Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle swapped the U.K. and royal life for California and traditional celebrity, they have appeared all set to speak freely about their time as senior royals.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave *that* bombshell Oprah interview (which I have no doubt we'll be talking about for decades to come, see Princess Diana's Panorama interview for reference); he spoke his mind on docuseries The Me You Can't See; she revealed damning tidbits on her podcast and in her interview with The Cut.
But the balance has shifted since the Queen's sad passing on Sept. 8. For months, royal watchers have been anticipating the release of a) Prince Harry's memoir and b) their joint Netflix docuseries about their life behind the scenes. Both media projects were expected to be released in the latter months of 2022, but according to sources, the Sussexes are stalling.
Per Page Six, Harry's memoir has been pushed back to 2023, and the Netflix show could suffer the same fate. Apparently, the Sussexes want to make edits to the show before it airs, most notably to remove or modify tidbits relating to King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William, and Princess Kate.
"A lot of conversations are happening," a Hollywood source told the outlet. "I hear that Harry and Meghan want the series to be held until next year, they want to stall."
They added, "I wonder if the show could even be dead in the water at this point, do Harry and Meghan just want to shelve this thing?"
Honestly, I've been asking myself the same question for a while now.
"Netflix has been keen to have the show ready to stream for December," a Netflix insider told Page Six. "There’s a lot of pressure on [Netflix CEO] Ted Sarandos, who has the relationship with Harry and Meghan, to get this show finished."
There are multiple possible explanations for why the royal couple is looking to avoid ruffling feathers with these projects. The first, simplest, is that they simply want to be respectful of the late Queen and her surviving family members, especially Charles as he begins his reign, and William—who has seemingly been the most hurt by Harry's departure.
I'm sure this is part of it, but the more cynical among us can't help but point out that, as the rumor mill has it, Charles is holding out on whether to let Archie and Lilibet use their "prince" and "princess" titles until after the book and show are released, presumably so he knows how damaging they might be to the Royal Family.
In what can only be interpreted as a mark of disapproval, he and his advisors recently moved the Sussexes down on the Royal Family website, where they are now just above the disgraced Prince Andrew, down from just below Princess Anne.
So if the Sussexes want the titles for their children—and if they want to repair their relationship with their royal relatives—they certainly need to be careful what they reveal.
