Prince Edward & Sophie To Reporters "Who is Oprah?"

He (Edward) was noted as being cheekily facetious when he said this to the interviewer.

Of course he knows who Oprah is, and about her spectacle interview with the Sussexes.

R1 sure - as of Royals actually watch TV

oh shit denouncing the real Queen.

Reading the fucking article, it was a joke. Edward & Sophie were asked if they watched the Oprah interview and the dodged the question with that joke. Then the journalist told them the story that the Archbishop of Canterbury had no idea who Oprah was when he met her at Meghan and Harry's wedding asking her "what do you do for a living?" Sophie rightly pointed out that Oprah is not as well known in the UK and because the Bishop doesn't watch chat shows, he wouldn't know who she is.

Yeah, I have the sense that the Oprah interview was "must see TV" amongst the BRF.

Omg, who do they think they are? Oprah is more powerful than Eddy‘s mom!

Oprah is not a big deal here in the UK.

[quote] Yeah, I have the sense that the Oprah interview was "must see TV" amongst the BRF.

Wow, your "sense" is all the proof [italic]I[/italic] need!

I remember taking a shuttle from Midway in Chicago in the ‘90s long after Oprah had become a phenomenon. As I was headed to my destination, I saw a big billboard about Oprah. I “innocently” asked the driver if she was a Chicago celebrity. The bewildered driver said, “she’s Oprah,” conveying her universal acclaim. Feigning continued ignorance, I said, “ma’am, I’m from Detroit.”

The fact of the matter "Oprah" is not well-known among royal circles or in Europe

Remember when Oprah went into that store in Paris, and the sales person didn't know who she was.,

Oprah is not that big in Europe. She's known to a point but she's not the deity she's in the US. She's just one of many American talk show hosts who's mysteriously become hugely powerful in the US.

Where's the link, OP?

Context

Other than the silly fuss being made over the Oprah comments, this interview was a slam dunk, pr-wise, for the Wessexes and BP. The couple sound grounded, humble, and fully pleasant about their royal lives and work.

The Queen's comms unit at BP should be delighted at how well this went. The image of the new "Gang of Seven" lead team for the BRF got a nice boost.

Sounds like slap-down shade to me.

UK broadcast of Oprah's Meghan and Harry interview had a huge 11 million viewers

I recall there was an incident in Switzerland several years ago, Oprah was in a high end shop and the clerk just noticed a black woman, Oprah of course later said it was racism. I remember I was on a tour of England and as the tour group was waiting in the hotel lobby, one of the woman said "they don't have Oprah on tv here."

It was still less that Philip's live funeral service r17.

[quote] UK broadcast of Oprah's Meghan and Harry interview had a huge 11 million viewers

UK has a population of 66 million

Princess Diana interview had 23 million tuning in. Diana was smart, she knew the UK public would NOT accept an American conducting the interview. That is why she went with Bashir. And ratings speak for themselves

Prince Edward should have answered:

HARPO? Who dis woman?

R18 Oprah's obese and dresses like shit. Ever been in a snobby European boutique? You may be black and rich but obese women are never rich. And nobody in Switzerland would have a clue who she is.

Oprah is also an Oscar-nominated actress and producer. But the filmmaker Edward must know that.

R23 It was the Archbishop of Canterbury who didn't know who Oprah was. Oprah's an actress. Yeah, sure. She's the black Meryl Streep.

I want to know what Oprah answered when asked what she does for a living.

Please note that not every American film gets distributed in the UK, so Oprah as an actress is not well known there. Oprah has a chat show host is known to some who watch chat shows. I've lived in the UK and Denmark and only the homebound really know who she is. Americans are so funny....they think that everyone who is popular here is popular all over the world. I remember when OJ Simpson was referred to as an international celebrity...I had to explain to all my European friends who he was. No, they don't watch our football and, no, they never saw any of his movies. They know Stallone and Arnold S. because their movies were played all over Europe. Americans need to get over themselves.

Read the interview, r23. It was tongue in cheek.

r12 = Hermes Paris store manager

r12 I wonder why Sally Jesse Raphael didnt become more powerful like Oprah? She seemed pretty decent.

[quote] Princess Diana interview had 23 million tuning in. Diana was smart, she knew the UK public would NOT accept an American conducting the interview. That is why she went with Bashir. And ratings speak for themselves

If you haven't followed the news lately Di was lured by Bashir into the interview with false documents showing she was being betrayed by the Royal staff. She wasn't necessarily being as calculating about her image as you claim. In any case the reason her Bashir interview ratings were so huge was simply because she was so well-liked, unlike is the case currently with Meghan and Harry. They were genuinely curious what Di had to say. With Meghan they knew they'd be getting the same anti-UK bullshit she's been spewing for quite some time now.

Yeah, it's dumb to assume that an American celebrity is a big deal outside North America. There are tons of media people and pop culture figures that aren't going to be very well known abroad.

Johnny Carson used to love his vacations in Europe (mostly to see/play tennis) because the only people who bothered him would be American tourists. The locals didn't know who he was.

Talk shows don't usually travel well outside their home markets...and, as for Oprah's movie career, it was pretty lowkey except for The Color Purple which was a hit. In the U.S. but not so much elsewhere.

R12, Ioathed SJR. She was so intellectually dishonest on her show.

r32 In what way was Sally intellectually dishonest?

[quote] Read the interview, It was tongue in cheek.

Yes but maybe they really didn't know who Oprah is. They know that Harry & Meghan gave and interview, But for all they knew, it could have been Sally Jessy Raphael who did the interview

Not everyone in the UK knows every talk show host in the USA - the Royals do live in a bubble

[quote] She wasn't necessarily being as calculating about her image as you claim.

Yes but I do know that Barbara Walters and Oprah did approach her to do an interview. She said no, because she knew the UK public would not accept an interview with a non-UK host

Yes she was railroaded by Bashir, but if it wasn't him. I guarantee the interview would have been done by a UK interviewer no matter what

It surprises me that so few people have not pointed out that this is literally none of Oprah and Gayle King's business. The American media are trying hard to make the BRF look like shit thanks to dimwit Harry

what's Oprah done in the past 10 years? I hadn't heard of her for years till she got so much publicity for the Harkles

r35 According to weekly royal podcast Pod save the Queen Diana approached a number of newspaper reporters and broadcast journalists about doing the interview including Nicholas Witchell of the BBC and Max Hastings of Telegraph newspapers.

[quote] I recall there was an incident in Switzerland several years ago, Oprah was in a high end shop and the clerk just noticed a black woman, Oprah of course later said it was racism. I remember I was on a tour of England and as the tour group was waiting in the hotel lobby, one of the woman said "they don't have Oprah on tv here."

“Of course” we know that anti black racism ended after slavery and anti white racism is the real problem today, at least according to white bigots.

What Winfrey actually said:

The saga was revealed on Thursday in an interview about Winfrey's role in an upcoming film, The Butler, which tells the story of an African-American butler in the White House and his front-seat view of some of the major events of the 20th Century. Winfrey, who plays the butler's wife, was asked if she had "ever been called the N-word". The talkshow host said "nobody in my right mind is going to call me the N-word". "But I will tell you this," Winfrey said. "I was in Zurich the other day, at a store whose name I will not mention. I didn't have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had a little Donna Karan skirt, and little sandals, but obviously the Oprah Winfrey show is not shown in Zurich. So this doesn't happen to me, unless someone obviously doesn't know it's me. "I say to the woman: 'Excuse me, may I see that bag right above your head?' And she says to me: 'No. It's too expensive'. And I said: 'No, you see the black one, the one that's folded over'.

The saga was revealed on Thursday in an interview about Winfrey's role in an upcoming film, The Butler, which tells the story of an African-American butler in the White House and his front-seat view of some of the major events of the 20th Century. Winfrey, who plays the butler's wife, was asked if she had "ever been called the N-word". The talkshow host said "nobody in my right mind is going to call me the N-word". "But I will tell you this," Winfrey said. "I was in Zurich the other day, at a store whose name I will not mention. I didn't have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had a little Donna Karan skirt, and little sandals, but obviously the Oprah Winfrey show is not shown in Zurich. So this doesn't happen to me, unless someone obviously doesn't know it's me. "I say to the woman: 'Excuse me, may I see that bag right above your head?' And she says to me: 'No. It's too expensive'. And I said: 'No, you see the black one, the one that's folded over'.

R39 has never set foot in a snobby boutique in Switerland, France or Italy. Salesgirls pretend you're invisible unless you're transparently very rich, very elegant and dressed to the nines. Fatties need not bother.

I think some of you are painting things as you'd like them to be, not as they are.

The UK chat shows I've seen all those hosts know who Oprah is, if the hosts know, their audience knows too.

r41 But not all of the UK public is their audience

R41 Yes people are because they have not actually read the fucking interview. It WAS A JOKE! Both Sophie and Edward know who Oprah is. They were dodging good naturally dodging the question when the journalist conducting the interview for the Telegraph (it's been posted in full in one of the Harry finally gone native California threads) raised the Oprah interview. The Journalist then made a joke that the Archbishop of Canterbury had no idea who Oprah was (a story Oprah has recounted a few times) and Sophie defended him...that's it. Oprah is known in the UK but she is not a huge celebrity here on the same level she is in the US. That's a fact. Why do you think she's never done any speaking engagements in the UK?

r43 I get that it is a joke.The part I am saying is credible is about the Archbishop of Canterbury not recognising Oprah .Of course the Wessexes knew who she was!

R43 you were there to see their response?

I would actually venture to guess that Oprah is more well known than Edward and Sophie.

Of course they know who Oprah is, but no, Oprah is not as famous internationally as she is in the US.

I assume Edward & Sophie are more well known in the UK than is Oprah.

I thought the issue with Oprah and Hermès was that she showed up right as the store was closing and they wouldn’t open back up for her.

^^ That was a different store, a different story. Oprah creates drama.

"The American media are trying hard to make the BRF look like shit thanks to dimwit Harry "

I would say that your royals have been doing a pretty good job of that on their own for the last 600 years long before "dimwit Harry" showed up. Of course, royalty isn't that big of a deal here in the US, but we are savvy enough to know who they are. Queen Elizabeth is that frumpy little lady on all your money, isn't she?

Sophie's comment “You know, if you’re not into chat shows, there’s no reason why you should know who she is. Certainly not in this country, anyway” is delicious shade tossed right at Meghan. You know Meghan was all puffed up thinking that being interview by Oprah was the get of the century. Sophie just annihilated that pretension.

Sophie's nobody's fool. Unlike the Markles.

🤔 Maybe Sophie's jealous.

Even I know who Oprah Winfrey is.

Sophie may be married to Prince Edward, but she is essentially a nobody in the royal family. Nobody gives a shit about her or Edward for that matter.

Well, the Queen loves her.

People over here under 40 do not know who Oprah is. People my age might know because her trashy talk show aired here yonks ago.

How many Americans can say they know the name of a talk show host in any other country than their own, i wonder?

Sophie, isn't she the one who described her mother-in-law the Queen as an "old dear"?

^ Yep, she's the status climber who married "Dockside Doris" (Prince Edward) and then used her relationship to the "old dear" to promote her business. Just like Fergie

The Royal family's PR team are diabolically bad. Trending globally on twitter for diminishing a Black woman's success snootily while living of your mother because you don't work is dumb as a bunch of rocks. How hard is it for these twats to not say something dumb. It's all they have to do for their paycheck.

"How many Americans can say they know the name of a talk show host in any other country than their own"

I know who Ricky Gervais is and his show doesn't air in the US

Ricky Gervais has hosted the Oscars - of course you know who he is.

Most people worldwide know American celebrities. Oprah is not unknown in Europe, but she was never a daily guest in peoples' living rooms like in North America. That's why she wasn't allowed in after closing at the Hermes store in Paris and that Swiss shopgirl told her she wouldn't be able to afford that expensive handbag. But it's not as if she can walk unrecognised in UK or European streets.

R62 Graham Norton

She's no big deal in my country either. Just some fat black TV actor we're aware of but nobody gives a shit about. Good for Edward and Sofie.

Harry is a “dim wit” because he points out an extremely disturbing attitudes toward his child’s potential skin color????

Fuck off, Klan Grannies.

Harry, who protects his wife from the vile Right wing racist British press is a “dim wit,” while Prince Andrew is a child molestor, sex predator and owner of shady financial deals is protected by the RF?

I never understood the stardom of Oprah. But then, I'm not American and can't stand rap and NFL and a lot of that country.

Oprah is known in the UK but more as a reference to American culture, to put in perspective Jerry Springer was bigger than Oprah in the UK because it fed into the idea of what American trailer trash culture is like and was humorous, Oprah seemed more fawning and wasn't as well liked because we don't really go for that over here.

Also, if anyone showed up to a boutique wearing sandals they'd be judged as poor the moment they walked through the door, nothing to do with her race but I guess Americans are just so obsessed with race they see it wherever they go.

R33, I can't, decades later, point to specific examples, but I found her to be quite the demagogue, the way she treated certain guests & the way she played to her audience in ways that I didn't see in other such hosts. My contemporaneous view of her was that she was most deplorable.

The Americanism born on third base should be changed to born on home plate for these Royals. They’ve never done anything but come out of a very distinguished vagina. Oprah came from nothing dirt poor in segregated south and created a billion dollar empire. This was at a time when black women were considered less than nothing. These idiotic snobs have done nothing with all their influence and wealth but socialize and go to charity events. They are low class welfare trash.

"Harry, who protects his wife from the vile Right wing racist British press is a “dim wit,” while Prince Andrew is a child molestor, sex predator and owner of shady financial deals is protected by the RF? "

If they weren't royal the Windsors would just be another depraved, deplorable Republican family

Exactly R74 they operate like the Duggars

Yet here Oprah is, r73, desperately merching any connection to the royal family she can get. Being American, however, and only understanding the notion of celebrity not duty, she hasn't realised that Harry is actually pretty far down the royal value chain - and his association with her has made him fall even further.

Royals don't watch TV?

It's been months since the interview, it's pathetic that the press asked them about this in the first place. The “there’s no reason why you should know who she is, especially in this country" answer was so cunty that I have to think this was planned, a little rah-rah Britain-is-superior thing to appeal to the increasingly conservative and isolationist public.

If I was a royal, especially a distant one that's still working/ notable, it would take a lot to not want to punch H & M in the face -- like we got a good thing going here and you to have to throw a public tantrum?!

Seriously I'd take that gig over being a movie star. You're like a political mascot, but fairly neutral, letting the politicians take the heat. You get star treatment without having to make movies. You can do prestigious work, pursuing hobbies and charities.

Obviously that's fine if some members don't want to participate, but they should know they're screwing up for the other royals that aren't in the direct line.

Whatever one may think of Oprah and her show, she earned her success and wealth through her own hard work, intelligence and keen business acumen. That waste of oxygen Dockside Doris and his social climber beard haven't done a single useful thing in their lives. They mooch off the public and gave the nerve to be a cunty about a self-made successful woman. Assholes.

I want to like Sophie, but she comes off fairly cunty in this article.

All that talk about “look how much we have!” I mean, it’s good to express gratitude, especially now. But you can do that without bragging. You can say “Were so grateful. We have our health, our kids can run around outside, we have a roof over our heads,”

Didn’t she used to be in PR?

The interview isn’t terrible, just a little foot in mouth in places.

@r80, Yep, the Royals may think their snarky answer put another American colored girl in her place, but by all accounts Oprah is worth as much as the Queen, if not more and she earned every penny herself. I'm sure she and Meghan carpool and laugh all the way to the bank, then do lunch

R82, watch the desperate PR people for the BRF trot out some token black "friend" to issue statements about the royals are not racist at all.

R81, I agree. There seems to be this tendency to choose sides and go overboard. I don’t like Harry and Meghan. But I have to cringe when people fawn all over Will and Kate (and now Edward and Sophie).

And the person who praises Oprah for being hard-working and self-made is 100% correct. And then they go insulting everyone who isn’t Oprah.

No need for the hyperbole. Oprah can stand on her own merit, you don’t need to trash the BRF to praise her.

Didn't Oprah try to get into that Hermes store after it closed? She expected to be treated like a big star but the clerk just thought she was a pushy, entitled yank.

If you think Oprah is richer than the Queen then you have no idea how rich the Queen really is.

I don’t like the BRF . They haven’t done anything of note to make themselves useful with the exception of Elizabeth during the war and Diana during the AIDS crisis.

BBashir may have been deceitful, but Diana clealry wanted publicity. Oprah was syndicated world wide. The Brits obviously like American style shows because Graham Norton has basically borrowed devices from Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, & Letterman.

"If you think Oprah is richer than the Queen then you have no idea how rich the Queen really is. "

They claim to be worth a half-billion, but we all know that's a lie. What do you know that the rest of the world doesn't? We'll wait

The big story here is that Oprah earned every penny of her 3 billion net worth, where no one in the royal family ever worked a day in their life

Are you American, r87? The job of the royal family, at least the monarch, is to be the head of state, which the monarch does very well. Within Britain, they also do a tremendous amount of good work.

^ But the rest of her lazy grifting family has no official roles and "work" at the good grace and favour of the Queen

Of course they knew who Oprah was. They attended the same wedding. But Edward was too busy smelling cookies and trying to chat up Patrick J. Adams to bother with Oprah.

This is probably an obscure reference, but I’ll make it. There’s a quiet little film by British director Mike Leigh, called “Another Year”. It’s centered around a homely older couple who is happily married. One of the side plots is their relationship to the wife’s friend who is an aging single woman who is bungling, chaotic and desperate.

We are meant to admire the quiet steadiness of the happy main couple and find the unstable single friend obnoxious and ungrateful. Which I did. But there was this lingering feeling that the couple was sort of smug and as much as I disliked Mary (played to perfection by Lesley Manville), I felt a Lang of sympathy for her. They were a bit condescending to her.

I don’t know if Leigh meant to introduce that doubt. He probably did, because the movie is more character-driven than plot-driven. And there are no perfect heroes. But that’s what I’m getting with this BRF story. Sure, Meghan and Harry are assholes and victims of whatever psychological issues they have. They behave badly. But I don’t love the other side, behaving so smugly, either.

[quote] but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had a little Donna Karan skirt

And there is the problem. Oprah doesn’t wear anything little. Oprah had her fat ass stuffed into a dress that was three sizes too small and the saleswoman probably thought she was a homeless person.

R40 has it right. Customer service in Europe is very different than the US. I’m white male and I experienced it in a shoe store in Amsterdam. The saleswoman wouldn’t get me a pair of shoes I wanted to try on. But Oprah makes it about race and I just chalk it up to the woman couldn’t be bothered to do her job that day.

R93 Another Year is one of my favorite films and is brilliantly acted . I think you misunderstood the motivations .

The couple isn’t smug, they are tired of the friend’s desperation and neediness. She comes to their house only to hit on their son and causes drama when he introduces his girlfriend. She continually interrupts their life. Towards the end of the movie, the wife (Ruth Sheen) even tells the friend she is tired of her barging in on their family events. The Lesley Manville character is there to show that there are lonely, damaged people in the world who are not as happy as this settled couple.

All in all, everyone should see Another Year. It’s an excellent movie.

Sophie visited Oprah’s School but O didn’t have time to attend. She tried to scrub it from her social media how embarrassing.

Good find, R96. How embarrassing for Sophie, though.

Why is it embarrassing? Sophie didn’t say she doesn’t know who Oprah is. She said Brits, on general, may not know her and that’s understandable.

r98 Your wasting your time some people are too blinkered or stupid to grasp nuance. I mean just look at the tweets below the linked one which is an orgy of delusional dumbfuckery. Amusing but dumb the stories they tell themselves.

I'm British. If you asked me who Oprah is, my immediate answer would be "an American chat show host". I know she has built a very successful empire and is also an actress and author, but the first thing I would think of would be the chat show that Peggy Bundy loved and Al hated.

Anyway, Edward and Sophie were clearly joking.

Wow. A lot of people are unhinged because someone dare not genuflect to the supposed glory that is Oprah.

I hope someone reminded Doris and Beardie that more people around the world are likely to know who Oprah is than either of them.

The Oprah worship on here has confirmed that the Markle Stans are middle-aged obese black ladies who think Oprah is the Second Coming.

Oprah hasn't had a show on in a decade. Why would anybody know who she is?

Because she'd just hosted the interview that people in the UK can't stop talking about r104, that's how they know who she is. Come the hell on, none of you are this stupid.

I highly doubt that Edward and Sophie are invested in having worldwide fame, unlike you and your goddess Oprah.

r105 But when the archbishop of Canterbury met Oprah at the wedding in 2018 surprisingly the 2021 interview hadn't happened so it's not automatic that someone like him would recognise her when he met her.

Ugh, Twitter. It’s really gotten to be a trash heap.

The fawning on here over Oprah, who couldn't care less about anyone other than her fellow rich people, is hilarious. You really think she would care about Meghan had Meghan not connected herself with the Royals?

I agree Oprah is impressive, having built herself up from poverty to a media titan (especially as a Black woman) but that makes it even more astounding that she backs H&M, who have achieved -checks notes -jack shit- on their own merits.

^ Your pussy... *checks notes*... stinks

[quote] Because she'd just hosted the interview that people in the UK can't stop talking about [R104], that's how they know who she is. Come the hell on, none of you are this stupid.

Some of them are...

[quote] If you think Oprah is richer than the Queen then you have no idea how rich the Queen really is.

I don't. Please enlighten us. I mean, until a few years ago I really did think that all the castles, estates, cars and such belonged to the UK. I thought the BRF was a state-funded institution that received a stipend. How has the Queen amassed personal wealth? Does she own all that stuff?

[quote] Americans are so funny....they think that everyone who is popular here is popular all over the world.

Like British people don't have the same problem.

We used to get tons of threads started about Robbie Williams back when he was popular and a heartthrob, and Americans would post repeatedly, "Who??" And the Brits were just shocked Americans had no idea who he was and didn't care about him.

[quote] If you think Oprah is richer than the Queen then you have no idea how rich the Queen really is.

According to online sources, Oprah's net worth is $2.7 billion dollars.

The Queen's net worth is $350 million.

Type in "Oprah Winfrey's net worth" and "The queen of the UK's net worth" into Google and you will see.

The End.

No one outside of America cares about Oprah, that's why she had to fly her audience over to Australia because no one there would know her.

Robbie Williams is a great example. I’m still not entirely sure who he is. It must be weird to possess that kind of fame. Wildly popular in one place, barely recognized in another.

They couldn't care less r102, they're not interested in being world famous. Oprah, however, is using and abusing their family to maintain her own fame.

[quote] I hope someone reminded Doris and Beardie that more people around the world are likely to know who Oprah is than either of them.

Why would they give a shit?

And people around the world just do not know Oprah. Her fame is a solely American phenomenon. Around the world, you would be greeted with puzzled looks if you mentioned her.

Least we forget the most world famous Brit in the last 1000 years...

Rula Lenska

Hahahahahaha! You Brits are so lame

[quote] Least we forget

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

And the most famous American is Donald Trump, no room to judge dear.

"—Speaking of lame..."

Everything is always about you isn't it?

" no room to judge dear. "

Crazy King George would like a word with you, diddums

Oprah’s no James Corden, that’s for sure.

Many of the royal family’s assets are held in trust for the Crown. Nevertheless, they are owned by the royal family. The royal family is the single largest land owner in the UK. The BRF’s net worth is over $88 billion, conservatively.

^ and all of it stolen from you British peasants. How nice for you

I am not a member of the BRF r127.

Orher than lottery winners, no one no who has amassed a fortune did so without abusing people on some level.

R12 Shut up. Oprah's name was mentioned in every single article on the DailyMail before and after Harry's scandalous interview. You think royal don't read the UK' number one tabloit newspaper when the royals basically exist for the tabloits?

@r128 are you seriously making excuses for a family that has robbed it's subjects blind for a 1000 years? Wow, you'd make a great Trumper, they're delusional as well

And of course Oprah earned every dollar earnestly.

Perhaps you should learn to read, r130.

I merely pointed out the argument that the sainted Oprah is wealthier than the Queen is inaccurate. Pointing out that all fabulously wealthy people are rich from exploitation is hardly defending them. I never expressed an opinion on the how any of them gained their wealth, and frankly, don’t care.

R129 the online Daily Mail is for American consumption. Doesn't vaguely resemble the print Daily Mail.

Indeed r133. What a lot of these American idiots don't get is that what they think is "the Daily Mail" is not only not even the online version, which is almost completely unrelated to the print version, but what they read is a special online American edition, produced in the US by American "reporters" (if they can be called that), writing from an American perspective for an American audience.

[quote] Many of the royal family’s assets are held in trust for the Crown. Nevertheless, they are owned by the royal family. The royal family is the single largest land owner in the UK. The BRF’s net worth is over $88 billion, conservatively.

No, the [italic]Crown's[/italic] net worth is over $88 billion. There is a difference. The BRF can use many of those assets, but they do not actually [italic]own[/italic] them as private citizens.

The queen cannot sell the Vermeers nor the Rembrandts owned by the Crown, for example, nor can she sell Buckingham Palace onr Windsor, nor any of the crown jewels, without permission from Parliament, and without that money raised by those sales going right back to the Crown (as an institution) rather than to her own private purse.

There are many jewels (such as several of her tiaras) she does own outright, and she does own Balmoral and Sandringham personally; but those are part of her private assets which are valued at $350 million.

None of that changes the fact that The Queen is more known around the world than Oprah FFS.

Also: although the Crown is the biggest landowner in the UK, again, the BRF do not own those lands as private citizens. The queen gets an enormous income every year from the duchy of Lancaster, and the prince of Wales does from the duchy of Cornwall, but they cannot sell those lands and pocket the monies from those sales as private citizens (and even to sell it they would have to get permission from parliament). Those lands are owned by the institutions of the Crown, not by them personally.

This was all shown when King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936. Although he was a very wealthy man as a private citizen, most of what he owned was actually owned by the Crown. To get more money for himself and his wife, he sold both the Balmoral and Sandringham estates (which he had been given as parts of his father's will) to his younger brother George VI, because he owned them personally. he did not personally own Windsor nor Buck House, nor the Vermeers, nor the Imperial State Crown nor the Inperial State Sceptre (which then had the largest diamonds in the world in them). Those are owned by the institution of the Crown; they are not personal assets of any one person.

How much of Oprah's internet-reported net worth actually belongs to her, r135? It's not as though it's just all sitting in the bank and she can go and take it all out whenever she wants.

Google says she's worth 2.7 billion dollars. What does that even mean? Stocks and shares? Company ownership? Investments? She was a huge star for a period some decades ago, but she was effectively a chat show host, so how could she have made that much money? Harpo Productions never did much beyond her shows and her more recent business ventures flopped. It's not as though she built some business empire that could account for her alleged status as a multi-billionaire.

Well, r158, the same could be said of the queen's assets as $350 million.

The fact remains: the queen's personal assets stand at $350 million. Oprah's stand at $2.7 billion.

The queen is far more famous internationally than Oprah (the Queen is by far the most famous person in the entire world). But Oprah is personally richer than the Queen is.

I'm not asking about the Queen's personal assets r139 or trying to compare them to Oprah's, I'm asking specifically about Oprah. How did she allegedly make almost 3 billion dollars almost exclusively from her chat show? It's not like she's Jay-Z, who has all sorts of relatively successful business ventures besides his musical career.

God, you Brits are the nastiest most miserable people on the face of the earth. Is it because you're also the ugliest and dumbest as well?... or maybe it's the stench from the poor hygiene and rotted teeth. It's probably a combination of all of it

[quote]If you think Oprah is richer than the Queen then you have no idea how rich the Queen really is.

Leave it to Americans here to make it all about money and wealth. Oprah may be wealthier, but the Queen as more POWER and PROFILE than O. And power is where it's really at.

The Queen is the most famous woman on the globe, her face and name internationally recognized. Oprah has a high profile in select regions, she nowhere near has the high global profile the Queen enjoys.

This reminds me of the story in a David Sedaris book. He’s visiting some neighboring town and he hears other teens talking about their popular crowd with the same reverence that his high school loser friends use when taking about their own popular crowd.

Yeah, Oprah might be popular here in the US, but she’s not universally popular. And that’s okay.

The Crown’s assets are held in trust for the Crown. That means that beneficially, they belong to the Crown or the Prince of Wales.

"Who is Princess Edward? Is he the one they used to call Dockyard Doris?" - The Big O

William Roache (Coronation Street) would be stopped on the streets of UK, Canada and Australia by fans. People in those countries would know who he is, more than Oprah.

If William Roache walked down any street in the USA, no one would know who he was.

If both the Queen and Oprah called any world leader or head of state at the same time, and asked for their call to be returned

The Queen would be called back first BEFORE Oprah

That is the difference

The Queen is a head of state. Oprah is a television celebrity.

(R39) Even in Europe they realize blacks are prone to steal, and blacks love to shout the racism nonsense, they want society to change, but when will they modify their criminal activities.

Isn't what Ed and Soph did called "taking the piss" by the English?

r148 Some would say she was also a bit of a Weinstein enabler going by the picture of her with Rita Ora?

Americans think all of their celebrities are famous worldwide, which is totally false. Oprah is known in the rest of the Anglosphere, but she's known as a chat show host who's famous in America. That's it. She has no cultural currency in other English-speaking countries. She is pretty much unknown in non-English speaking countries.

[quote]I hope someone reminded Doris and Beardie that more people around the world are likely to know who Oprah is than either of them.

Oprah is not an international celebrity. Far from it.

If anyone actually read the article they would know that it was the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who asked Sophie 'who's Oprah?' and she had to explain it to him, NOT Sophie saying 'Who's Oprah?". But let's not let some scandalous gossip get in the way of what actually happened, right?

Yes, nobody reads stories anymore, just headlines. Or tweets.

The archbishop is an aging English clergyman, he probably knows lots of CofE gossip, less about American TV hosts. Which is fine. Not everybody has to know who Oprah is.

M&H's insane fans take offense about something new every day. It's getting annoying.

the Harkles' demented fans idolize Oprah too - how depressing

[quote] Oprah's an actress. Yeah, sure. She's the black Meryl Streep.

I’m the black Meryl Streep goddamnit!!

I thought it was funny that Oprah was invited to the wedding by Megz when they barely knew each other and barely anyone in the UK knew Oprah, I think that's part of the reason Megz left, her idea of famous people turned out to be different from the British public and she couldn't starfuck in the same way she had planned. She wouldn't get the big sit down with a British talk show host because most of them don't do that, and the ones that do, this morning, are lightweight and a bit of a joke.

Oprah used to be fairly well known in the UK, at least amongst a certain demographic, but she was known as a daytime chat show host, perhaps somewhat slightly above the category of Jerry Springer. I think she was regarded more as a symbol of trashy American celebrity culture, rather than a powerful social voice or whatever it is that we're meant to think she is.

It's crazy that the woman who built her career on having midgets and trailer trash paraded around has now become this deified figure within American culture, only in America I guess.

I thought that Edward and Sophie would know Oprah, since Andrew knew and associated with less famous Americans like Jeffrey Epstein.

They do know who Oprah is. They were just explaining to the Archbishop who she is. What do Andrew's associates have to do with Edward and Sophie and how does that relate to Oprah? For the record, plenty of public figures associated with Epstein because he was part of certain social networks and was involved in philanthropy.

Edward and Sophie throwing bitchy shade. Love it.

Dumb move by Sophie. She was photographed at a charity Oprah donated to and met her at the wedding. Now we will see her shaking hands with black people. There was really no need to throw shade at Oprah and not very smart. Then again, she married the gay brother so there's bound to be some frustration in the royal Karen...

Very pathetic...

The Archbishop has previously worked in the corporate world as part of the oil industry. If he has never heard of a media mogul like Oprah Winfrey he must have led a remarkably sheltered existence. Or he was just being a cunty bitch to a successful black woman by pretending not to know who she was. He's a known cunt, so my money is on the latter.

This thread is insane

Oprah has receipts...watch Dockyard Doris's old "friends" start talking

R167, It is insane, but I'll join the insanity.

Who gives a crap? Typical American self-centeredness. Who dares not know the Queen of Chat!

Good for the royal couple who do not make a fuss, have a bit of fun and have a sense of humor about this.

R40, That's true in American retail as well; plus with doctors and all other medical personnel; strangers; and in every other sphere of society.

If you swan around looking like Tippi Hedren in "The Birds," however, people fall all over themselves to help and serve you.

R71, I've been at enough auctions to know that wealth and attire don't always look simpatico.

That Swiss shopgirl was out of line in her ASSumption.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R40 - depends on the fattie's accessories and shoes. I know my sister got the royal treatment from all shops because of her purse, shoes, hair, and jewels when she was undergoing hormone treatment (her husband is pretty well off and though she is normally super practical, she was going a bit nuts at the time to compensate). Afterwards, she ajd her husband were earning quite a lot, but she just took her gym bag and yoga clothes and, despite losing 30 lbs and looking good...nada.

As for "the difference" between how the Queen and Oprah are known in the world, I think one photo should suffice:

R166, why do Americans imagine that everyone else in the world has to know the famous people of America are? Why do Americans assume that other people interpret everything through American tropes, e.g. race?

Sophie never said she didn’t know Oprah. She said she understood why not all British people would know her.

God, you people are crazy.

This thread is fucking nuts.

R177, may I introduce you to R167?

Why do Americans assume people from other countries are even the least bit interested in American celebrities? As a nation, we're not even loved everywhere in the world, for obvious reasons.

^ Because they are.

No, I don’t think that’s true, r180. I think they are interested in actors and singers.

Movie stars and many singers are known around the world. Same is not true of American TV people as American TV shows are not universally shown. Nobody in Europe has ever heard of any of the late-night comics - Colbert, Jon Stewart, Fallon, Kimmel, etc. Nobody in Europe has ever heard of SNL - these simply aren't shown and nobody cares. Example: Oprah went to Zurich for Tina Turner's wedding. Everybody in Switzerland knows who Tina Turner is. Nobody knows who Oprah is.

I had a colleague - a very sweet, middle-aged, overweight (white) woman. A rich friend of hers had given her a CHF 500 gift certificate at Tod's in Geneva to buy herself some shoes. She tried 3 times to get waited on there to pick out her shoes. None of the snobby salesgirls would help her. She finally sold the gift certificate for a couple of hundred francs to a skinny, chic colleague.

SNL is semi known, Lonely Island was big when I was a kid, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin was talked about, as was Baldwin as Trump, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig are all well known in the UK at least. Letterman used to air in the UK and I think was known for a point in the 90s.

Comedy shows don't work in foreign languages - like chat shows don't. You'll never see a US comedy show or chat show on the Continent.

This isn't 1985. People in the UK watch lots of American shows and are more familiar with a lot of American celebrities than the posters on this thread are claiming. Some of you are acting as though no one in the UK has access to the Internet or any knowledge of American pop culture. In fact there are just as many Brits obsessed with American shows and celebrities as there are Americans obsessed with all things British. Most people in English-speaking countries know who Oprah Winfrey is.

Knowing who she is and caring who she is are two different things. I wonder whether she realizes that?

Perhaps they thought Oprah was a domestic servant?

R187 - it didn't have to do with her weight but her skin color. At the Equinox I went to, they got a new manager from France (she was actually born in Versailles, no joke). We had a HUGE black guy...a model who shall remain nameless. A sweet guy who had patronized the gym for years, was a Calabasas celebrity and brought many famous clients there as he was their personal life coach. In any case, one day this French girl called him to her office and told him to be careful because a female gym member said he "looked scary". When he asked who said that, she said she couldn't tell him. Really, Europeans can be very clueless. At my company, the crazy fag hag who used to continually harass the two twinks at lunch and regale them with stories about her being bi and trying anal sex was never reprimanded. My American-born professional roommate was told, by our team lead, to go see a shrink because obviously she is getting close to menopause and seems sad sometimes. WTF?

R185, but Oprah is not of the internet age, she is from an earlier era and has struggled to stay relevant in an online world. Which is why she jumped at the opportunity to suck off the Markles.

And, yes, because of the constant wall-to-wall celebrity cover provided by the internet, people in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world may have more access to American TV shows and some may follow them, but that doesn't mean everyone follows them and it also doesn't mean that everyone really knows who all these people are. In any case, Oprah is not of now, she doesn't have a show at present and hasn't had for years. What people might hear is references to Oprah, without really understanding who she is or what she did in her heyday.

The internet should also mean that Americans are more aware of what's going on in the rest of the world, but that's clearly not true.

American talk show hosts and American news personalities are unknown outside the US. Barbara Walters hated traveling overseas because nobody knew who the fuck she was and didn't care about her.

Whoopi Goldberg is a much more famous woman in Europe than Oprah, Tina Turner moved to Switzerland because she had a better audience in Europe. Oprah's blackness has nothing to do with it, it's her lack of talent and class that has caused indifference towards her.

Whoopi Goldberg actually has a long, solid career in movies, Tina Turner is a famous and amazing musician. People in Europe and around the world know them because of their films and music. What the hell are we meant to know Oprah for? She was a chat show host - a format that hardly translates into different languages and, even if our language in the UK is also English, culturally we are different and her guests, the topics she covered were very American-oriented. Her show was also on decades ago.

For those Americans saying everyone in the UK and the rest of the world must know who Oprah is, what exactly are we meant to know Oprah for? Especially people under the age of 50.

r193 you have to remember that for many DLers the 1990s are still recent. They're stuck in a time warp.

Oprah's wealth is due to her accountant business manager. He talked her into having her own network or whatever HARPO is. She didn't get herself rich but was smart enough to listen to her financial manager. There is a book by Kitty Kelly that shows a more dark side of Oprah. There is a story about her going to an art gallery I believe and what she wanted to look at was upstairs. Apparently, Oprah likes to refer to herself in the third person. The man tried to take her upstairs and Oprah said "Oprah doesn't do stairs"

didn't Oprah lose her popularity with black people because of her expose special on Michael Jackson? Isn't he a saint for black people?

Didn't she fuck over Mo'Nique?

R197 - I thought that was Jay Z.

The irony, of course, r196 is that the person who really fucked Michael Jackson over was Martin Bashir, the same one who stepped on the accelerator of Diana's downward spiral yet who all the Megstans are defending.

This country is full of cults: Trumpsters, Megsters, Kardashiansters....pass the Koolaid. The one thing they have in common is all of them are TV "personalities".

R197 who ISN'T on Mo's hitlist?

[quote]Oprah has receipts...watch Dockyard Doris's old "friends" start talking

What is this Dockyard Doris crap? Some cunt being oh so clever i.e. homophobic in a gay forum?

All I can figure out about Meghan's fanclub is it's made up of black women who always wanted to be a princess even if it meant marrying a dumb balding ginger who's mentally ill. Maybe to compensate for the fact that black male celeb invariably marry white women? That must be infuriating. But Meghan doesn't even look black and if she did, Harry wouldn't have dated her.

Meghan has lived as a white woman her whole life. You would never guess she's half black from looking at her. Which is why it's funny that blacks always defend her, she's never identified as black and has really had nothing to do with black people.

bump

When I heard that I like to fell over

r166 It is also possible he has heard of her name but I stress heard but does not recognise her visually as he has never watched her show hence him asking her what she does when they met.

People MAYBE would know who Ellen is because she's more recent and has been in the media a lot lately, but Oprah hasn't had a tv show for years and years.

Over here, we don't really have shows like that.

This thread say so much about the USA:

How dare Ed and Sophie make a joke about Oprah?

How dare the Archbishop of Canterbury, who I’m certain 99.99% of Americans haven’t heard of, not know who Oprah is?

Oprah is richer than HM The Queen, therefore is more important.

Oprah is more famous in the USA than the Head of State of the UK, therefore is more important.

A person who has made a career out of giving TV coverage to the lowest common denominator is considered more accomplished than a person who has rarely put a foot wrong in her “career” (albeit inherited) of 69 years.

[Quote]Martin Bashir, the same one who stepped on the accelerator of Diana's downward spiral yet who all the Megstans are are defending

Why would they defend Bashir? Especially if he helped cause the death of their idol's MIL?

Because Diana trashed the Royal family for Bashir. Poor Meghan, she doesn't realize she's circling the drain. All her dreams of finally getting to rub elbows with the Hollywood A listers who snubbed her is never going to materialize.

DataLounge what is that? 🤡

R211 the book is really tanking. Apparently parental leave is a euphemism for even more Sunshine Shite placed stories.

[quote] Knowing who she is and caring who she is are two different things. I wonder whether she realizes that?

She doesn't care. She is a multi-billionaire.

[quote] Apparently, Oprah likes to refer to herself in the third person. The man tried to take her upstairs and Oprah said "Oprah doesn't do stairs"

Turn in your Datalounge card.

As any true longtime DL poster knows, the actual phrase (parroted here an infinite number of times since) was "Oprah does not DO stairs!"

Big-tittied Oprah was known here in the UK for having that lunatic Tammy Cruise ruin her sofa!

Haz has gone nuts too. Hmmm.

So everyone is forgiving Dockside Doris for going back into the closet?

R218 I do wish you frustrated obese middle-aged black ladies would depart this gay man's forum.

bump

R219, more likely to be shit stirring from Sunshine Sacks flunkies, but do let your racism and misogyny fly free. The same troll has used the same statement on multiple threads, just block it.

LSA bitches are a problem here, no question. That awful ancient white fags troll, for one.

I saw Dockside Doris give a recent interview to BBC. He seemed really amateurish--the nicest thing you could say was that perhaps he wasn't well prepared. I could see him giving amateur shade about Oprah. He really needs to revert back to his usual obscurity.

Are you American, r223?

The moron Megstans on LSA are really confused as to why the royals are at the G7, lol.

R223 Someone using the nonsensical “revert back” has no place describing anybody as “amateurish”.

Maybe it’s you who needs to “revert back”.

r223 is a homophobic, obese, middle-aged black woman and dammit, she's gonna live vicariously through Princess Montecito!

It’s very racist to not know who Oprah is.

More likely to be a Sunshine Shite social media manager or intern stirring the pot, R227, blocking trolls is advised by Muriel. They deliberately try to provoke and get threads closed but you keep playing their game.

R228 hi Gayle

I see Kate's greatest fans are making racist death threats again. This death threat is being shared on multiple platforms. Note the Kate pic as profile pic. The Brf needs to do something.

Are you 12, r231?

R232 I think Megs' fans are either 12 or 60.

Royalists are such a sad, self important lot. Has Edward ever even worked a real job?

Edward did work a real job in theater before he decided to support Her Majesty full-time.

R234, there is this thing called "google" that you might want to acquaint yourself with.

Edward and Sophie both had jobs after marrying - she ran her own publicity agency but she got targetted by Murdoch's gutter tabloids and set up and had to leave. Which is also why the Queen knew the Harkles' desire to make money off the Royal family wouldn't work out.

R227: You couldn't further from trhe mark, and Edward reall should go back to opening supermakets or whatever it is he usually does.

Homophobic cow's back at R238!

R179, I've had a few European friends say to me that American culture is ever present and has a huge impact on their own, a fact I was pretty oblivious to.

R240 they may be aware of it but that doesn't mean they don't resent it. They do. And US TV celebrities' fame doesn't extend outside the US where most US TV shows aren't shown. All the talk show people - Oprah, etc. - are unknown outside the US.

That Oprah in Zürich story happened when she was in Switzerland for Tina Turner’s wedding. Apparently she went back to the store the next day after Tina gave them a call.

I’ll see if I can find the interview.

Tina Turner is famous around the world. Oprah Winfrey is not.

I know one thing, a successful black woman will always make a bunch of white people uncomfortable.

A multi billionaire one at that.

Oprah got hers through meritocracy, the Queen Elizabeth and the rest of her family will never be able to say the same thing. If they had to achieve what Oprah did starting out with nothing. They "Royals" would be list and have no clue where to even start.

They've been taking care of by the public their entire lives. Whatever Oprah took out of the system through welfare as a child, she more then made up for it through her success as an adult by paying it back into the system in the form of taxes.

None of the Royals can say the same. And one other thing. They Royals sure have a lot of flying monkeys who defend them, even if the royals will never do the same for them. The Brits are insane.

R244 editing before submitting not big with you?

Yes, Oprah made a shit-ton of money. Good for her. Still doesn't make her someone people overseas would know.

HMQ has spent 7 decades serving the UK and Commonwealth, never, AFAIK, making a misstep in those duties.

Can Oprah say the same?

BTW, Oprah isn’t self made. She got jobs thanks largely to white men. She formed a production company on the advice of her white accountant. Yes, she is talented and earned what she has. But she didn’t do it on her own.

R247 Smiling and waving isn’t exactly a hard job. Her conversation skills are banal at best

Her role is to keep everyone she meets happy and at ease. She’s been phenomenally successful at that.

R241, they never expressed resentment, they actually seemed to seek it out with trips to New York City. If they resent it, stop watching it, blame European media outlets you twit.

Oprah made all her bread because stupid WHITE fraus loved her.

Oprah may be your idol but sadly for her, nobody in Zurich has a clue who she is.

An older white gay guy referred to Oprah back in the 90s as America's mammy. I think he was correct.

Only Americans give a shit about Oprah. Nobody else cares.

R254- No we don't! We don't like that shady 🐮.

R253 Exemplifies exactly why pete buttigieg had a hard time during the primaries and why gay white men are not well liked by everyone.

Thx for proving the point.

R256 obese homophobic middle-aged black woman says what? You're on a site for gay men. Fuck off back to Celebitchy, LaToya.

These parasites deserve to have their assets seized

R240, "Europeans" is a very general category but I think you'll find that in Europe - a continent where everyone either has a royal family or did until relatively recently - there's an understanding that royals have a constitutional function and that they are about service and representing the nation. Being open to American culture doesn't mean that we completely abandon our own.

Actually, because of the internet, some chat show hosts are well-known outside the US. A few years ago, a lot of kids in the country I live in were watching Ellen clips on YouTube. I guess they liked seeing stars they liked in a silly, easily digestible format.

Maybe that's over with TikTok now.

But Oprah is no longer a chat show host, she has no show for us to watch clips of on the Internet. Her show ended a long time ago and Oprah found herself vulnerable to the internet. Most people under 40 in America probably only know her as someone who is famous without really knowing exactly what she's famous for.

R259. they were English, Dutch and German.

Tell Edward that she's that "Negro woman from the South."

R263 Oprah sank into obscurity after she attempted to railroad the Obamas in 2008.

Remember when the show used to be about the guests? And the audience? Oprah walked into the audience and held the microphone while the audience members asked the panelists questions. That changed after Oprah celebrated her weight loss by dragging a wagon full of lard onto the stage. After that, the show was about Oprah. What Oprah thought of the guest's situation. She was always caught staring at herself in the monitors.

She jumped as deep into the trash as Ricki Lake. Then, one day, she came back and announced that she recognized she had a higher calling. She was going to teach people to live their best life. It was similar to when a person wakes up psychotic and believes they're Jesus. Now the microphone never made its way to the audience. Only Oprah got to express an opinion and ask the guest questions.

Then there was the time she ended her season on a cliffhanger. Would she renew her contract for another year? Stay tuned. Well, after summer ended, she was back. She explained that she thought about it, but she just couldn't quit. The work she was doing was just too important. She was going to sacrifice herself for middle America (and millions of dollars).

Oh god...remember the Oprah's Favorite Things episodes, where she'd schill overpriced, unneeded products to her audience. (Had the manufacturers paid for the products to be included on the list?) Everyone in the studio audience got the product. The middle-aged white ladies in the audience worked themselves into a frenzy over $200 coffeemakers; it looked like Beatlemania in that studio.

Remember after Mary Tyler Moore died and Oprah and Gayle had an ad-hoc special about MTM. Yeah, we know that Oprah admired MTM's TV character...but why was Gayle there? The special wasn't a documentary; it was just an hour of Oprah and Gayle shooting the shit with each other (about OPRAH's feelings toward's MTM), and I guess they thought we needed to witness that. Even Dick Van Dyke tweeted, "I enjoyed getting a glimpse of Mary Tyler Moore on the @Oprah Winfrey Show tonight @CBS"

Did Oprah screw her black audience with the Michael Jackson attack special?