Oprah Winfrey is '1,000 percent' supportive of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping back and said they made the 'best decision' for their family
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Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King defended Prince Harry and Meghan Markle deciding to step down from their royal duties, with Winfrey saying she supports them "1,000 percent."
TMZ spoke to the media mogul about whether the big 'step back' was inspiring, and Winfrey said it was nobody's place to judge the couple for making the "best decision" for their family.
"When a person has sat and thought about what is the best decision I'm gonna make for my family and then he makes that decision, none of us have any right to say anything about that," she said.
Winfrey and King also said it was unfair to say that Prince Harry and Markle "blindsided" Queen Elizabeth, because the Queen's own statement said negotiations had been underway for months.
Oprah Winfrey had a lot to say about negative attention toward Prince Harry and Meghan Markle deciding to step down from royal duties. TMZ spoke to the billionaire media mogul alongside Gayle King, and Winfrey expressed she had "1,000 percent" support for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
"What Harry said in that charity statement the other day [...] the last line of his statement where he said that he had to make the decision to back away from his family in order to move forward in peace with his new family. I mean, I don't know how they came up with those words, but who doesn't feel that?" Winfrey said.
She was referring to Prince Harry's emotional speech at a Sentebale charity dinner in December, when the Duke implied that it was his decision to "step back," not Markle's.
"It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I haven't always gotten it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option," Prince Harry said at the charity dinner.
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Winfrey emphasized that she feels Prince Harry thought about the decision for a long time, and that it was up to him to make the best decision for himself, Markle, and their family.
"Who doesn't feel what it takes to make that decision, to give up everything you've known in your whole life to say 'I'm going to choose this new life and what I believe to be the truest vision for myself.' Who are any of us to stand in judgment of that? That's what I think about that," she said.
When asked if she found the decision inspiring, Winfrey said she wouldn't characterize it that way, because it was a personal decision. She said that she doesn't think anybody else has "any right to say anything" about the choice.
King also gave her input on the negative media attention surrounding the shift, and said it was unfair to say Prince Harry and Markle "blindsided" Queen Elizabeth, according to the Queen's own statement, which was prefaced with "Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions [...]"
"They didn't make the decision in a vacuum. There were a lot of conversations. That's why I thought it was very unfair to say that the Queen was blindsided," King said. "That whole media story about how they were blindsided, that's just not true, because everyone has known for months that this was happening."
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