How much did Meghan and Harry get for their interview with Oprah Winfrey?
On Sunday March 7, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle gave a 2-hour interview to Oprah Winfrey on CBS. An exclusive interview, for which they made it clear that they had not been paid. But which nevertheless generated a lot of income.
She made it clear at the start of the interview: According to Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were not paid for the river maintenance they gave her on March 7. But their exclusive interview with the star host on CBS, which attracted more than 17 million American viewers when it aired in the United States, has many financial aspects.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were effectively not paid for the upkeep. It was Harpo Productions, Oprah Winfrey's company, that reportedly received between $ 7 million and $ 9 million from Viacom CBS for broadcast rights. The channel probably carried out a successful operation: each commercial aired during the interview would have been sold at a price of 325,000 dollars (approximately 273,000 euros) per 30 seconds. In France, the show, broadcast on TMC on Monday, March 8, attracted 1,458,000 viewers, achieving 6.3% of the market share.
The "finances" point
Harry and Meghan would therefore not have financially gained anything by giving this interview. The couple, however, discussed at length their situation, which has changed since the Megxit, in January 2020. Prince Harry declared that his father had cut him off: he paid him, until last year, a pension estimated at 800,000 dollars per year (670,000 euros) by Forbes magazine. The prince said he has since lived on the legacy left to him by his mother, Princess Diana: a fortune estimated at 10 million dollars (8.3 million euros), again by Forbes.
On the expense side, the Duke of Sussex said he had to pay for the services needed to protect his family, which England ceased to pay following the Megxit. And so he now had to find new sources of income. The couple would therefore have turned to new media, in order to develop, through its Archewell foundation, podcasts and documentaries.
Their three-year deal with streaming site Spotify could be worth between $ 15 million and $ 18 million ($ 12 million and $ 15 million), according to industry sources. Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey also announced in April 2019 that they would be producing a mental health series for Apple TV +. Finally, the Sussexes signed in September 2020 a 5-year contract with Netflix, valued at $ 100 million (84 million euros), to produce documentaries, series, feature films, scripted shows and programs for children. Three leads, and three brands, which were discussed in the interview.
