“Harry & Meghan” is one among a series of programs the pair is producing under a industrial cope with Netflix.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hit out at what they called the “exploitation and bribery” of the British press in a latest, hotly anticipated Netflix documentary released Thursday.
In a series billed as exposing “the total truth” behind the couple’s life inside Britain’s royal family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also condemned the “unconscious bias” around race inside Buckingham Palace, and the shortage of support they received from other royals.
Within the opening episode, Harry describes the discharge of the documentary as an act of “duty and repair.” It marks one among a series of programs the pair is producing under a industrial cope with Netflix.
“I feel as if being a part of this family, it’s my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens inside our media,” Harry says within the opening episode.
The six-part mini-series, entitled “Harry & Meghan,” acts as a love letter to the pair’s high-profile relationship, revealing latest details of their first introduction in 2016 via a mutual friend on Snapchat, to their ultimate decision to step down from the royal family in 2020.
The primary three episodes of the series were released Thursday, with the second batch to be released next week.
All of it comes right down to control, it’s like, ‘This family is ours to take advantage of.’
But throughout the episodes released to date, the series is notable as much for what it misses out as what it comprises.
There are few, if any, difficult questions and a definite lack of critical voices throughout the documentary.
Harry’s brother, William, the Prince of Wales, as an example, features only briefly in a montage of childhood photos, and there’s little reference to wider high-profile feuds between the couple and other members of the royal family over recent years.
There may be also a definite lack of input from other members of the royal family.
A disclaimer at first of episode one states that members of the royal family “declined to comment on the content inside this series.” Nevertheless, a senior royal source confirmed to NBC News that neither Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, nor any member of the royal family are aware of any such approach for comment on the content of the series.
Here’s what the series tells us:
Collusion between palace and British press
Certainly one of the important thing themes running throughout the series is a critique of the British press, which Harry describes as being in cahoots with Buckingham Palace to make sure constant media coverage.
“There’s leaking but there’s also planting of stories,” he says, though doesn’t provide specific examples.
Within the third episode, the Duke of Sussex refers to a royal rota, through which different press outlets and broadcasters are given slots to cover family members, likening it to an extension of the palace’s PR team. Buckingham Palace didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on the claims.
Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back as senior members of the Royal Family in 2020.
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“When you’re a part of the royal rota, you will have priority over the story over everybody else,” Harry says. “All royal news goes through the filter of all newspapers throughout the royal rota, most of which, other than the Telegraph, occur to be tabloids.”
“All of it comes right down to control, it’s like, ‘This family is ours to take advantage of. Their trauma is our story and our story and our narrative to regulate’,” he added.
The prince also refers back to the BBC’s now infamous interview together with his mother, the late Princess Diana. While acknowledging that the interview was secured by “deceitful” means, he says: “She spoke the reality of her experience.”
More allegations of racism throughout the royal family
The documentary also expands on a previous, explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which the couple made allegations of racism throughout the royal family.
Harry says that other members of his family didn’t support the couple when Meghan, the primary mixed-raced member of the trendy royal family, faced racism within the media.
Nevertheless, the pair appear to moderate their accusations against the family, referring to such racial discrimination as “unconscious bias.”
For therefore many individuals within the family … there could be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mold.
“So far as a number of the family were concerned, all the things that she was being put through, they’d been put through as well,” he says.
“So it was almost like a rite of passage, and a number of the family members were like, ‘My wife needed to undergo that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any in a different way? Why must you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?'”
“I said, ‘The difference here is the race element,'” Harry adds.
Last week, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Susan Hussey, was embroiled in a racial scandal after repeatedly asking charity boss Ngozi Fulani where she was “really from.”
Pushback against conventional royal marriages
Harry also appears to make a thinly veiled swipe at his father, King Charles III, and brother, William, in defense of his relationship with Meghan.
In episode one, Harry, whose relationship with the American-born has come under immense scrutiny — not least for her divorcee status, an element neglected within the docuseries — points to what he calls the difference between “making decisions with head and heart.”
Harry & Meghan, the hotly-anticipated latest Netflix documentary from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, has been released.
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“For therefore many individuals within the family — especially, obviously, the lads — there could be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mold versus anyone who you perhaps are destined to be with,” Harry said.
Charles famously married Diana on the behest of the royal family, despite having a long-running and well-documented relationship together with his now wife, Camilla, queen consort. William’s wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, meanwhile, has been widely accepted within the media, despite being a non-royal herself.
Likening himself to his mother, Diana, Harry added, “My mum definitely made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from the center. And I’m my mother’s son.”
A barometer for Harry and Meghan’s popularity
The discharge of the series has already come up against criticism for allegedly using footage and photos in misleading ways.
Comments made by the pair about being hounded by the media, as an example, are accompanied by at the very least three images which don’t have anything to do with the couple, in line with reports.
Meantime, others have questioned the couple’s decision to shine further light on their relationship despite ostensibly stepping down from the royal family with the intention to preserve their privacy.
But much will hinge on the broader public’s response to the series, as Harry and Meghan try and forge a latest future — and income — outside of the monarchy.
It shouldn’t be clear how much the couple have been paid for the series, though the broader industrial deal between Netflix and Archewell Productions is considered price tens of millions of dollars.
“So as to survive in the long run, they need to keep up that popularity,” James Holt, executive director of the couple’s Archewell Foundation, says of the Royal Family within the series.
To some extent, the identical is true for Harry and Meghan.
