The latest trailer for the Sussexes’ six-hour Netflix series has sparked backlash with incendiary claims that Harry alleged a ‘war against Meghan’ due to leaks and planted stories.
Allies told the six-hour series on Netflix there was ‘a war against Meghan to suit other people’s agendas’, with one claiming ‘it’s about hatred, it’s about race’.
In clips for the show, Harry, 38, took aim at royal aides, smirking as he commented: ‘It’s a dirty game.’But royal sources insisted it was ‘absolutely wrong’ to suggest Harry and Meghan had been briefed against and ‘unprecedented steps’ had been taken to support them.
The new trailer gave the clearest signal yet that the California-based pair will reopen old wounds as they seek to justify why they quit as working royals and left Britain.
One royal insider said that it was ‘non-stop on their behalf’ when it came to defending them against negative stories – which began when rumours emerged of the couple’s behaviour towards staff.
Another said the narrative comparing Meghan to Kate was ‘fabricated’ with no difference between how they were treated by the press.
The accuracy of the Netflix series was immediately called into question as it emerged that footage which supposedly showed media harassment of the couple was actually filmed under vastly different circumstances.
It includes a photograph showing Harry and Meghan walking away with their baby son Archie while a cameraman appeared to loom over them from a hidden vantage point.
‘This photograph used by @Netflix and Harry and Meghan to suggest intrusion by the press is a complete travesty. ‘It was taken from a accredited pool at Archbishop Tutu’s residence in Cape Town, Mr Jobson tweeted.
‘Only 3 people were in the accredited position. H & M agreed the position. I was there.’Mr Jobson later said: ‘They say the camera never lies, but it really depends where the image is used and in what context.’
The photograph they’ve used is of a camera lens, overlooking them carrying Archie. That photograph was taken from an accredited pool position and allowed by the Palace.
‘To suggest the newspapers are encroaching on the child is simply a distortion of the truth because nobody else was allowed into that compound. Therefore, you have to question the veracity of their truth in their documentary.’
Seconding Jobson point, ITV royal editor Chris Ship added: ‘Here Robert Jobson makes a valid point. The filming of Archie at Archbishop Tutu’s residence was highly controlled.
‘And the ITN Productions camera filming the Sussexes’ Africa documentary was there with their permission. It was not a media scrum. They spoke to Tom Bradby inside.’
Ingrid Seward, editor in-chief of Majesty magazine, also said: ‘The inaccurate photographs undermine the validity of what Harry and Meghan are trying to say. It makes them the object of ridicule.
‘If you are going to criticise the monarchy you have to make sure everything you say or do is absolutely correct.
‘Footage of cameramen included in the trailer was actually filmed as former glamour model Katie Price arrived for a drink-driving court appearance, while a photograph showing banks of waiting photographers was taken at a Harry Potter premiere with no royal attendance.
In the trailer, footage shows photographers swarming around a car, as Meghan says: ‘I realised they [the Royal Household] are never gonna protect you.’
The trailer then cuts to an image of Meghan wiping her eyes, apparently in tears. But the car footage was filmed outside the home of Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, as he left to start a prison sentence in 2019.
Journalist and pundit Piers Morgan, whose voice from a news report was used in the trailer, said: ‘These two wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped them round their latte-encrusted tiaras.’
