More than two years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle signed a $112m deal with Netflix, their highly-anticipated docuseries about life in the royal family and beyond has finally dropped.
The first three episodes of ‘Harry & Meghan ‘ landed on the streaming service today, featuring emotional reality TV-style confessionals, unseen photos and a behind-the-scenes look at the couple’s private lives.
The second chunk of episodes are expected to drop later this month, with the reported date set to clash with the Princess of Wales’s carol concert in memory of the late Queen.
The first three 45-minute episodes are likely to be uncomfortable viewing for King Charles and the rest of the royal family, as well as Palace staff who held crisis talks over the weekend on how to respond.
These are some of the biggest bombshells from Netflix’s Harry and Meghan…
Harry claimed the royals asked why Meghan should be “protected” from media speculation, alleging he was told it was something all royal women – including Princess Diana and Kate – have to go through.
Speaking in episode two of Harry & Meghan, the six-part Netflix docuseries released on Thursday, the Duke claims the Palace told them to say nothing when it came to stories printed about them – which is in line with the family’s ‘Never Complain, Never Explain’ motto.
He tells the camera that his relatives said their wives had to endure press intrusion in the early days of their relationships, so when he started dating Meghan she shouldn’t expect any special treatment.
As he speaks, a montage of photographers taking snaps of his mum Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson and then Kate Middleton plays over his voice.
Harry says: “The direction from the Palace was don’t say anything.
“But what people need to understand is, as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they had been put through as well.
“So it was almost like a rite of passage, and some of the members of the family were like ‘my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’
“I said ‘the difference here is the race element'”
Meghan adds: “It was horrible, but I continued to hold the line and say nothing. “
While Harry says: “Eight days after the relationship became public I put out a statement calling out the racist undertones of articles and headlines that were written by the British press as well as outright racism from those articles across social media.”
Claims royals had a problem with Meghan being an American actress
In another dig at the royals, Meghan and Harry recall her first meeting with her now in-laws.
Harry says: “I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed. Some of them didn’t quite know what to do with themselves (laughs). So I think they were. They were surprised.
“They were surprised that such a ginger could land such a beautiful woman. And such an intelligent woman.
“But the fact that I was dating an American actress, was probably what clouded their judgment more than anything else. Oh she’s an American actress, this won’t last long. “
While Meghan added: “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funnily enough. There is a big idea of what that looks like from the UK standpoint -Hollywood -and it’s just very easy for them to typecast that.”
Meghan’s first meeting with William and Kate and ‘jarring’ formalities
In one candid confessional during the second episode, Meghan recalls how she met Prince William and Kate for the first time and how she didn’t realize a lot of Brits find hugging “jarring”.
She said: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot.
“I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.
“There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Harry’s garden proposal
The couple shared intimate pictures and footage of Harry proposing to Meghan at Kensington Palace back in 2017.
Harry explained he wanted to pop the question earlier but wasn’t able to because he had to ask permission from his grandmother.
He recalled: “I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was roasting a chicken, and that slightly gave the game away. I just said ‘Oh I had it lying around, whatever.’
Meghan laughed: “It was a Magnum.”
Viewers are then shown how Harry set up electric candles and a candle on the North Garden of Kensington Palace with Meghan video-calling her friend.
An image is then shown of Harry on one knee alongside Meghan’s dog Guy and he says: “Of course, I got down on one knee. Of course, I did.”
And Meghan adds: “He was down on one knee and I was like ‘yes’ we were so joyful and excited. We thought ‘we’re doing this!'”
They don’t want to make their parents‘ mistakes
Both Harry and Meghan say they were keen “not to make the same mistakes our parents did” while bringing up their children.
In part two of the couple’s tell-all Nextflix documentary series, the couple spoke about how the breakdown of their parents’ marriages had affected their approach to raising son Archie, three, and daughter Lilibet, one.
Meghan said: “There’s so much from anyone’s childhood that you bring with you into the present. Especially when you’re the product of divorce.”
Harry added: “What’s most important to the two of us is to make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made.
“I think most kids who are the product of divorced parents have a lot in common, no matter what your background is.
“Being pulled from one place to another or maybe your parents are competitive, or you’re in one place longer than you want to be or in another place less than you want to be. There are all sorts of pieces to that.”
