ITV removes ‘inaccurate and misleading’ headlines from Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview

Associated Newspapers claim press clippings were ‘doctored’ to present British coverage as racist

ITV has been forced to remove “misleading” headlines from its broadcast of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s sit-down with Oprah Winfrey.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s tell-all interview aired in the UK exclusively on ITV on 8 March, a day after it was shown on CBS in the US.

In it, the couple made a series of shocking revelations, including Markle sharing that she had experienced suicidal thoughts during her time as a senior royal in part due to the targeting of her by British tabloids.

As reported by Metro.co.uk, some of the featured headlines that appeared on-screen during the broadcast have been called “inaccurate and misleading”.

Associated Newspapers first complained to CBS over the “deliberate distortion and doctoring” of a segment in the two-hour special.

READ MORE: Harry and Meghan expose a ruthless, racist anti-fairytale in their primetime Oprah interview

It claimed that the “distortion” of press clippings were designed to highlight British coverage of Markle as racist, and that it was “seriously inaccurate and misleading”.

Associated Newspapers’ editorial legal director, Liz Hartley, wrote in a letter to CBS: “Many of the headlines have been either taken out of context or deliberately edited and displayed as supporting evidence for the programme’s claim that the Duchess of Sussex was subjected to racist coverage by the British press.

“This editing was not made apparent to viewers and, as a result, this section of the programme is both seriously inaccurate and misleading.”

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

READ MORE: Harry and Meghan: Oprah interview audience ratings revealed

A spokesperson for ITV toldThe Telegraph that it would remove three headlines by The Daily Mail, Mail Online and Mail on Sunday that had been “manipulated” from the special, as well as a headline wrongly attributed to The Guardian. 

The interview was watched by 11.1 million viewers in the UK and 17.1 million people in the US, earning ITV its second highest ratings of 2021 so far.

The two-hour special was only beaten by Boris Johnson’s live 4 January speech on the latest lockdown schedule, which was watched by 15.6 million viewers.

If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues discussed in this article, you can contact Samaritans by calling 116 123, emailing jo@samaritans.org or visiting their website.