Oprah Winfrey gently poked fun at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Sussex last name on a recent podcast.
While appearing on “Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa,” which aired on Wednesday, the former talk show host was asked about potentially being gifted baby chicks.
Winfrey explained she would immediately take them over to the “Sussexes,” and laughingly added on a couple of “xes” to the tongue twister name.
Winfrey is a longtime pal of the couple, having attended their 2018 wedding. She also conducted the pair’s first interview, where they proudly showed off ther chicken coop, after moving to California following their resignation from senior royal family duties.
The royal couple’s last name made news back in March when Mindy Kaling appeared on an episode of Markle’s Netflix lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan.”
“The Mindy Project” alum, 45, referred to the Duchess several times as “Meghan Markle” during the show, prompting the “Suits” alum, 43, to correct her.
“It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle. You know I’m Sussex now,” the “Suits” alum explained.
She then went on to share how meaningful the name is to her nuclear family.
“You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children,’” Markle noted. “It just means so much to go, ‘This is our family name, our little family name.’”
She and Prince Harry, 40, have two children: Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.
The Duchess echoed the sentiment in an interview with People.
“I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H, and I all have together,” she said of her children. “It means a lot to me.”
“I think as the kids get older, they’re so excited about, ‘Oh my gosh, Mama and Papa, how did you meet?’” Markle continued. “I think that will come with time as they get older, but for right now, a huge part of our love story is that we share the name Sussex.”
Markle’s clarification created headlines and TikTok videos dissecting the moment.
Kaling later acknowledged the backlash, sharing that, “I noticed that whenever I do something, anything related to Meghan it becomes … big news.”