Oprah Winfrey has explained the mystery surrounding Meghan Markle’s Instagram video, which showed her gasping over a line of waddling ducks over the Easter weekend in April. Appearing on a podcast with Kelly Ripa, Oprah discussed how a moment of kindness quickly turned into chaos with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
In a recent episode of Kelly Ripa’s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera, Oprah explained: “I get a call from Harry, Prince Harry, on Easter Saturday, and he says, ‘Sorry to bother you, O, but we have a duck problem here.” The TV host explained how a duck in their garden had ducklings and Harry wanted to transfer them to somewhere more suitable, like Oprah’s pond.
Oprah tried to explain her friend Gayle King’s grandchildren were coming over: “I said, ‘Wait until I can get the kids to come down to the pond so they can see you put the ducks in the pond.’ And he goes, ‘No, we’re coming right away, we’re coming over!'”
However, things quickly became chaotic. She explained: “As he opens the door, the mama duck flies out. And he’s got all the baby ducks in a box. We’re chasing the mama duck who is in the front yard and has flown to the other side. We’ve got her ducks. Harry’s running after, Meghan gets out, she’s running after, chasing the mom and trying to get her to come back to her ducks.”
Although Meghan shared a clip of the ducks on her Instagram page at Easter, Oprah’s anecdote added new context to the video of the baby ducks calmly following their mother across the road.
The host laughed: “The ducks also hit the jackpot. They’re like, ‘Wait a minute, we show up at Prince Harry’s house and now we’re at Oprah’s!’ Excuse me. That duck knew what it was doing when it laid its eggs.”
The Sussexes also have a chicken coop which was shown during their 2021 sit-down interview with Winfrey, with a sign that said ‘Archie’s Chick Inn’, named after their son, Prince Archie.
Oprah notably conducted their first interview in 2021, after their move to California when they quit royal duties in 2020.
During her conversation with Gayle King, after the interview, Oprah said: “I didn’t set out do a ‘bombshell’ interview – I set out to do an interview, have a conversation that will allow them to tell their story.”
Kelly Ripa’s podcast, which was released yesterday, includes the description, “Oprah tells a never-before-shared story about her royally famous neighbors, The Sussexes (aka Harry and Meghan).”