Royalty, reputation and crisis: lessons from the Oprah fall-out

Our strategic partner Steve Double was asked by German communications firm Engel & Zimmermann, a fellow member of the Crisis Communications Network Europe, to give insights into perhaps the biggest non-Covid story of 2021 – Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.

In the video below, Steve discusses changes to the royal family’s communications approach, the difficulty of handling issues around race and mental health, and whether Buckingham Palace got the tone right in its statement.

He draws a clear lesson from the affair, saying: “Personal disputes are almost certainly never resolved in the media – the temptation can be to retaliate, and retaliate strongly, but invariably a more restrained response is more effective. It’s always best to take a step back and think what the long-term objective is and what sort of outcome you really want.”