Am I the only one who was a bit bored watching the Harry and Meghan interview?

We all like a TV confessional – that’s why more than 12 million viewers in the UK tuned in to ITV on Monday night to watch Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.

I might be in the minority here but I have to admit I started to get bored about halfway through the two-hour special, despite all the shocking allegations of racism within the royal family. It probably didn’t help that the broadcast kept buffering on ITV Hub, as there was so much demand for it.

But this felt like just another TV interview. I’ve watched so many in my lifetime and, somehow, this one lacked punch.

By contrast, nearly 23 million people tuned in to watch Martin Bashir’s tell-all Panorama interview with Princess Diana in 1995. I will never forget her revelation that “there are three of us in this marriage”. Likewise, I was fascinated by Michael Jackson’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993 at his Neverland Ranch, where he spoke about his traumatic childhood and attempted to allay rumours that he was bleaching his skin. 

I nearly fell off my chair, meanwhile, when I watched Prince Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019, where he discussed details about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and denied allegations he’d had sex with Virginia Giuffre.

Other hits with sizeable TV ratings include Whitney Houston’s drug addict confession with Diane Sawyer on Primetime in 2002, as well as another with Winfrey in 2009, about her abusive relationship with husband Bobby Brown and her struggles with addiction.

Monica Lewinsky’s tell-all with Barbara Walters on ABC about her affair with Bill Clinton drew 48.5 million viewers in 1999; that’s far more than the nearly 18 million viewers in the US who watched the Harry and Meghan interview on CBS.

I’m not sure why the latest royal interview felt like it dragged on. Maybe it’s because I already knew the details, which had been splashed across the news after it aired the previous night in the US.

Frankly, I’d much rather have watched Unforgotten, which got bumped off the schedule. It’s far more entertaining.

Yours,

Charlotte Cripps

Culture writer