While actress Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s recent exit from the British royal family came as a bombshell to many, one British ex-pat saw the whole thing coming years in advance.
In the wake of Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, Daily Beast editor Molly Jong-Fast was quick to point out that comedian John Oliver — a Brit who now resides in the U.S. — predicted complications for Meghan’s marriage into the royal family four years ago.
Jong-Fast tweeted a clip to a Feb. 2018 segment from CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” where Oliver is Colbert’s guest and the two late-night hosts spend the evening discussing the then-current news of Meghan and Harry’s wedding announcement.
Jong-Fast noted she thought Oliver “really called this one,” referring to the current upheaval in the British monarchy, including Meghan and Harry’s allegations that overt racism among the royal court was a large part of why they left the U.K. to raise their son Archie (Meghan identifies as mixed-race). Harry and Meghan are no longer working royals and live in a Santa Barbara, California, estate worth nearly $15 million.
In the clip from 2018, Colbert asks Oliver if he’s excited about the royal wedding because he’s British, and he too left the country and found a wife from America. “No, I am not,” the “Last Week Tonight” host replied. Oliver then went on to say that he expects palace life for Meghan will be an adjustment, to say the least.
“I would not blame her if she pulled out at the last minute,” Oliver said of Meghan’s wedding to Harry. “I don’t think you need to have just seen the pilot episode of ‘The Crown’ to get a basic sense that she might be marrying into a family that could cause her some emotional complications.”
Focusing on Queen Elizabeth, her husband Prince Phillip and the family’s four children, Oliver added he thinks the royal family is ripe for dysfunction.
“They’re an emotionally stunted group of fundamentally flawed people doing a very silly pseudo-job,” Oliver said of the royals. “That’s what she’s marrying into, so I hope she likes it, it’s going to be weird for her.”
Oliver continued, “I would not marry into the royal family… I’m a commoner, I would not be welcome, and especially after what I’ve just said.
Colbert asked Oliver if he’d settle for a knighthood in recognition of his work in entertainment if he could get one, but Oliver replied with a joke, saying he thinks it’s “weird to kneel in front of another adult; it’s just odd.”
Check out the 2018 exchange between Oliver and Colbert at the top of the page.
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1368908513154568192?s=20