BBC news presenter Mishal Husain is known for her calm and collected demeanor, even when grilling the most self-important politicians on Radio 4’s Today programme.
So his decision to publicly respond to the Duchess of Sussex’s criticism of a 2017 television interview conducted by Ms Husain (to mark Meghan and Harry’s engagement) has caused a stir.
“Mishal is not easily angered, to put it mildly, so this is a remarkable intervention,” a BBC source tells me. “It’s clear she had very strong feelings about it.”
Criticism came in the 2022 Netflix documentary series Harry & Meghan, when the duchess dismissively suggested that Husain’s interview with the couple had been an “orchestrated reality show”.
Meghan’s body language, which saw her leaning over her fiancé at times, made her appear the dominant half of the relationship, writes Richard Eden
“It was a rehearsed thing,” he said. “So we did what we had to do with the press and then we went in, took off our coats, sat down and did the interview. It all happened at the same time.”
According to a senior royal source, Meghan had complained that the presenter “wasn’t empathetic enough, wasn’t warm enough” in conducting the interview.
The former actress was said to have preferred fellow American Oprah Winfrey to have been selected for the job.
Now, writing in the August issue of Saga magazine, Husain suggests the attack on her interview left her stunned.
And far from Meghan being the naive victim of some coordinated establishment plot, she believed the royal couple had put a lot of thought into what they would say to listeners.
“When the Duchess of Sussex said my engagement interview with her and Harry was an ‘orchestrated reality show’, I didn’t know what to think,” Husain writes.
‘It seemed like they had thought about what their new life would be like and what marriage would mean for her life in particular.’
Husain adds that there was no indication of the troubles that would follow when the couple decided to step back from royal duties.
“There was no indication of what would happen,” she writes. “They were two people filled with joy for each other and for life.”
After the Netflix series aired, a Today show colleague asked Husain about Meghan’s comments.
Borrowing a phrase from Queen Elizabeth’s response to the Duchess’s accusations of racism within the Royal Family, she said wryly: “Recollections may vary.”
This week, I spoke to sources who worked for the Royal Household at the time of Husain’s 2017 interview and they said the Duchess’s “performance” should have raised more concerns than it did.
Lady Diana Spencer, who was 19 at the time, was painfully shy when she was interviewed alongside Prince Charles in 1981, says Richard Eden
Kate Middleton, then 28, looked nervous when ITV’s Tom Bradby quizzed her at Kensington Palace in 2010, writes Richard Eden
“At the time, there was so much excitement about the engagement that no one questioned some of Meghan’s comments,” a source says. “But if you look back on it now, some of her responses seem disingenuous and her body language says it all.”
Meghan certainly seemed like a much more confident woman than other women who married into the Royal Family.
Lady Diana Spencer, who was 19 at the time, for example, was painfully shy when interviewed alongside Prince Charles in 1981.
Kate Middleton, then 28, looked nervous when ITV’s Tom Bradby asked her questions at Kensington Palace in 2010. She let Prince William take the lead.
Meghan, then 36, seemed more confident than Harry in the interview. She was, after all, an experienced actress.
Her body language, which had her leaning over her fiancé at times, made her seem like the dominant half of the relationship.
Now, looking back, it’s hard not to hear some of his answers differently.
For example, Meghan told Husain that she had met Harry on a “blind date” and Harry added: “It was a blind date, for sure.”
However, in the Netflix series, the duke says he met his future wife through a photo-sharing app.
“Meghan and I met through Instagram,” he explained.
In 2017, Meghan told Husain that when a mutual friend helped arrange the “blind date,” she knew little about Harry.
“Being from the United States, you don’t grow up with the same knowledge of the Royal Family,” she reflected.
‘I didn’t know much about him, so the only thing I asked him when he said he wanted to match us up was, ‘Well, is he nice?’
However, it later emerged that Meghan had shown a keen interest in the Royal Family since childhood.
In fact, she had been photographed posing outside Buckingham Palace as a 15-year-old tourist with her then friend Ninaki Priddy, who commented on her marriage to Harry: “I’m not surprised at all. It’s like he’s been planning this all his life.
Now, Husain suggests the attack on her interview (pictured) left her stunned.
“(Meghan) gets exactly what she wants and Harry has fallen in love with her. She was always fascinated by the Royal Family.
“She wants to be Princess Diana 2.0. She will play her role ably, but my advice to him is to proceed with caution.”
As an adult, Meghan was so fascinated by royal news that she commented on it via her now-defunct blog, The Tig.
The more I think back to that 2017 interview with Mishal Hussein, the more it seems to me that what was truly “orchestrated” about it was, in fact, the Duchess’s performance.
In the American drama Suits, she played the role of legal assistant Rachel Zane, with some success.
But at Kensington Palace she found a new role: that of a naive foreigner who marries into the Windsor family. I would say that she was rather less convincing.
Sign up for Richard Eden’s royal newsletter. Click on this link