LONDON – Prince Harry and his wife Meghan vent their grievances about Britain’s monarchy in the second half of their Netflix documentary series, released Thursday. In it, Harry describes how his older brother yelled at him during a meeting, and Meghan speaks of wanting to end her life as she struggled to cope with toxic press coverage.
The couple have detailed their experiences that led to their decision to step down from royal duties and make a fresh start in the United States in the six-part series Harry & Meghan. The first three installmentspublished last week focused on UK media coverage of the couple and the way they have been affected by racism.
In the last three episodes, Harry, 38, opens up about the growing rift between himself and Prince William, who he said attacked him during a royal summit at Sandringham Castle in January 2020 to discuss Harry and Meghan’s plan when senior royals to resign and move away.
“It was terrifying to see my brother yelling and yelling at me and my dad saying things that just weren’t true and my grandmother sitting still and kind of taking it all in,” Harry said.
Elsewhere in the series, Meghan, 41, says she considered killing herself before she and Harry decided to move to America. “It was like, ‘All of this will stop if I’m not here,'” she said. “And that was the scariest part because it was so clear to think about.”
Harry added that he believes the publication of a letter Meghan wrote to her estranged father Thomas Markle in the Mail on Sunday contributed to her miscarriage. Meghan later sued the Mail’s publisher and won.
“I think my wife miscarried because of what the Mail did,” Harry said. What I saw was that this miscarriage was caused by what they were trying to do to her.”
Harry stressed it was his decision to leave the UK, not Meghan’s. “I said, ‘We have to get out of here,'” he said.
Palace officials have not commented on the series.
The production is Harry and Meghan’s latest attempt at telling their own story after the couple retired from royal life in early 2020 and moved to the affluent Southern California enclave of Montecito. Lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify have helped fund her life on an estate overlooking the Pacific.
The Netflix series has come out at a pivotal moment for the British monarchy. King Charles III, Harry’s father, is trying to show that the institution remains relevant following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whose personal popularity dampened criticism of the Crown throughout her 70-year reign.
Harry’s 2018 marriage to former Meghan Markle, a multiracial American actress, was once seen as a public relations coup for the royal family, boosting the monarchy’s efforts to move into the 21st century by making it more representative of a multicultural nation became.
But the fairytale, which was punctuated with a horse-drawn carriage ride and a lavish wedding at Windsor Castle, soon unraveled amid relentless media attention, including claims that Meghan was self-centered and bullied her staff.
A look at some other allegations Harry and Meghan are making in the second half of their series:
ON THE ROYAL PRESS MACHINE:
Harry described the royal press operations as a “dirty game” and said there were “leaks” and “stories planting” and that the palace’s “communications team” would try to deflect negative coverage of a king by telling a story about published another king.
He speaks of being marginalized, citing the example of a joint statement palace officials issued on his and William’s behalf to “squash” a story that William had been bullying the family couple. He said it was issued without his consent.
“I could not believe it. No one had asked my permission to put my name under such a statement,” Harry said. “They happily lied to protect my brother, and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”
“I mean, the saddest thing about it was this wedge that created between me and my brother that now he’s siding with the institution,” he added.
Meghan’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, claimed on the show that she saw evidence of “negative briefings from the palace” against the couple “to suit other people’s agendas”. She didn’t elaborate on the evidence.
FOR NOT SEEING THE QUEEN:
The couple said they planned to see Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, during a visit to the UK in early 2020, but palace officials blocked it.
Meghan said Harry received an urgent message saying: “You are not allowed to visit Her Majesty.” Harry said he called the Queen, who told him: “I didn’t know I was busy. I’ve now been told I’ll be busy all week.”
“In this case, a family and a family business are in direct conflict because they are preventing you from seeing the Queen, but what they are really doing is preventing a grandson from seeing his grandmother,” Meghan said documentary filmmakers.
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