Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have left the British royal family for almost two years, but they don’t talk about it. In the trailer for the six-part Netflix documentary, they don’t mince words and talk about their negative experiences with royalty and the media. But according to critics, the couple is too sensationalist and their story is rather one-sided.
‘Harry verklaart de oorlog aan zijn familie’, ‘De koninklijke familie wordt kapotgemaakt’ en ‘Zet de popcorn maar klaar’. Het is slechts een kleine greep uit de krantenkoppen over de documentaire die prins Harry en zijn echtgenote Meghan Markle hebben gemaakt.
Het wordt geen kabbelend verhaal, dat is zeker. Uit de eerste beelden blijkt al dat het koppel openhartig vertelt over hun besluit om het Britse koningshuis te verlaten. Ze zouden nóg loslippiger zijn dan tijdens hun veelbesproken gesprek met Oprah Winfrey.
Begin 2020 doen Harry en Meghan een stap terug als leden van het Britse koningshuis. Ze nemen minder koninklijke taken op zich en verhuizen naar het buitenland. Er zijn dan al langere tijd signalen dat het koppel weinig aansluiting vindt bij de rest van de familie. Harry zou ruzie hebben met zijn broer William en ook Meghan en Kate zouden met elkaar overhoop liggen.
Meghan and Harry back away
In a statement, the couple writes that it is above all Meghan who no longer feels safe within royal circles. The media and the paparazzi would be the worst. “I lost my mother and now I see my wife as well,” says Harry of the constant media attention. The safety of their newborn son Archie also played a part in their decision to step back. Queen Elizabeth says she accepts the decision of her nephew and his wife.
A new message from Harry and Meghan will follow in February 2021. They talked a lot with Elizabeth, after which they decide together that it is no longer possible to do jobs for the royal family. The couple then withdraws completely from the British royal family.
While this decision is in line with expectations, it dominates the front pages of newspapers around the world. How did Harry and Meghan’s decision really come about? Surely there must be more to say? The public doesn’t have to wait long for answers; just a month later it was announced that Meghan and Harry were telling their story on television, in a conversation with good friend Oprah Winfrey.
In that interview Meghan says there was talk within the royal family about how dark the skin of her unborn child would become. She the actress is the first black woman in the royal family and she says she has had to deal with racism a lot. Life within the British royal family was so hard for her that she had suicidal thoughts while pregnant. Although she asked for help, she said she never got it.
“Although memories may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be discussed privately by the family,” the eight most important members of the royal family respond shortly after the broadcast after an alleged crisis meeting.
The documentary receives some criticism
The couple is increasingly distancing themselves from the family, also because they live in the United States. They come to the UK for the funeral of Harry’s grandfather Philip. In retrospect, Harry says he didn’t feel safe during that time. It is no longer available in the UK insured, now that it’s no longer active as real. And the British ministry does not allow the prince and his wife to pay for it themselves.
Harry and his wife also travel to England for his grandmother Elizabeth’s funeral. Sources report that their security this time is provided by the government. This is not an unnecessary luxury, because at the end of November Neil Basu, head of the counter-terrorism unit at the time, said that the couple regularly received death threats. Meghan and Harry could tell more about these threats in their documentary.
The documentary has already been written en masse, but not only positively. There are many criticisms of how the two openly talk about their negative experiences. “A war has been created against Meghan” and “No one knows the whole truth,” Harry says, among other things.
Additionally, there are criticisms that the documentary is misleading. You can hear Harry talking about the extreme media attention in a trailer, while images of dozens of photographers showing off their cameras can be seen. Those images suggest that all those photographers were there for Meghan and Harry. But this turns out to be incorrect; the images were taken during the premiere of a Harry Pottermovie in 2011. At the time, Harry and Meghan hadn’t even met. “You shouldn’t take these images too literally,” says a spokesperson for the couple. However, critics have a feeling that Harry and Meghan are just out of confusion.
Is Carl awake?
There are also criticisms that their story is one-sided. Now out of royal duties, Harry and Meghan are free to talk about their experiences. But their family cannot, at least not as openly as the prince and his wife do.
Crisis consultations are said to have taken place between King Charles and his eldest son William after the trailers appeared. Other sources state that the king does not lose sleep over this.
Either way, the documentary is damaging to the image of British royalty, says royalty connoisseur Richard Fitzwilliams. “You can see it as an open target attack,” he says iNews. “The royal family will probably ignore the documentary and hope it goes wild. It’s not the right way, but there’s nothing else they can do. A reaction from the family only fuels the story more.”