It's been widely rumored that Oprah and TW made a secret media deal/partnership early on when H&M got engaged. Looking back now, it's highly suspect that some sort of arrangement/partnership had to be made because Oprah/Gail/CBS have pretty much gotten "firsts" on everything and a steady stream of inside info is still flowing today on Oprah Daily.
Oprah went to wedding and all of the royal wedding coverage, Gail and CBS got the first interview w/baby Archie, Oprah/CBS got the big interview after the exit, Oprah and Harry partnered on "The Me You Can't See" for Apple TV and several of Oprah's Harpo staff worked on Spotify production. Plus, Gail gets a steady flow of inside info and Oprah Daily continues to always have fresh info for daily content. I've also wondered if Oprah was also quietly involved in setting up/negotiating/benefiting on Netflix deal.
All these things collectively didn't just happen because Oprah (who had never met Meghan before) and TW became "instant friends". Making a "first rights" deal with TW would be a MASSIVE deal and of course, TW doesn't give anything away. TW would have absolutely. recognized the value of all of their "firsts". Look at how much money H&M made Oprah giving her all these exclusives.
It would be absolutely brilliant of Oprah to have the foresight to secure such a massive deal so early on with first rights to everything. However, if she did have any sort of agreement/partnership with H&M, that means Oprah was not forthright with the public disclosing that during the big interview and everything else. Plus, it would be a massive conflict of interest for Oprah to be the interviewer if she had a secret deal with them. Of course, if she did have secret partnership/investment with them, She could softball questions, not push back or challenge them, she could let them create any narrative they wanted to make themselves look good, etc.. all while "protecting" her investment. She would NEVER do that, right?!!
Of course, if a deal was in fact made, according to U.S. federal law, every piece of media content would have to include a disclosure statement of the partnership/sponsorship, etc..