“Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance”, the much-anticipated Netflix docuseries about Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex finally came out on Thursday at 8 am UK (12 PM MUT) time with the first three episodes showing interviews revealing little details about the couple’s personal and Royal life and even videos showing scenes from their life seen never before.
The six-part docuseries, directed by Liz Garbus, is the royal couple’s first association with Netflix which is believed to be costed millions. Even before the series was released on Thursday, it was a much talked about series on the streaming platform, and its release prompted discussions on social media and all over the news. It ranked top on Twitter’s trending section.
The episodes
The initial episodes showed their childhood years and starting days of their courtship. The episodes also cover the former Meghan Markle’s first encounter with British society, where she encountered both adoring crowds and brutal, frequently racist, tabloid coverage.
Before the royal docuseries of Netflix came out, the British media went insane with hypothesizing what the documentary might contain and if the repercussions would be damaging for the British Royal Family, especially Harry’s elder brother Prince William and their father, King Charles III.
The episodes laid bare almost every crucial details that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle experienced as a couple or singularly. The episodes also illuminated some parts of the royal family. The released episodes are from Volume 1 which is co-produced by the royal couple’s own production company, Archewell Productions while Volume II will be out on December 15. Here is all that the series divulged from the initial episodes.
The revelations
The series moves along a semi-chronological order with the first two episodes talking about their courtship and the third episode showcasing their engagement and royal wedding preparations. They talked about the PR crisis and the rift between Markle with her father.
The first episode opens with a title reading: “This is a first-hand account of Harry and Meghan’s story, told with never before seen personal archive.” “Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within this series.” Another title read: “All interviews were completed by August 2022.”
Harry says in the series that the male members of the family
Meghan’s race became an “issue”
In the series, Harry says that male family members were unconcerned regarding too much invasion of media into his and Meghan’s lives as their spouses had suffered the same. Harry said, “Some of the members of the family were like, ‘But 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?’ And I said the difference here is the race element.”
The race element has always disturbed both Meghan and Harry alike. Markle opened up about the topic by recalling a disturbing incident at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, that was a time before she was a royal, where she witnessed racial comments on her mother.
Meghan Markle in her interview said she was never treated like a Black woman while living in the United States, but when she moved to the UK, her race was made into an “issue.” Describing her experience, she said, “I’d never in my life heard someone say the ‘n-word. It’s very different to be a minority but not be treated as a minority right off the bat.”
Markle is biracial whose mother is a black woman and father a white man.
“Obviously now people are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK, but before that, most people didn’t treat me like a ‘Black woman,” she continued.
The series does not feature interviews with the members of the royal family but people close to the royal couple, including friends, family, staff, former colleagues, and others have made revelations in the interview.
Meghan and Harry’s relationship-How it started
The docuseries offers a never-before-seen look at both royal life and the couple’s relationship, with footage of Harry popping the question to Meghan Markle in the Kensington Palace gardens, photos of the couple’s first trip together taken just months after they began dating, footage of the couple’s son Archie at home in Montecito, and video diaries from the period when they publicly announced they were leaving the royal family to live in the U.K.
Both Harry and Meghan reveal that it was her acting career that became one of the “biggest problems” for the royals. She was shooting for the legal drama series, ‘Suits’ when the two met and Harry’s family became known of Meghan. She said, “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funny enough. There was a big idea of what that looks like from the U.K. standpoint, Hollywood, and it was just very easy for them to typecast that.” Harry explains that his family had such attitude like, “Oh, she’s an American actress, [the relationship] won’t last.”
The two met on social media. For their first date, the duo decided to meet at Soho House outpost 76 Dean Street in London. As he was half an hour late because of the traffic he was panicking. He revealed that it didn’t give a good impression of him to Meghan. He said, “I was panicking, I was freaking out, I was like sweating.”
Before they met, Meghan clarified that he had an “extensive list” of what Harry wanted in a partner. But he did not share the list when director Liz Garbus asks about it and says, gesturing towards his wife,“This is the list.” “Good answer!” Meghan replies.
Harry recalls her mother, Lady Diana
While discussing his upbringing, Harry highlights how what effect his mother had on him, how her death affected him, and what he faced throughout his childhood with the intervening media. Harry replies, “I just suppose it was gradual,” when Garbus asks whether there was ever a specific moment when he understood his family was unique.
Opening up about his mother and the time spent with her, Harry said, “My childhood I remember was filled with laughter, filled with happiness, and filled with adventure. I don’t have many early memories of my mum.” Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris when Harry had just turned 12. Talking intimately about his emotions, he said, “It was almost like internally I sort of blocked them out. But I always remember her laugh, her cheeky laugh. Her always saying to me, ‘You can get in trouble just don’t get caught.’”
He recalls that he remembers seeing “drama, stress, and also tears” on his mother’s face. He said, “When my mum died we had two hats to wear,” he says, referring to himself and his older brother Prince William. “One was two grieving sons wanting to cry, grieve, and process that grief because of losing our mum. And two was the royal hat, get out there, meet people, shake their hands.”
