Within the primary minute of episode considered one of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix collection, a grim-faced Duke of Sussex pops up on display in a video diary, with the phrases “Windsor Suite, London Heathrow Airport, 2020” under him.
“Hi, so we’re here, on Wednesday the something of March, um, we’ve just finished our two weeks, our final push, our last stint of royal engagements. It’s really hard to look back on it now and go, what on earth happened? Like, how did we end up here?” he says.
“ … No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth. The institution knows the full truth. And the media knows the full truth, because they’ve been in on it.”
At apparently across the identical time, throughout the ocean and in an expensive property on Canada’s Vancouver Island, a makeup-free Meghan information related footage.
“H is in London, and I’m here. I don’t even know where to begin. I just really want to get to the other side of all of this … They are destroying us,” she says with tears in her eyes.
It’s uncooked, and highly effective, and a never-before-seen perception into Harry and Meghan’s private ideas for the time being of impression, when the world was reeling from news of their resignation from the Royal Family.
Given that their rumoured $183 million greenback Netflix deal is all about telling their story, it’s extraordinarily lucky that this footage exists of the literal day that Harry left his homeland.
But … isn’t {that a} bit odd?
By all accounts, their very own included, each Harry and Meghan had been emotionally bruised and battered by the point they lastly escaped to Canada, the place they stayed earlier than transferring completely to the US. Self-preservation and therapeutic had been on their minds, as they waded by way of the deluge of unhealthy publicity to seek out sanctuary and peace on the opposite facet.
They have stated publicly that they by no means supposed for his or her lives to prove this manner, that they’d had each intention of working inside the Royal Family earlier than issues turned untenable.
It was nearly a full 12 months after they left earlier than reviews of their mega Netflix deal even started circulating.
Yet from the very begin, they’d been compiling footage – the very kind that might be wanted for precisely the present they’ve produced.
Perhaps pre-empting this very statement, Harry tells the interviewer that “a friend” had prompt they “document” themselves “through this period of time”.
“With all of the misinformation that was going on out there, especially about us and our departure, it seemed like a really sensible idea,” he stated.
But this isn’t proof being compiled for a court docket of legislation. We’re speaking about emotional video diaries with no particular info or figures, simply footage that gives the sort of color that might be wanted for, say … a broadcast deal.
Harry and Meghan have copped loads of flak over their choice to give up the Royal Family with a view to carve out new lives for themselves within the US. After being financially supported by the establishment (and his father), an enormous a part of that’s, in fact, discovering methods to earn a dwelling – and that $183 million Netflix cheque ought to cowl some payments.
But pretty or not, the problem many appear to have with the couple is their relaxed perspective towards the reality. As the Palace so politely put it final 12 months: “Recollections may vary.”
A fantastic instance is the numerous disputed revelations of their bombshell Oprah Winfrey tell-all, together with Meghan’s declare they had been privately married earlier than their 2018 royal marriage ceremony (which was rapidly dispelled) and that she’d had her passport taken from her (photos of her on quite a few worldwide jaunts simply contradicted this).
These small however vital particulars have added up and seen the Sussex’s credibility erode through the years.
And now, as soon as extra, query marks have been raised over the reality they’re telling us, and the fact of the scenario.
They’ve provided a fairly shocking stage of preparedness for a Netflix deal which, by their very own accounts, solely crossed their minds properly after they give up royal duties.
There’s no crime in them promoting entry to their lives to the very best bidder – loads of others have profited off them, so why not? – nevertheless it appears solely truthful that in the event that they’re going to inform their “truth”, they not simply spotlight the elements they need us to listen to.
Originally revealed as Telling Netflix footage casts doubt over Harry and Meghan declare
