said.
The Royal Family is braced for more bombshell claims in Monday's broadcast amid an escalating war of words.
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It comes after the Duchess of Sussex accused Buckingham Palace of spreading lies about her, plunging the the family into its worst crisis in decades.
Senior Royals have reportedly urged for "calm amid the storm" ahead of the bombshell interview which will be aired this weekend.
Royal aides told that the Queen and Buckingham Palace "do not have an advance copy" of the interview and will discover its contents at the same time as everyone else.
Sources said members of the Royal Family including the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William have agreed they will "reserve judgement" until they have watched the whole clip.
According to reports, The Queen was "blindsided" by Harry and Meghan's announcement of the interview.
The royal couple did not inform the monarch of their plans before revealing they would chat to the American chat show host.
And she only learned of it when US TV network CBS issued a statement after a producer working for Ms Winfrey mistakenly alerted ITV of the plans, reports.
Earlier this week, Oprah was accused of painting the Queen as a "mafia boss" after a preview of the interview showed her asking Meghan if she was "silent or silenced" in the Royal Family.
But royal experts said the claim is "ridiculous" and unfairly paints the Queen as a mob boss like Don Corleone from The Godfather.
Robert Jobson, a biographer of Prince Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh, said the trailer was packed with "over the top, melodramatic nonsense."
He said: "The Queen and the Royal Family are not the Corleone family of Windsor.
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"There are no hit men or heavies going around silencing people. Meghan, whilst a working royal, was always protected by a team of Scotland Yard officers.
"Thankfully, she was never in danger physically and Harry knows that. Talk of being 'silenced' is just ridiculous.
"It suits a narrative, I suppose, but at what cost to the Queen, Prince Philip and the Royal Family and our reputation as a country."
The Duchess of Sussex, 39, first wanted to speak when the chat queen rang in 2018 but told her it was "not the right time".
In a new trailer for the show, Oprah Winfrey recalls how she called Meghan in London in "either February or March 2018".
'SILENT OR SILENCED?'
Meghan, 39 - seen sitting alone without husband Prince Harry, 36 - responds: "Well, I remember that conversation very well.
"I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you personally, right. There had to be people from the camp sitting there."
Buckingham Palace refused to comment, but aides insisted that Meghan had not been blocked.
A senior source said: "The Duchess was not stopped from doing anything.
"But it is not exactly a surprise there would be misgivings about a new senior member of the Royal Family holding a celebrity interview on US television just weeks before a wedding."
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The interview, conducted by talk-show powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, will be aired on CBS in the US on Sunday night, and then in the UK on ITV on Monday.
This week, reports were published claiming that Meghan had "bullied" several former staff members at Kensington Palace.
A source told newspaper the Duchess of Sussex drove two personal assistants out of the household and undermined the confidence of a third.
The Queen launched a probe into the allegations of bullying, with the Palace releasing a statement saying they were "very concerned" at claims the Duchess bullied staff.
In a series of tweets, Meghan's Suits co-star Patrick Adams accused the Palace of "tormenting" the Duchess and described the monarchy as "archaic and toxic".
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He : "She fell in love, moved to a new country, became a household name across the entire globe and began the difficult work of trying to find her place in a family dynamic that can at best be described as complicated and at worst, seemingly archaic and toxic."
Patrick, 39, said Meghan was "enthusiastic, kind, cooperative, giving, joyful and supportive" when they were working together on Suits.
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