Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry line up to tell their side of the story. On December 8, 2022, Netflix released the first three parts of a documentary that can certainly be seen as a reckoning with the media and the royal family. The final three episodes of the sensational TV event followed a week later. GALA has summarized the most shocking and surprising statements from the Sussexes for you.
They shook Buckingham Palace to its foundations. “Never complain, never explain” [zu Deutsch: “Beschwere dich nie, erkläre dich nie”] was the golden rule to which Queen Mum, †101, swore the royal family. Duchess Meghan, 41, and Prince Harry, 38, broke them in a spectacular way.
On December 8, 2022, the first three episodes of their highly anticipated Netflix documentary were released. A week later, the grand finale followed with three more episodes. “Harry & Meghan” is the title that promises an incomparable TV experience reduced to the perspective of the Sussexes who went into exile in America in 2020. The couple gets their version of love, marriage, media baiting, Megxit and family drama off their chests. We’ve rounded up the most amazing statements and unexpected revelations for you.
Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry tell their side of the story
1. The Royal Family has not been protective of Meghan
She was first loved – and then hunted: When Duchess Meghan was officially presented to the world public as Prince Harry’s fiancée in November 2017, the British press prepared the red carpet for her. Finally a breath of fresh air in Buckingham Palace! But shortly after the wedding in May 2018, the tide turned. The newly crowned Duchess initially met the paparazzi with kindness and kind words. A mistake, as her media-savvy husband teaches her after such an interlude. “And I remember that H [Meghans Abkürzung für ‘Harry’, Anm. d. Red.] the next day said, ‘You can’t talk to them’. And I said, ‘I’m just trying to be kind, I don’t know what to do, I’ve never dealt with it.’ And he says, ‘Right, but the UK media will say you love it. You smile, you love it.”
Meghan is learning the hard way that the UK media can quickly become an enemy not to be underestimated. The royal is quickly followed at every turn, old stories are unearthed and estranged family members are solicited for comment. Harry blames his family for not doing anything to protect his wife, especially early in the romance: “Some family members were like, ‘My wife had to go through this, so why should your friend be treated any differently? Why should she be given special treatment? Why should she be protected?’” Meghan draws a bitter balance: “I was fed to the wolves”.
2. Prince Harry blames himself for Meghan’s breakup with her father
Not only Prince Harry has obviously distanced himself from his family. The break between Meghan and her father Thomas Markle, 78, started much earlier – before her marriage to the Royal. “If Meg weren’t with me, her father would still be her father,” says King Charles’ son, 74, who blames himself for the rift. The father of the American took his fate into his own hands when he staged paparazzi photos in collaboration with a British tabloid. The photographers photographed him in his adopted home of Mexico measuring a suit for his youngest daughter’s wedding and “caught” him in an internet café reading an article about Meghan and Harry. A lucrative deal, as the Duchess accepts to this day.
Just days before the dream wedding of 2018, the bride’s father suffered a heart attack. He stopped answering calls from his daughter. Instead, he kept talking to the press about the Sussexes and even gave him a private letter from Meghan to the Daily Maily, which was promptly published. The Royal then sued the publishing Associated Press.
3. Spikes against William and Catherine
Duchess Meghan was probably looking forward to a casual first meeting with her future brother-in-law and soon-to-be sister-in-law. But the introductory premiere was apparently not as relaxed as the actress at the time had imagined. The Californian presented herself in ripped jeans and barefoot. Their attempts at hugging allegedly crowned the royal couple’s irritation. “I think I understood very quickly that the outer formality prevails on the inside,” she cautiously describes her first impression of the Princess and the Prince of Wales, then the Duke and Duke of Cambridge. The three royals do not seem to have warmed to each other to this day.
On the contrary: the mood between the two parties of the former “Fab Four” has been at a low point since the Megxit at the latest. Another subtle side swipe from the Sussexes speaks for this. Harry emphasizes that he married his wife for love. In his view, this does not necessarily apply to other connections within the royal family: “I think that many in my family, especially the men, are often tempted to marry someone who fits into this mold. Instead of someone who is for she is destined.” A rogue who thinks evil.
4. Curtsy debacle in front of Queen Elizabeth († 96)
The first meeting with Queen Elizabeth, however, probably brought beads of sweat to the American’s forehead. The unofficial “audience” to Her Majesty apparently came as a surprise. Harry allegedly only informed her about it shortly beforehand. “My grandmother was the first senior member of the family that Meghan met. She had no idea what it was all about, so it was a bit of a shock for her.”
The exciting encounter took place at the Royal Lodge, the home of Prince Andrew, 62, and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 63, in Berkshire’s sprawling Windsor Great Park. Only shortly before arrival did Harry come out with the language. “I remember we pulled up in the car and he said, ‘You know how to curtsey, don’t you?’ And I just thought it was a joke.” But the future family member could not avoid the unusual deference, even in a private atmosphere.
Meghan plays her Hollywood-ready bow to the monarch again in front of the Netflix cameras with an extravagant gesture. A foreign shame moment not only for die-hard royal fans, but apparently also for Harry. The king’s son, who otherwise admires his wife, suddenly seems embarrassed.
6. Bitter dig at King Charles
Family is the central theme for Harry and Meghan. While the Duchess seems to have finally broken with her father and half-siblings since she joined the royal family at the latest, her husband is now apparently increasingly breaking away from his closest relatives with targeted tips. King Charles must have swallowed hard at his son’s slightly poisonous description of his connection to Botswana and the people there.
After his time at Eton College, the then 18-year-old Windsor offspring went to Lesotho for the first time. It became the place of his soul, to which he returned again and again in the years that followed. First he found the necessary peace and distance there to process the death of his mother Princess Diana, † 36. Then he was drawn back again and again to the people he found there. “I found a second family and friends there who literally raised me.” The sting that Charles was supposed to take with these words should also make the TV viewers freeze for a moment.
7. Netflix documentary was planned for a long time
Harry and Meghan are always good for a surprise. This is no longer news. But it is amazing that the idea for your documentary did not come about after your signatures were dry in autumn 2020 under your multi-million dollar deal with the streaming service provider. The Sussexes don’t really want to come out with the language in their TV epic with the modalities of their sensational media sweep.
50 images
The pictures, however, speak for themselves – literally. Sequences recorded with a mobile phone repeatedly flow into the narrative. Video diaries of the two ex-senior royals dating back to their departure from the UK after the Megxit at the beginning of 2020. “A friend said we should document ourselves during this time,” Harry dares to try to explain. “With all the wrong information that was circulating about us and our exit, we thought it was a good idea.” Which brought a profitable coup: soul striptease against financial carelessness. You like to let fears and hopes out in selfie mode.
Source used: netflix.com