When the Duchess of Sussex aimed a volley of bombshells at the Royal Family in her Netflix ‘docu-series’ with Prince Harry in 2022, one of those caught by flying shrapnel was Mishal Husain.
The BBC star had conducted the television interview broadcast after Meghan’s engagement to Prince Harry was announced five years earlier. The former actress suggested that Husain’s sit-down with the couple had been an ‘orchestrated reality show’.
To add insult to injury, Meghan complained that the distinguished Radio 4 presenter ‘wasn’t empathetic enough, wasn’t warm enough’ to conduct the interview, according to a senior royal source. It was said that Meghan would have preferred her fellow American Oprah Winfrey to have been selected for the job.
Now, however, the usually mild-mannered Husain has been moved to respond to the Duchess of Sussex’s criticism.
She suggests that the attack left her bewildered. And, far from Meghan being the naive victim of some co-ordinated Establishment plot, she and Harry appeared to have given much thought to what they would say about their plans.
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Meghan Markle has claimed the sit-down interview with Husain to announce her engagement to Prince Harry was an ‘orchestrated reality show’
The usually mild-mannered Mishal Husain has been moved to respond to the Duchess of Sussex’s criticism. She suggests that the attack left her bewildered
‘When the Duchess of Sussex said that my engagement interview with her and Harry was an ‘orchestrated reality show’ I didn’t know what to make of it,’ Husain writes in the August issue of Saga magazine. ‘They seemed to have thought through what their new lives would be like and what marriage would mean for her life in particular.’
Was Meghan’s engagement interview ‘orchestrated’?
Husain adds that there was no hint of the trouble to come.
‘There was nothing that pointed to what would happen,’ she says. ‘It was two people who were full of joy in each other and life.’
After the Netflix series was broadcast, the BBC’s director-general at the time of Husain’s interview, Lord Hall, rejected Meghan’s criticism, saying it was ‘simply untrue’ to suggest the talk was staged.
In the aftermath, Husain borrowed a phrase from the late Queen Elizabeth’s response to Meghan’s allegations of racism within the Royal Family. ‘Recollections may vary,’ Husain said wryly on the Today programme. ‘But my recollection is definitely very much, asked to do an interview, and do said interview.’
