The Secret Meeting Prince Harry Reportedly Had With Oprah In The Past

Despite the intimate nature of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, the trio had only spent minimal time together prior to filming. The public received the first hint of a friendship of sorts between Oprah and the couple when she attended their wedding in May 2018. According to The Times, Oprah and Meghan had only met on one occasion prior to the couple's wedding, where Oprah offered guidance to the newest member of the royal family. In fact, per The Mirror, Oprah also spent time snacking on kumquat desserts and doing yoga with Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, before her daughter walked down the aisle.

Since Oprah attended Meghan's wedding in 2018, the pair has remained friends. Several times, Oprah has come to Meghan's defense in the media. In 2019, following the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan's son, Archie, Oprah defended Meghan's decision not to pose with her son immediately after giving birth. "To be able to stand up and say this is what I really want for my baby and my family and now I'm going to do it a different way when it's been done that way for a thousand years? I'm just so proud of her," Oprah said while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter's Empowerment in Entertainment Gala, per The Mirror. Oprah became neighbors with the couple when they moved to Montecito, California in July 2020, only further cementing their enduring friendship.

Along with his wife Meghan Markle, Prince Harry also shares a rather close relationship with Oprah Winfrey. In fact, as revealed by chairman and CEO of RadicalMedia, Jon Kamen, to Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Harry actually met with Oprah in 2018. According to Kamen, Oprah and Prince Harry met in order to discuss the royal's six-episode series on mental health, called "The Me You Can't See." The series, which features in-depth interviews with Prince Harry and other notable figures regarding their mental health, debuted in May, according to Daily Mail. It is unclear if their meeting took place before or after Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding.

As Daily Mail reported, these early meetings between Oprah, Prince Harry, and other producers of the mental health series point to the fact that the prince and Meghan were already establishing an escape route of sorts from their duties as senior members of the royal family. Until the series premiered in May, Oprah and Prince Harry communicated often about the show's logistics and the bigger picture and desired impact on the world.

Since leaving their royal duties behind, Prince Harry and Meghan have established monumental deals with Apple, Spotify, and Netflix, along with launching their own production company, called Archewell Productions.