Oprah’s friendship with Harry and Meghan: Talkshow host and Sussexes’ Montecito neighbour gifted Archie with a book collection and supported the couple for years before rumours that she was ‘distancing’ herself from the pair – as she and Duchess reunite

Oprah’s sensational interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – fresh off the heels of their resignations as senior royals – rocked The Firm when it aired in 2021.

It firmly cemented the infamous American talkshow host, 70 – who attended their wedding in 2018 – as an ally of the Sussexes amid their rift with King Charles and the Prince and Princess of Wales. 

‘I support them 1,000 percent,’ she had said of the pair’s move away from the UK, and distancing from regal duties.

However despite seeming to maintain warm relations – with the presenter even considering Harry and Meghan neighbours in Montecito – rumours over the years saw whispers that the couple were being ‘dropped like flies’ by Hollywood A-listers, Oprah included. 

But a recent reunion between the Duchess and American TV legend suggested that all seems right as rain as Meghan spoke at Oprah’s book club session last night in California.

Here, FEMAIL looks at the presenter’s years-long friendship with the Sussexes, from sending each other gifts to publicly voicing support for one another…

BECOMING PALS

Harry and Meghan’s friendship with the star appears to have been sparked when they extended their wedding invitation to Oprah to include the evening reception at Frogmore House, attended only by their closest relatives and pals.

The chat show host had been invited to the ceremony at St George’s Chapel, inside Windsor Castle, despite only having apparently met Meghan face-to-face once.

It is not thought she had ever met Harry in person.

All 800 guests were invited to enjoy a ‘wedding breakfast’ in the Great Hall of Windsor Castle after the ceremony, but only 200 guests were invited to a sit-down dinner in the grounds of Frogmore House that evening.

It is thought that Meghan and Oprah were introduced through the American network CBS and met when Oprah found herself in London.

The presenter said she previously asked for an interview with Meghan, but her request was declined with the Duchess apparently telling her it was ‘not the right time’.

‘I remember that conversation,’ Meghan told Oprah in her and Harry’s bombshell interview later. ‘I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you personally. There had to be people sitting there.’

Oprah, who is now understood to count the couple as neighbours in Montecito, had maintained warm relationships with the couple after attending their nuptials.

As reported by ABC, Oprah had even gifted little Archie, now five, a library of books when he was born.

It is a ‘standard gift’ that the talkshow host gives ‘people that she really cares about’, according to an interview with Access Hollywood.

‘I don’t know the baby’s name or the baby’s gender, but this baby will have enough books to last a lifetime!’ she added.

Meghan also famously sent Oprah a PR gift full of coffee from a brand she had invested in back in 2020.

Meghan’s close friend promoted a basket of the coffee latte treats to her millions of followers on Instagram, captioning the post: ‘On the first day of Christmas my neighbor ‘M’ sent to me…A basket of deliciousness! (Yes that M).’ 

It later emerged that the Duchess had invested in Clevr Blends, which was her first venture since officially stepping back from royal duties to become ‘financially independent’. 

Meghan confirmed she had invested an undisclosed sum in Clevr, which has a range of lattes that come in powder form and was only founded in January 2019. 

And it wasn’t just the Sussexes. Meghan’s mother Doria is also said to have found an ‘unlikley ally’ in Oprah.

In Finding Freedom, a book detailing the pair’s romantic relationship, author Omid Scobie and O’s royal contributor Carolyn Durand revealed that the presenter reached out to the Duchess’s parent to ‘offer her support’ following the ‘media storm’ of ‘Megxit’.

‘MEGXIT’ LIFELINE

In January 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan fled the Royal Family and the UK to begin their new life in America.

And a year later, some 50-million people around the world watched as, on March 7, 2021, the duo took part in an 85-minute tell-all interview with Oprah.

The bombshell revelations are still reverberating three years on.

Chatting in the sun-kissed garden of a Californian mansion – which  turned out to  owned by a friend of Oprah’s – a heavily-pregnant Meghan described her challenigng time in the Royal Family.

She related how she had to turn over her passport, driver’s licence, keys and other personal belongings when she moved into the cramped confines of Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.

‘I left the house twice in four months,’ she told Oprah, adding, ‘I couldn’t feel lonelier.’

She recalled watching the Little Mermaid cartoon and relating to Ariel, the mermaid who exchanges her voice for legs in order to marry her prince.

‘She falls in love with a prince and because of that she loses her voice.’

Oprah asked the now famous question, ‘Were you silent or silenced?’

‘The latter,’ Meghan replied.

Harry didn’t pull his punches where the Royal Family was concerned either.

He accused members of The Firm of jealousy towards Meghan for the ‘effortless’ manner in which Meghan had captivated the public during their tour of the Commonwealth and ‘how good she was at the job’.

And for the first time he made it clear that he and Prince William were at odds saying that, ‘he loved him to bits’, but that, ‘we’re on different paths’.

He also described the then Prince Charles and William as ‘trapped’. ‘They don’t get to leave and I have compassion for that,’ he said.

What the members of the Royal Family feel about the interview isn’t known as most of them have remained silent in response, but Prince William’s own response to a reporter was simply the passing comment: ‘We are very much not a racist family.’

And the Queen only released a statement hinting that the Sussexes account might not be the same as hers.

‘The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.

‘The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.

‘Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.’

Later reflecting on the interview on CBS in September 2022, Oprah – who is a close neighbour of the couple in Montecito – claimed that she ‘didn’t set out to do a bombshell interview’.

She added: ‘I was as surprised by the bombshell as everybody else. I was doing an interview to offer them a platform, to tell their story about why they left.’

‘RIFT’ RUMOURS

In recent years, rumours of a ‘rift’ surfaced as royal experts claimed Harry and Meghan’s A-lister friends were distancing themselves from the pair.

Speaking to Closer!, as reported by the Sun, Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell this year claimed: ‘Harry and Meghan’s circle is getting smaller and smaller. I think the A-list stars are dropping like flies.

‘Some already have done – Oprah no longer seems involved with them and some other celebrities have also dropped them.

‘Back in the day, the A-listers were riding on the moment – Harry and Meghan were the most popular couple in the country at one time, when they got married, but there’s since been a decline.’

In March this year, Oprah said the couple had not consulted her on whether to attend the King’s Coronation – which led to some claims on X that she was distancing herself from them.

‘I think they should do what they feel is best for them and their family. That’s what I think,’ she said on the CBS Mornings show ahead of the event, adding: ‘They haven’t asked me my opinion.’  

But there is no suggestion that they have had any falling out, and she has always been very respectful of the Sussexes in interviews.

Asked by Gayle King last year whether Harry and Prince William could reconcile after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Winfrey replied: ‘I do not get into people’s family matters.’

And back in 2020 when Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior royals, Oprah told TMZ: ‘I support them 1,000 percent.’

Oprah has yet to follow American Riviera Orchard – Meghan’s latest initiative, a lifestyle brand – on Instagram or publicly reveal if she has received samples of the products. 

REUNITED

The friends seemed to put rumours of a rift to rest after Meghan spoke at Oprah’s book club session last night in California, it has emerged.

The Duchess was one of several ‘light-filled’ speakers who addressed the crowd at Goodmothers bookstore and gathering space in Summerland, located just miles from where she lives in Montecito.

The star-studded event was attended by actor Marco Leone and author, teacher and psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson, both of whom highlighted Meghan on their Instagram stories and reels. 

Godmothers, co-owned by literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, just celebrated its grand opening weekend by hosting a slew of events and ‘conversations’ with celebrities and authors.

The bookstore appears to be promoting several popular celebrity books including Meghan’s children’s book The Bench and Prince Harry’s memoir, which can be found front-and-centre in the shop, on its ‘hometown heroes’ shelf. 

Meghan appeared at the event last night, on the eve of the second anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

While it is unclear what the Duchess said in her address, the crowd appeared to be eating it up with Jackson branding Meghan as one of the evening’s ‘light-filled speakers’.

Godmothers, which is concluding its grand opening weekend with events today, is seemingly proud of Meghan and Harry, whom the owner has hailed as a ‘hometown hero’.

Walsh, in a video promoting the store, has put Harry’s memoir on display with a collection of books penned by local writers. 

Meghan’s book The Bench, a picture book for children published in 2021, is also on the shelf. 

‘This is our local authors shelf when you first walk in,’ she said of the display. ‘I want it to be when you first walk in so that authors who are local to the area know that this is their hometown bookstore.

‘And we celebrate our hometown authors as if they were our hometown heroes, because to us they are.’