The World This Week: A Royal Bombshell

Friday’s discussion on France 24’s The World This Week featured a range of views on Meghan and Harry's explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. But everyone was in agreement on one point: The Duchess and Duke of Sussex have dropped a game-changing bombshell on the British monarchy.

Le Monde Moderne’s Alexis Poulin questioned whether the royal family was above the law, citing Prince Andrew’s history with Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s not in jail and hasn’t answered any question from a judge,” said Poulin. “This is the real issue here.”

Agnès Poirier of L'Express argued that the couple may have been naive in their approach to keeping “a foot in and a foot out” of royal service. “They are young, rich, beautiful, and in good health. And they are free. They freed themselves from the royal family and that’s great,” said Poirier. “Why do they feel the need to dish the dirt a year later?”

The Daily Beast’s Nico Hines suggested that the ripples that come from this bombshell could be long-lasting, hitting at the very core of British society.

“[The British] are unfailingly polite. Nobody ever confronts anyone and no one brings up their true emotions,” said Hines. “These are issues that have been bumbling on in Britain for decades and no one has really done anything about it. What she’s done is throw the cards up into the air. It’ll be interesting to see where they fall."