Royal Commentators Duped Into Commenting On Meghan Markle, Harry's Oprah Interview Before Seeing It: Report

Royal commentators were tricked by YouTube pranksters into commenting on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter, CNN’s royal commentator Victoria Arbiter, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward, and Richard Fitzwilliams joined an interview hosted by YouTube pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners Friday. The pranksters represented a fake news company and told the commentators their interview would be shown immediately after the CBS special, The Guardian reported.

"To my mind this was an actress giving one of her great performances – from start to finish, Meghan was acting," Seward said before even seeing the interview.

Williams added that the tell-all was "not a balanced interview." He also accused Winfrey of giving Prince Harry and Markle "an easy ride" for being "totally sympathetic." He added that Markle "used extremely strong language to describe her relations with members of the royal household."

The pranksters also duped them into discussing false topics supposedly covered in the Sussexes' sit-down interview with Winfrey, including Markle's support for Balham donkey sanctuary and refusal for coronavirus vaccine. The pair made the fake interview to find answers if the "people would say things that weren’t necessarily true to purely jump on the buzz of this Harry and Meghan interview, and it turned out that they would." After making the interview, they realized that even the experts are willing to do it.

"To me, it’s like asking a football commentator to give me 90 minutes of voice-noting on [a match they haven’t seen]. It’s such a ludicrous premise," Manners said. "These people charge news organisations for their views, and their views do shape public opinion."

Manners said they pushed it a bit further by coming up with silly things about the duchess. However, they insisted that they did not lead the commentators on by asking "broad stroke questions." They were hoping that the experts would correct them if they really knew Markle. For instance, even the duo thought it would be unlikely for Markle to discuss the Balham donkey sanctuary in the interview and, for them, commenting on that matter would be "ridiculous."

Sources said the palace had nothing to worry about Prince Harry and Markle's interview because they will not throw the Queen under the bus. Also, Markle only made positive comments about her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, in the interview, an insider said.