A royal commentator says YouTube pranksters who tricked her into being in a video about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Oprah interview have ruined her life

• Victoria Arbiter said she was tricked into giving an interview about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
• Arbiter was pranked by YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners before the Sussexes' Oprah interview.

The royal commentator Victoria Arbiter said she's considering taking legal action against a YouTube duo who she says tricked her into commenting on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's interview with Oprah Winfrey last year.

Victoria was featured in a YouTube video where pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners asked a handful of commentators to speak about the Oprah interview before it aired on March 7, 2021. Victoria told Insider she was told she would be taking part in a legitimate press interview that would be aired by the broadcaster ITV in the UK the night of the Oprah interview.

Victoria has since been removed from the video after a complaint from her lawyers at the firm Kingsley Napley, according to The Telegraph, but as of Wednesday it still features Victoria's father and the Queen's former press secretary, Dickie Arbiter; editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, Ingrid Seward; and commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

Victoria gave an interview with The Telegraph's Robert Mendick on Saturday, where she announced she was considering legal action against Pieters and Manners to restore her reputation. The publication added that the duo paid Victoria a fee of £300, or around $360, for the appearance, which was never cashed.

Pieters and Manners are known for their celebrity prank videos and have more than 1.4 million YouTube subscribers as of Wednesday. The video, titled "We Proved Royal Experts Lie About Harry and Meghan," was published on March 5, 2021, and has more than 1.5 million likes as of Wednesday.

Victoria says the YouTubers should be held accountable

Speaking to Insider on Tuesday, Victoria said she retained lawyers in May 2021 and is currently taking guidance from her legal team, who she says told her she has strong grounds for misrepresentation. Pieters and Manners did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

According to The Telegraph, Victoria's father Dickie, who also appeared in the clip, has previously said the video was "deliberately misleading and a scam," and that his interview was edited "so as to imply I was speculating on the full-program interview. I was not speculating. I do not speculate."

Victoria told Insider that she wants the YouTubers to be held accountable for their actions, as they had misled her into believing they were from a legitimate media company.

"I'm not Gen-Z, I don't watch YouTube unless it's cats or royals, so I didn't recognize Archie and Josh, so I trusted who they were," Victoria told Insider, adding that the YouTubers had given her fake names and created a fake company and website.

Victoria said the title of the YouTube video was misleading because she didn't lie in the video, but rather based her answers on the promo clips of the Oprah interview that had already been released prior to the air date, and said it's common practice for commentators to give prerecorded interviews ahead of time.

"I did say [in the video] that Oprah asked the tough questions, but that's because in the promo that was released, she asked Meghan if she was silent or silenced. That was a bold question, so I felt secure in that," Victoria said.

"The title [of the video] is a defamatory statement. I can only speak to my own commentary, but at no point did I lie," Victoria said.

She added that she has never referred to herself as a "royal expert," as the duo did in the title of the video.

"Expert implies I know everything, which I don't," she said.

Victoria said the fallout from the interview has had a negative impact on her life. She previously worked as a royal contributor for various shows on CNN, but said the network chose not to renew her contract after the video came out. (Representatives for CNN did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.)

Victoria said she continues to receive hateful messages online as well. She told The Telegraph that "the onslaught was relentless" and she "lost the ability to earn an income."

"We were still in the midst of a pandemic so there wasn't a survival job to be had," she said. "I was too scared to leave my home. I lost a stone in weight and my eyelashes fell out. I still suffer from insomnia and at times the anxiety is so paralysing I'm unable to function."

She also told The Telegraph she could lose her home. "I'm a single mother with a son to support," she told the publication, adding that she had started counseling but had to stop due to the cost.

"I'm very much a work in progress. The counseling helped but I had to stop because it was expensive," she told Insider. "It's been hard to earn an income because of what happened… I'm not too proud to take any job. But any respective employers who Google me, this is what comes up, and they don't want to be associated with controversy."

But Victoria told Insider she hasn't given up hope. "I'm scared and anxious for the future," she said, "but I also recognize that this is just a moment in my life and hopefully things will improve in the future."

Representatives for law firm Kingsley Napley did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.