According to UK TV presenter Holly Willoughby, Winfrey’s team asked for access to footage of ITV’s interview with Meghan Markle’s estranged half-sister Samantha Markle.It will likely feature in the highly anticipated sit-down set to air in the US on March 7.RELATED: Prince Harry’s devastating decision Samantha, who has since released a scathing book about Meghan, appeared on This Morning in early 2020 in which she touched on Meghan’s strained relationship with their father, Thomas Markle.Speaking of the request this week, Willoughby said: “Funnily enough Oprah Winfrey’s team contacted This Morning requesting footage from our interview with Samantha Markle in preparation for the interview with the Duchess of Sussex … So we don’t know whether or not they used that in the interview, but what we do know is nothing was off-limits in this interview.”During the interview in question, Samantha, 56, discussed Meghan’s falling out with Thomas Snr ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018.RELATED: Where to watch Meghan’s Oprah specialThey also discussed in detail the letter at the centre of the breach of privacy court case against Associated Newspapers which the Duchess won earlier this month.“Firstly she mailed him the letter, I don’t know how the laws are there, but in the United States if someone mails a letter to you and it ends up in your postal box it is your property and she wrote the letter with the intention of giving it to him, therefore it’s his,” Samantha told This Morning.Samantha also alleged Meghan shared the letter with “several of her friends” and People magazine before her father showed it to the Mail on Sunday.“This claim of breach of privacy doesn’t really seem to have a legitimate basis when you consider all of that,” she added.Commenting on whether she sees a reconciliation between the family on the cards, Samantha said it was unlikely.“There’s too much water under the bridge and if it was just a matter of miscommunication or misunderstanding because of media perception that would be one thing but there seems to be a lot of deliberate ignoring and disregard of the family and PR attacks that allegedly were very structured and part of a smear campaign against the family.”So far, little has been revealed about exactly what Oprah’s interview with the Duke and Duchess will cover.We know Meghan is due to appear in a 90-minute special on US TV with Oprah to touch on subjects including royal life, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work and “how she is handling life under intense public pressure”.Prince Harry will then join the conversation.The interview has created “a great deal of nervousness” at Buckingham Palace, a royal insider told The Mirror.The Duchess’s decision to open up publicly came after a “three-year courtship by the chat show host”, The Times reports.Oprah, 67, came into Meghan’s life in early 2018, having reportedly got in touch through US TV network CBS.It is understood that when the American network first got in touch there was no talk of an interview, but Oprah was happy to offer the Duchess friendship and guidance. She was later a guest at her wedding to Prince Harry.The announcement of the interview came just days after Meghan’s High Court privacy win and mere hours after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed they are expecting their second child.One royal source told The Mirror: “One only has to look at the previous instalments of the tell-all interview to know these things never end up with a wholly positive experience for any party.“Everyone will be watching with intense interest.”The pair were interviewed by Oprah last week – shortly before being stripped of their royal roles.The interview has now been “significantly” edited, the Mirror reported.
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