Let’s just say that Meghan Markle’s 2017 engagement and subsequent marriage to Britain’s Prince Harry did not go well with the Royal Family. Fast forward to 2020, and the couple left not only Great Britain but the Royal Family behind for California life, and they seemed quite relieved to do so. The British press continues to trash Meghan, and the family hasn’t defended her at all; in fact, it feels like Buckingham Palace is joining in the criticism, and Meghan’s former Suits co-star, Patrick Adams, has trashed the British Royals in her defense. And after years of not be able to speak her mind, Meghan and Prince Harry sat down with Oprah for a Sunday CBS Evening News interview.
The interview was a doozy. People were outraged at how the couple says they were treated by Harry’s family, who more than suggested that there’s been a racially-charged motivation to what’s gone down. During the interview, Meghan also revealed that she’d grown suicidal (to Oprah’s inquiry on whether she’d considered harming herself, she responded, “Yes. This was very, very clear, … and very scary”) while living as part of the British Royal Family, and she felt that Harry’s decision to leave saved her life.
Now, people are revisiting a prediction made by John Oliver to Stephen Colbert on how Meghan might be treated in the Royal Family. As The Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast tweets, “So @iamjohnoliver really called this one.”
So @iamjohnoliver really called this one.
— Molly Jong-Fast
(@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2021
During this interview, Oliver (who is, like Harry, a British man who married an American woman) declared that he wasn’t at all excited about the impending nuptials. “I would not blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” the Last Week Tonight host declared. “I don’t think you need to have just seen the pilot episode of The Crown to get a basic sense of, ‘She might be marrying into a family that could cause her some emotional complications.’”
To that, Colbert offered, “Well this generation seems like nice people, right? They’re all nice people.” And Oliver simply looked at his host and warily replied, “Yeeeeeeahhh.”
Oliver, of course, mentioned TheCrown, which really upset the British royals with Season 4, which pulled no punches in painting in a highly unflattering light for their alleged treatment of Princess Diana — particularly how her eating disorder flew into warp speed while Queen essentially (and allegedly) told her to suck it up and deal with how horribly she was treated by Prince Charles. This led the British government to request a “fiction” disclaimer, although Netflix said no dice.
Watch the full John Oliver segment with Stephen Colbert below.