"I had no idea that it would have the reverberating impact that it has had and continues to have," Winfrey explained to O'Dell.
When asked if she was surprised by the interviews revelations, Oprah admitted that she was."I... was I?... Yeah, I was surprised," she said. In particular, the couple's openness shocked Winfrey. "What? I'm like... what? You're going there? You're going all the way there?" she said.
Although Winfrey's surprise is genuine, she did put in a lot of prep time to make the interview as successful as it was. "I did a lot of preparation for that," she explained. "It was really important to me that what we put out there in the world was put out into the world at the time that everybody could see it and that things didn't leak and that things weren't misconstrued before the actual interview happened."
With that in mind, Winfrey was clear on her "no leaks" policy with everyone who witnessed the interview firsthand.
"When we finished doing the interview — and that interview was three hours and 20 minutes, I think — I stood up and I said to the crew, 'Well, we all know what was said here and how important it is to have the trust of the people who just shared that, and so I'm hoping you all will not go out into the world and share what has happened here,'" she explained.
Although her interview skills were certainly impressive, Winfrey insisted that the interview's resonance is mostly due to Harry and Meghan's willingness to speak so honestly.
"What makes it powerful is when you have somebody else who is willing to be as open, as vulnerable, as truthful as they were... The reason the interview was what it was is because they answered the way they did," she said.