John Oliver’s Take on Meghan Markle Joining Royal Family Resurfaces After Bombshell Oprah Interview

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey has opened up a lot of discussion about the Royal Family and whether it is still a worthwhile institution. In the wake of Markle’s admissions about life as a royal, including relentless abuse from the British press that made her feel suicidal and a member of the royal family asking how dark Archie’s skin color would be, people are feeling a real outpouring of sympathy for Markle.

In the wake of this blow-up, people are revisiting an old interview between Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, in which Oliver expressed his concern for Markle as she was joining the Royal Family. Colbert asked him if he was excited for the Royal Wedding between Harry and Meghan, to which Oliver responded “No.”

“I would not blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” Oliver explained to Colbert. “I don’t think you need to have just seen the pilot episode of The Crown to get a basic sense that she might be marrying into a family that could cause her some emotional complications.”

“They’re an emotionally stunted group of fundamentally flawed people doing a very silly pseudo-job,” Oliver continued. “That’s what she’s marrying into. So I hope she likes it. It’s going to be weird for her. I would not marry into the royal family. I’m a commoner. I would not be welcomed — especially after what I’ve just said.”

Colbert went on to ask Oliver if he would ever accept a knighthood, and the Last Week Tonight host seemed to think the whole idea was rather ridiculous. “It’s just weird to kneel in front of another adult,” Oliver joked. “It’s an odd thing to still have. I like royal weddings as much as I like [anything else], I also like fireworks. It’s a spectacle, it’s something nice to look at.”

Kneeling in front of another adult is rather odd, as Markle can attest. Markle recounted her awkward first meeting with the Queen, and the shock she felt when she realized that she was going to have to curtsy. “I thought that was part of the fanfare. I didn’t think that’s what happens inside. And I said, ‘But it’s your grandmother,’ and he goes, ‘It’s the queen,’” Markle recalled. “And that was really the first moment that the penny dropped.”