There was great excitement when Prince Harry announced his engagement to Meghan Markle. The couple started dating in the summer of 2016 – and in November the following year, they revealed they were set to marry. On the day their plans were announced, Harry and Meghan sat down for a revealing interview with Mishal Husain at Kensington Palace. But years later, it became a major source of dispute and confusion.

At the time, royal fans noted how confident Meghan appeared – particulate in comparison to Princess Kate who seemed nervous during her own engagement interview in 2010. An experienced actress, Meghan at times seemed to be the more dominant partner, with strong body language that saw her lean across her future husband and take the lead on questions. The couple spoke to Mishal about the start of their relationship, and revealed that Harry had proposed during a quiet night at home over a chicken dinner.

“It was just so sweet and natural and very romantic,” Meghan recalled. “He got on one knee. As a matter of fact, I could barely let [him] finish proposing. I was like, ‘Can I say yes now?” But questions about the interview were raised after the couple’s Netflix series, which was released in December 2022, nearly three years after the Sussexes quit royal life.

In one episode, the Duchess spoke about their conversation with Mishal, and called it an “orchestrated reality show” and ‘”rehearsed”. She said: “So we did the thing out with the Press, then we went right inside, took the coat off and did the interview, so it was all in that same moment.” She said the couple had been told the questions they would be asked beforehand, adding: “But then also like, ‘and then there’ll be a moment when they’ll ask to see the ring’. My point is we weren’t allowed to tell our story because they didn’t want…”

“Well, we’ve never been allowed to tell our story,” said Harry, backing up his wife’s comments. “That’s the consistency.” Shortly after the show aired, Mishal was asked about Meghan’s comments – and had a telling response. At the time, she was presenting BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, with the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Diamond asking her about the claims live on air.

Her co-presenter, Justin Webb, joked that Mishal was the “orchestrator” and laughs could be heard in the studio, before the BBC star said: “We know recollections may vary on this particular subject, but my recollection is definitely very much: asked to do an interview and do said interview.” Some years later, she spoke to Saga magazine about the incident. “When the Duchess of Sussex said that my engagement interview with her and Harry was an ‘orchestrated reality show’, I didn’t know what to make of it,” Mishal said. “They seemed to have thought through what their new lives would be like and what marriage would mean for her life in particular.”

Furthermore, the then-director general of the BBC, Lord Hall, issued a statement defending Mishal’s journalism. His message stated that Meghan’s allegation that the interview was ‘an orchestrated reality show’ was “simply untrue”. “Mishal is not easily riled, to put it mildly, so this is a notable intervention,” one BBC source told the Daily Mail following the row. “She clearly felt strongly about it.”

Following the incident, royal expert Richard Eden spoke to sources who worked for the Sussexes’ household at the time of the interview in 2017, and they said the Duchess’s ‘performance’ should have raised more concerns than it did. “At the time, there was so much excitement about the engagement that no one really questioned some of Meghan’s comments,” one source said. “But, if you watch it again now, some of her responses seem insincere and her body language is telling.”

Royal fans have also noted a number of inconsistencies in Harry and Meghan’s story. In the interview, Meghan told Mishal that she had met Prince Harry on a blind date – something Harry also confirmed. But in their Netflix show, the Prince stated: “Meghan and I met over Instagram.” Meghan also told Mishal that she had known very little about her future husband. “Because I’m from the States, you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the Royal Family,” she said.

“I didn’t know much about him and so the only thing that I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was — I had one question. I said, ‘Well, is he nice?”’ But a photo showing her posing outside Buckingham Palace later surfaced, showing Meghan with her friend Ninaki Priddy, who said of the Sussexes’ marriage: “I’m not shocked at all. It’s like she has been planning this all her life.

“[Meghan] gets exactly what she wants and Harry has fallen for her play. 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 tread cautiously.”