The second part of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary has aired today, completing the six hours of programming in which the couple tell their story. As with last week there is plenty of new behind the scenes footage of personal moments, including from their wedding day, which is covered in episode four. But the final three episodes also contain some fresh allegations against the royal family.
Central claims that Harry and Meghan make are that they were the victims of stories being planted against them by people in Prince William’s office and that the Palace was threatened by how popular the couple was with the public. Harry also makes the damning allegation that he was not consulted ahead of a statement being sent out in his name defending William against accusations of bullying. And he says that he was shouted at by his brother during talks about his future. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace said today that they will not be commenting.
“I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in mine and my brother’s name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family,” the Prince said referring to a statement released in January 2020 in William and Harry’s names denying a story that accused William of having a “bullying attitude.” “I couldn’t believe it, no-one had asked me,” Harry said. “No-one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang M and I told her and she burst into floods of tears. Because within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never wiling to tell the truth to protect us.”
Unlike with the claims above, the couple is not specific about which stories they are referring to when they talk about stories being planted. “There’s leaking but there’s also planting of stories,” Harry said. “So if the comms team want to be able to remove a negative story about their Principal, they will trade and give you something about someone else’s Principal. So the offices end up working against each other. It’s a kind of weird understanding or acceptance that happens.” He continued, “William and I both saw what happened in our dad’s office and we made and agreement that we would never let that happen to our office… To see my brother’s office copy the very same thing that we promised the two of us would never ever do. That was heartbreaking.”
Harry doesn’t entirely lift the lid on what was said in the so-called Sandringham Summit when he met with the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William for talks about the Sussexes’ future in January 2020. But he does say that William was screaming and shouting at him and that Prince Charles was untruthful. “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that just simply weren’t true and my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in,” he said. The Prince also said he thought his family planned it so that Meghan wouldn’t be there.
Much of the couple’s criticism is aimed at the “institution” of the monarchy rather than anyone specific, but it is William who Harry is the most critical of individually. Charles is spared as much of a scathing critique and even referred to at the start of the documentary as “charming” by Meghan when she talks about him walking her down the aisle.
As in episodes one to three, the couple’s friends and commentators are also left to fill in some of the gaps of the story. Meghan’s friend Lucy Fraser said that she thought the couple was “so popular with the public, the internals at the Palace were incredibly threatened by that.” And their former employee James Holt said, “When some in the institution around the family started to see that this new couple could destabilise the power dynamics, whether actively talked about or not, the aim was to put them in a box or make them irrelevant.”
