'The Sussexessssss': Oprah Winfrey mocks Montecito neighbours Meghan Markle and Prince Harry over their royal surname
Appearing on the podcast Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa on Thursday, the talk show queen made the off-the-cuff quip just months after Meghan corrected actress Mindy Kaling for using her maiden name on an episode of With Love, Meghan.
"Do you have chickens in Montecito?" Ripa asked during their chat.
"I do not have chickens in Montecito," Oprah replied, "but my neighbour has chickens in Montecito right across the fence, so I get my eggs from her."
Ripa then joked that she'd once considered gifting Oprah chickens.
"We interviewed (actor) Colman Domingo… And I think he brought you his manuscripts," Ripa said.
"And I said, 'That's not what I would've gotten for Oprah… She's in Montecito, so she probably has a chicken coup. I would've gotten her fuzzy chickens'."
"Would you have liked that gift?" Ripa asked.
"Not particularly," Oprah deadpanned, sparking laughter.
"You know what, I would have taken them over to the Susexesssss," she added, dragging out the word for comic effect.
She repeated "the Sussexes" once more, again drawing loud laughter from the studio.
"My furry chicken would have been royally rehomed," Ripa added, playing along.
Meghan's use of her royal title was a hot topic earlier this year when she revealed on her Netflix cooking show that she'd officially taken the surname Sussex.
"It's so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle-you know I'm Sussex now," she told Kaling.
"You have kids and you go, 'No, I share my name with my children'."
The 43-year-old doubled down in an interview with People, saying: "It's our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn't recognised how meaningful that would be to me until we had children.
"I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me."
Until perhaps now, Oprah had remained one of the couple's most vocal allies, famously hosting their 2021 bombshell tell-all in the garden of their $29 million Montecito estate- complete with the now-iconic chicken coop in the background.
Although the Sussexes have only lived in the neighbourhood for five years, their friendship with Oprah spans much longer.
The billionaire media mogul even scored an invite to their 2018 royal wedding.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Oprah also revealed a "never-before-told" story involving her royal neighbours.
"I get a call from Harry, Prince Harry, on Easter Saturday, and he says, 'Sorry to bother you, O, but we have a duck problem here'," she recalled, imitating his British accent.
"A duck had come into their yard and laid their eggs and had these chicks. And he said, 'Our pond is a stream, we don't have a pond, so can we bring the ducks over to your pond?'"
Oprah agreed but asked him to wait so her best friend, TV personality Gayle King's grandchildren, could witness the scene, but Harry declined.
"I said, 'Wait until I can get the kids to come down to the pond so they can see you put the ducks in the pond'. And he goes, 'No, we're coming right away, we're coming over!'"
The visit descended into chaos as soon as they arrived.
"As he opens the door, the mama duck flies out. And he's got all the baby ducks in a box. We're chasing the mama duck who is in the front yard and has flown to the other side. We've got her ducks. Harry's running after, Meghan gets out, she's running after, chasing the mom and trying to get her to come back to her ducks," Oprah said.
"...We have video. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen."
Ripa couldn't help but add: "The ducks also hit the jackpot."
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