Oprah's interview with Meghan and Harry: Daily Mail complains to CBS for 'doctoring' headlines in 'misleading' montage

The owner of the Daily Mail says the headlines shown in Oprah's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were "misleading."
The owner of the Daily Mail says the headlines shown in Oprah's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were "misleading." Photo credit: Getty Images / CBS screenshot via Daily Mail

The owner of UK newspaper and website the Daily Mail is complaining to CBS for allegedly editing its headlines shown during a "misleading" montage of articles presented in Oprah's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. 

Prince Harry and Meghan's tell-all interview with Oprah aired on Monday featuring a montage of headlines to highlight how unforgiving, and at times racist, the UK press had been to the duchess. 

CBS led viewers to believe the headlines were real and all from UK tabloids, but Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail, says the headlines were "seriously inaccurate and misleading".

According to the Daily Mail, many headlines had been "doctored" and created using inflammatory sentences and quotes chosen from within stories. 

They also complained CBS misrepresented UK media as the only ones to blame as the montage included headlines from foreign media such as US tabloid Star Magazine.

In a letter to CBS, Associated Newspapers' legal director Elizabeth Hartley demanded the removal of the montage.

Hartley pointed out an example where CBS presented the Daily Mail as publishing a brutally racist headline when it was actually calling out racist behaviour. 

CBS broadcast a trimmed version of the headline as: 'Meghan's seed will taint our Royal Family'.

CBS broadcast a trimmed-down version of the headline.
CBS broadcast a trimmed-down version of the headline. Photo credit: CBS screenshot via Daily Mail

According to Hartley, the real headline was: "'Meghan's seed will taint our Royal Family': UK chief's glamour model lover, 25, is suspended from the party over racist texts about Prince Harry's wife-to-be.

The headline was calling out racist behaviour.
The headline was calling out racist behaviour. Photo credit: CBS screenshot via Daily Mail

"It is a thoroughly dishonest misrepresentation of a newspaper headline and article which was the opposite of racist," Hartley said. 

"No one viewing the programme would have understood this from the montage." 

In another example where a quote was plucked from within an article and presented as the headline, Hartley said the columnist who wrote it has "since accepted the phasing was regrettable", but says the way it was broadcast was "misleading" and "out of context".

The rather jarring quote, misrepresented as a headline, read: 'rich and exotic DNA. Miss Markle's mother is a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks'.

Hartly said the columnist's in-context intention was to "praise the duchess's genetics." 

CBS has not responded to the complaint.

Earlier this week, UK television network ITV revealed CBS had amended headlines to include American spelling rather than British.