Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Interview Reportedly Cost CBS a Massive Sum

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey, which will air on Sunday on CBS at 8 p.m., reportedly cost quite a large sum of money. According to the Wall Street Journal, CBS paid a licensing fee between $7 million and $9 million for the rights to air the interview, which is titled Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special. The publication also noted that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not compensated for taking part in the interview.

Vanity Fair reported that CBS paid this large sum to Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions. The production company also has the right to air the special in international markets. Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special will air on Monday in the United Kingdom on ITV. VF noted that ITV outbid other United Kingdom-based broadcasters in order to air the interview, reportedly paying $1.4 million for the rights to air the special. The commercials that will air during the two-hour special will also fetch quite a pretty penny. CBS is reportedly charging $325,000 for every 30 seconds of commercial time during the interview.

Markle and Harry’s interview with Winfrey promises to be a wide-ranging and intimate conversation in which the royal couple discusses the past few years of their lives. This will be the first joint interview that Markle and Harry take part in since they announced that they were stepping back from their positions as working royals within the British Royal Family. Additionally, it will be the first joint interview for the couple since they announced that they’re expecting their second child together (the duke and duchess welcomed their first child, Archie, in May 2019).

As for what will be discussed during the interview, CBS has already released a teaser in which Markle said that it felt “liberating” to discuss the situation with Winfrey. Based on the clip, Markle claimed that the Royal Family “perpetuated falsehoods” about her and that they encouraged a smear campaign against her via the British press. She explained, “I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that The Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.” Markle continued to say that “if that comes with the risk of losing things, I mean there’s a lot that’s been lost already.” Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.