Critical of Harry and Meghan: Ben Lowry dislikes their self pity

(See below for a link to Joanne Savage’s very different take on the TV programme)

It is hard to know where to begin when reviewing this interview, given that it is a 90-minute stream of unedifying self pity.

But perhaps the very end of the programme is as good a place as any to start.

Oprah, whose skill at gently probing people on very personal matters is evident in this TV encounter (and shows why she is the world’s top paid broadcaster), closes by asking the couple if they have regrets.

It is like that moment in a job interview when a candidate who has presented themselves as perfect is asked about their flaws.

Prince Harry answers that he has no such regrets, and adds that he is very proud of what they as a family have done. He then gushes praise about his wife Meghan’s fortitude, as if it is noble to display such loyalty to your spouse (as opposed to being a given).

But Meghan, when asked about regrets, gives an even more grisly reply.

Instead of using Oprah’s closing question as an opportunity to reveal a human, erring side — to accept that this or that action of hers was perhaps misjudged or even foolish — she instead magnifies the victimhood that she has projected over the preceding hour-and-a-half.

She answers: “My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected.”

By them she means The Firm – the Royal Family.

Thus Meghan is saying that her only failing in this saga is the fact that she put her faith in people so allegedly duplicitous.

It is akin to the fore-imagined job candidate listing perfectionism or workaholism as their sole flaw.

It would be comical if it wasn’t such a low blow against people who, as she should know, are unlikely to hit back.

But this is someone who is certain she is a wronged party.

When, for example, Meghan reveals she was not coached in curtseying or the British national anthem, she brooks no innocent explanation – such as, perhaps, the notion that royal officials might have thought a supremely successful actress could quickly master such tradition.

No, it is the dark manoeuvring of an establishment that’s racist to the core.

It is sad to see Harry endorse these devastating claims against the family to whom he proclaims such devotion.

But then in the same way that you wonder about the character of someone (Meghan) who accuses Kate Middleton of making her cry, when Kate is not there to give her side of the story, so you wonder about someone (Harry) who divulges to the world the deeply private fact that he is on bad terms with his own father and brother.

• Joanne Savage says claims of racism are no surprise

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