The director of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix docuseries has claimed that Buckingham Palace tried to ‘discredit’ the project.
The explosive six-part series gave a personal view of their lives and marriage, from their first messages to each other, to Meghan opening up about suicidal thoughts and her mental health, as well as online trolling and media backlash they received.
At one point, the former Suits actress claims she was prevented from getting medical help by royals while suffering from suicidal thoughts, while elsewhere they accuse the Palace of feeding negative stories about them to the press.
The programme sparked controversy over the claim that the Palace was offered an opportunity to provide comment, with other members of the royal family reportedly not contacted, despite a disclaimer that appeared on the screen.
The first episode of the series opened with: ‘This is a first-hand account of Harry & Meghan’s story, told with never before seen personal archive. All interviews were completed by August 2022.
‘Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within this series.’
However, both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have previously denied receiving this approach for the right of reply, but according to director Liz Garbus, this was a sign of the series being ‘discredited’.
‘Buckingham Palace said that we didn’t reach out for comment [on the docuseries] when we did,’ she said.
She continued to Vanity Fair: ‘They did that to discredit us… and by discrediting us, they can discredit the content of the show’.
‘We lived through some of those moments that were a little bit like Alice Through the Looking Glass,’ Garbus added, speaking about how being a part of the series immersed her into the allegations Harry and Meghan made about the palace.
She elsewhere reacted to Jeremy Clarkson’s widely criticized article, in which he said he ‘hated’ the Duchess of Sussex on a ‘cellular level’ and said he wished to see her paraded naked down the street with excrement thrown at her.
