The owner of the UK tabloid the Daily Mail, Associated Newspapers, has written to ViacomCBS requesting that “inaccurate, misleading, and divisive” material from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey be removed.

Lawyers for Associated Newspapers took issue with a montage in the display that appeared to show headlines from British newspapers. They assert that the CBS special featured photos that had been doctored or that were misrepresented as headlines. They demanded that the images deleted from the interview before it was rebroadcast.

“Many of the headlines have been taken out of context or purposely distorted and displayed as supporting evidence for the program’s argument that the Duchess of Sussex was subjected to racist coverage in the British press.  This editing was not made obvious to viewers, and as a result, this part of the show is both seriously inaccurate and misleading,” said Elizabeth Hartley, group legal director of Associated Newspapers.

“I should be grateful for your urgent confirmation that the offending content will be removed from the programme currently being made available to the public. We also understand that a further broadcast is being planned tonight. The montage should therefore be deleted prior to that broadcast. ”

Meghan and Harry bombshell interview

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex sat down for their first in-depth television interview on March 7 in a two-hour CBS primetime special titled Oprah With Meghan and Harry. In the interview, Winfrey talks with Markle one-on-one about the Sussexes’ decision to leave the royal family, her marriage to the prince and her philanthropic work, as well as the constant press attention and public pressures the couple has faced.

Later in the interview, Prince Harry joins Markle, and the two discuss their relocation to the United States and their future plans, as well as making allusions to the challenges both Markle and Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, faced with media attention.

Meghan did crack a joke about a misleading headline during the special. Oprah spoke with her about how she was often criticised in the media for the same reasons that her sister-in-law Kate Middleton was lauded for. She gave some examples, including a comparison of two headlines from the British tabloid The Express. One of them, from 2017, said, “Kate’s morning sickness cure? Prince William gifted with an avocado for pregnant Duchess .” And  “Meghan Markle’s beloved avocado linked to human rights abuse and drought, millennial shame.” read the other, published in 2019.

Meghan joked to Oprah, “I mean, can you even- you have to laugh at a certain point, because it’s just ridiculous.”