The first teaser for Harry and Meghan, the upcoming six-part Netflix series following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s life since leaving Royal duties, has just been released, and it’s already showing some heated bombs.
The teaser wastes no time in dropping some exposing material about the Royal family, with Megan Markle’s husband, Harry, revealing that “there’s a hierarchy in the family”, referring to his older brother William and father, King Charles. The project’s teaser also implies stories were “planted” against Markle during their time as senior members of the royal institution. “You know there’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories”, the Prince claims.
Also featured in the documentary are journalists, one of which states: “There was a war against Meghan to suit other people’s agendas”. The Dutchess of Sussex, a former actor who married into the Royal family after meeting the prince on a blind date, was relentlessly mistreated in the press during her time as a royal, appearing in nitpicking and critical headlines finding faults with virtually everything the Duchess did. These were compared to separate headlines about Kate Middleton, wife of Harry’s brother Prince William, who was praised for doing the same things Markle was criticised for.
This difference in treatment was cited as covert institutional racism towards Markle, who is half Nigerian. There was more open discrimination towards the Duchess, such as unsettling and unnecessary remarks about her “exoticness”.
In early 2020, the couple announced they would be stepping down from royal duties, feeling estranged from the family and institution and targets of media harassment. The Duke and Duchess have been open about the struggles and mistreatment the press have put them through and continue to do so, with this documentary looking to be the most candid of them all. Prince Harry also mentions “the pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution”, which could also be a reference to his mother, Princess Diana Spencer.
Princess Diana spoke to Martin Bashir about her experience with the Royal family and the institution following her divorce from King Charles in the 1990s. “I felt I was a lamb to the slaughter. And I knew it,” was one of the statements the Princess of Wales, who tragically passed away in August 1997, shocked the world with. When asked if she thought she would ever be queen, Princess Diana responded: “I don’t think many people would want me to be queen, and when I say people, I mean the establishment that I married into because they have decided that I’m a non-starter”.
Prince Harry also reveals in the teaser that he “was terrified” and that he “didn’t want history to repeat itself”. This statement signals the merciless hounding his mother recieved from the press, something his wife also suffers from.
The public has drawn comparisons between the language Princess Diana and the Duke and Duchess use when explaining the Royals and their methodological approaches, comparing it to a systematic establishment rather than a humanised family.
The documentary Harry and Meghan is set to be released on Netflix on Thursday, December 8th.
