Oprah Winfrey took a gentle jab at her Montecito neighbors, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, for their last name.
The TV mogul, 71, poked fun of the tongue-twisting name while appearing on Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast on Wednesday – four months after Meghan, 43, insisted that her pal Mindy Kaling call her by the surname.
After Kelly asked Oprah if she would enjoy receiving baby chicks as a gift, the veteran talk show host said no, and added, ‘I’d run them straight over to the Sussexes’ while mispronouncing the name by adding extra ‘xesssses’ at the end.
The billionaire then playfully repeated ‘the Sussexes’ once again for good measure.
Oprah went on to share an anecdote of how she helped the couple deal with a surprising backyard ‘problem.’
Oprah lives close to the pair in California and she recalled rushing to the couple’s aid over the Easter weekend when they discovered ducklings in their back yard but had nowhere suitable to settle them.
‘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 said, imitating a 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 Harry to wait because her best friend Gayle King’s grandchildren were coming to visit and would like to see the spectacle, but Harry – who shares Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, with Meghan – insisted he needed to move the creatures immediately.
She continued: ‘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!”‘
But the cute scene turned to chaos when the ‘mama duck’ fled and the trio had to chase her, providing the ‘funniest thing’ Oprah had ever seen.
She said: ‘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.’
‘And for like half an hour, we’re running around with the ducks in a box. We have video. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.’
Kelly joked the duck had been very shrewd in choosing a nesting spot.
She laughed: ‘The ducks also hit the jackpot.’
‘They’re like, “Wait a minute, we show up at Prince Harry’s house and now we’re at Oprah’s!” Excuse me. That duck knew what it was doing when it laid its eggs.’
Meghan had shared a clip of the ducks on her Instagram page over Easter.
She captioned the video: ‘Wishing you a Happy Easter full of love….and surprises!’
Winfrey is a longtime friend of the couple and even attended their 2018 wedding.
Winfrey notably conducted their first interview after their move to California and departure from senior royal duties in 2021.
The couple’s surname was a major topic of discussion in March, when Meghan corrected her celebrity friend and The Office star Mindy Kaling in her Netflix cookery show, after she called her ‘Meghan Markle.’
Meghan replied: ‘It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I’m Sussex now.’
As Mindy looked confused, Meghan, who has only visited Sussex once, continued: ‘You have kids and you go “No, I share my name with my children.”‘
‘I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go “This is OUR family name. Our little family name”.
After being corrected, Mindy awkwardly responded: ‘Well, now I know and I love it.’
The late Queen Elizabeth bestowed the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Prince Harry and Meghan for their wedding in 2018.
Since then the pair have only visited the county once when they hosted a number of engagements seven years ago.
