“Harry & Meghan”, the documentary that reopens the wounds
The first three episodes of the series dedicated to the princely couple are released on Netflix on Thursday and are likely to cause a stir at Buckingham Palace.
Harry and Meghan at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on September 14, 2022 in Westminster.
AFP
Documentary or declaration of war? The British monarchy awaits with apprehension and a touch of weariness the world release on Thursday of the series devoted to Harry and Meghan, the first extracts of which have already reignited tensions between the “Sussex” and the rest of the British royal family.
“Nobody knows the whole story. We know the whole story, ”says Harry, dramatic, in a clip published Monday by Netflix, announcing the release on December 8 of the first three episodes of the soberly titled series “Harry & Meghan”. The other three will be released on December 15.
Criticism against the press, accusations of racism, denunciation of the suffering generated by the “firm”: three months to the day after the death of Elizabeth II, the big-budget series reopens the wounds of discord between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family, which Harry and Meghan left in 2020, in particular due to harassment from the British tabloids.
The marriage in 2018 between the youngest son of King Charles III and the Métis American actress had however been experienced as a breath of fresh air for an aging monarchy. “And then everything changed,” the couple describe in the trailer.
Harry underlines the “hierarchy in the family”, a lawyer close to the couple, Jenny Afia denounces “a war against Meghan, to meet the agendas of other people”. “It’s about hate, it’s about race,” insists a friend.
Harry, 38, denounces “leaks” and stories in the press, and deplores “the pain and suffering of women who marry within the institution” while images scroll by of his mother Diana, killed in a car accident in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi. “I was terrified, I didn’t want history to repeat itself,” he adds.
Contacted by AFP, Buckingham did not comment but according to sources at the palace quoted this weekend by the tabloid The Daily Mail, Charles and Queen Consort Camilla are “a little tired” of these incessant attacks. The documentary’s revelations could ‘be worse than the Royals expect’. “It’s going to be explosive,” a source at Netflix told The Mirror newspaper.
Now settled in California, Harry and Meghan had already given a shock interview on American television last year, accusing a member of the royal family of racism who would have questioned their son Archie’s skin color before birth. The royal family is “absolutely not racist”, had had to defend Prince William, now heir to the Crown.
Since then, the break has been consummated between the two brothers and their wives. Those once nicknamed “the fantastic four” made an effort after the death of Elizabeth II: they gathered together in public in Windsor, but without speaking to each other.
The very fragile hope of a reconciliation was showered by the first trailer for the series released last week, in the middle of a visit to the United States by William and Kate, a trip also tarnished by a racist controversy in Buckingham.
New Kardashians?
In this very neat clip, black and white photos of Harry and Meghan follow one another to dramatic music. A single shot shows William and Kate with particularly hostile faces, just after an image of Meghan visibly crying.
“Sabotage”, “Declaration of War”, “Harry, why do you hate your family so much?” headlined the British tabloids, which see William and Kate as the perfect couple, with a sense of irreproachable duty, when Harry and Meghan are compared to the Kardashians who capitalize on the great unpacking of their personal lives.
Since leaving the royal family, Harry and Meghan have signed lucrative contracts – estimated at more than 100 million dollars – with Netflix and Spotify. Harry is also due to release his memoir titled “The Substitute” in January.
Denouncing the couple’s “obsessive self-pity” and their “manifest contempt” for the royal family, the newspaper The Sun believes that they should be deprived of all their honorary titles. They are the least popular royals in the UK after Prince Andrew while William and Kate have 81% and 75% support respectively, according to a recent YouGov poll.
AFP
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