
It began as a lighthearted Easter memory — but Oprah Winfrey’s recent podcast anecdote involving Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quickly stirred speculation about royal egos and tricky surnames.
During an appearance on Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera, the 71-year-old talk show legend recounted a quirky holiday moment when Prince Harry reached out to her about a rather peculiar dilemma involving baby ducks. According to Oprah, Harry phoned her on Easter Saturday, asking if they could bring over some ducklings because their own property had a stream, not a proper pond.
“‘Sorry to bother you, O,’” she recalled Harry saying, “‘but we have a duck problem here. Can we bring them over to your pond?’”

At the time, Oprah happened to have guests — namely, the grandchildren of her longtime friend Gayle King — and invited Harry and Meghan to wait until the kids could come watch. But Harry wasn’t having it. “No, we’re coming right away,” he reportedly insisted.
The story prompted laughter all around, especially when the topic shifted to Easter traditions. When Kelly asked whether Oprah would like someone to gift her baby chicks, the media mogul responded, chuckling, “I’d run them straight to the Sussexes.”
That’s when things got a little cheeky. Oprah repeated the couple’s family name — “the Sussexes” — but exaggerated the pronunciation with extra “x” sounds, poking fun at the tongue-twisting pluralization of their title. While her tone remained playful, some listeners thought the jab might’ve been a little too pointed for such close friends.
As rumors swirled online about a supposed falling-out, a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan quickly shut them down, stating that reports of the couple being offended were “categorically untrue.” Despite the Internet frenzy, it seems there’s no royal rift brewing.