Meghan Markle’s former Suits co-star Wendell Pierce has said that her recent interview with Oprah Winfrey was “insignificant” amid the coronavirus crisis.
Pierce, best known for playing Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire, portrayed Markle’s on-screen father Robert Zane in the US legal drama, which ran for nine seasons between 2011 and 2019.
Appearing on LBC yesterday (March 9), the actor spoke about the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry’s revelatory Oprah interview in which the couple detailed the experiences that led them to depart the Royal Family.
“Today 3,000 people are going to die in America from Covid. A couple of hundred people are going to die within this hour in the UK,” Pierce said when asked about the interview. “We are in the midst of a pandemic, that at one point before these vaccines I thought could be an extinction event if we didn’t figure out a way to stop it.”
Quoting Shakespeare, he went on to say that the Harry and Markle interview was “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”.
“It is quite insensitive and offensive that we are all complicit in this sort of Palace… gossip. In the midst of so much death, I think it is insignificant,” Pierce added.
Asked who exactly he was criticising, the actor said “everyone” – including Winfrey, the TV channels that aired the interview (CBS in the US, ITV in the UK), Markle, Harry and the Royals.
He also said that the Queen should “focus on the throes of death that we’re in” because of the pandemic rather than getting involved “in this sort of conversation”.
I was fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best. Predicting this hellacious maelstrom I also told her she would always have a friend in me. Because I had no interest in the interview doesn’t change that.
— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) March 10, 2021
Pierce later tweeted about his LBC interview, saying that he was “fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best”.
“Predicting this hellacious maelstrom I also told her she would always have a friend in me. Because I had no interest in the interview doesn’t change that,” he tweeted.
Harry and Markle made an accusation of racism against an unnamed Royal during the two-hour interview, claiming there had been a comment made regarding the skin tone of their then-unborn baby, Archie. Markle also said that she had thought about taking her own life due to constant press scrutiny and falsehoods.
Responding to the interview last night, the Royal Family said the allegations were being “taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately”.
In the wake of the Oprah interview airing this week, Beyoncé shared her praise for Markle in a new online post. “Thank you Meghan for your courage and leadership,” she wrote. “We are all strengthened and inspired by you.”
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