Meghan Markle has been planning Oprah interview for two years after rift with palace PR team

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's upcoming tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, which will mark their first sit-down chat since their engagement announcement, was reportedly in planning for two years.

According to a report in Mail Online, Meghan started planning the interview back when she was a working British royal, after a disagreement with the royal family's public relations team. The Duchess of Sussex wanted to arrange a "short" televised interview with friend and CBS anchor Gayle King after giving birth to her son Archie in May 2019, where she was planning to discuss motherhood and her time adjusting to royal life, but the palace PR team overruled her plans.

King was in London at the time filming "Meghan and Harry Plus One, a 60-minute show about Meghan's pregnancy that aired that month and was sympathetic to the couple. King wanted to interview them as well, but the PR at Kensington Palace reportedly stopped the interview with the American channel fearing that "it would alienate the UK press."

A source close to the controversy reveals that as a compromise, the palace invited Gayle King and her CBS TV crew for the first photoshoot of Harry and Meghan with their newborn son at St. George's Hall in Windsor, even though traditionally royal footage is shared between British TV broadcasters as a "royal pool arrangement." After her interview was denied, "Meghan put her foot down" that King must be invited to the shoot.

This was the first among many differences between the Sussexes and the royal PR machinery. The source says that the Meghan wanted to "manage their own public image away from select UK media" and had told palace staff that her motto was "our lives - our way."

"It was seen as a huge stride away from the usual methodology of Royal PR. It caused friction with the Sussexes, and a feeling that this was forbidden," the source said, adding that she was "emphatically told she could not conduct her own lengthy interviews with US media friends after Archie's birth."

This caused further tension, as the couple wanted to tell their stories about philanthropic and personal matters. The insider recalls: "Certainly from their side there was an element of feeling handcuffed and not having full ownership of their image. The couple wanted to usher in a new era and mindset about having control, not just in their messaging but also about who they chose to speak with. Oprah and Gayle have been supportive publicly of Meghan and Harry, since they dated. So for the Sussexes their friends felt like a safe place."

It is said that Meghan started planning her interview with Oprah ever since the spat, which happened around six months before she and Harry announced their decision to quit as working royals. King, Winfrey, and the couple stayed in touch with a "discussion on the table about when they would do that interview."

"This interview has been two years in the making with either Gayle or Oprah asking the questions. In reality it is the two of them prepping for the in-depth conversation. It is what the Sussexes have wanted for a long time - to present 'our lives, our way,'" the source says.

The interview has finally happened and will air on CBS at 7 pm EST on Sunday, March 7. While King isn't a part of the tell-all, she reportedly helped Oprah prepare questions for it and played a key role in the deal to secure it. She has also been promoting it through her social media accounts and the teasers of the interview were also previewed on her show "60 Minutes."