The airing of the much-awaited interview of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Oprah Winfrey, the first they have given since they stepped away from official royal duties, triggered instant comparisons with the tell-all interview the Prince’s mother Diana gave to BBC’s Martin Bashir in 1995.

While the common thread in both interviews was palace-bashing and the alleged discrimination faced by the two women at the hands of the palace insiders, there are some key differences also

Diana versus Meghan

To start with, the people at the epicentre of the interviews — Diana and Meghan — come from entirely different education and social backgrounds. Diana was 20 when she got married to Charles, 32, in 1981 and had been working as a part time nursery teacher. Diana had never been to a university and had never been in a serious relationship. She was propelled from being a nobody to the most-watched and scrutinised person in the world.

Meghan, on the other hand, was 36 when she married Harry, 33,  in 2018. She had a university degree and was a successful American actor with some experience in dealing with fame. She had been married once before.

Another major difference was that Diana was waging a lone war against the humongous royalty, palace intrigues and the British press. She was virtually abandoned by her husband, Charles and was fighting with her back to the wall. Meghan has husband Harry solidly backing her and the Prince even relinquished Royalty to be by her side.

Also read: What Princess Diana said in 1995 interview that upset the Royal Family

The Couple learnt from Diana’s mistakes

Prince Harry told Oprah Winfrey Harry’s that his biggest fear before leaving the royal family was “history repeating itself” with his wife facing the intense scrutiny once faced by his late mother. Harry was aware of what his mother had to go through in the palace and did not want his family to suffer the same — both at the hands of the palace and the press. They did not wait for the situation to spiral out of control, like it did for Diana. The Princess of Wales had no one to turn and agreed to the famous interview only when things started crumbling beyond repair.

Desperation versus controlled takedown

Diana’s interview was mainly about her disintegrating marriage and the ‘royal snub’. The interview to BBC’s Martin Bashir was largely about herself, her everyday travails and her determination to go down fighting. “There were three of us in this marriage,” she said, referring to her husband’s then partner and future wife, Camilla Parker Bowles. She spoke of her struggles with bulimia, noting that royal family members chided her for wasting food. These statements stunned the nation.

The Meghan and Harry interview, while also focusing on the Palace intrigues, spoke of racial discrimination, of denial of help from the Palace when Meghan sought it for her mental health crisis. The statements meticulously targeted people. Meghan took on Prince Williams’ wife Kate Middleton, saying that she made her cry. “A few days before the wedding, she (Middleton) was upset about something pertaining — yes, the issue was correct — about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.”

On his father Charles, Prince Harry spoke candidly about his relationship with his father, Harry said he had felt “really let down” by his father throughout the painful episode — but that they were now talking to one another. He described Charles — the heir to the throne — and Harry’s older brother William as “trapped” by the conventions of the monarchy, but vowed that he would “always love” his father.