Will they or won't they?
Royal commentators are busy placing their metaphorical bets on whether the Royal Family—specifically King Charles and the Waleses—will respond to allegations made in Netflix' Harry & Meghan.
For one royal editor, they may be forced to put out a statement if the second installment of the Sussex docuseries is as chock-full of bombshells as the trailer makes it look.
"The royals may have been content to keep calm and carry on regardless of what has been said so far," Russell Myers writes for the Mirror.
"But if this final installment goes as far as it appears, they may have no choice but to hit back and risk creating further havoc in an already desperately sad situation."
Royals generally prefer to keep mum on controversies, but the minute-long teaser for this coming Thursday's new episodes sees Harry speak of "institutional gaslighting" and claim, "They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us."
Meghan: "I wasn't being thrown to the wolves, I was being FED to the wolves."Harry: "They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us" A new trailer for the dramatic second half of @Netflix's Harry & Meghan, out Thursday. pic.twitter.com/uls0DaV2ThDecember 12, 2022
And that's just the start of it, so it wouldn't be totally extraordinary if the royal households chose to respond to clarify certain allegations.
Meanwhile, royal expert Katie Nicholl previously told Entertainment Tonight, "I've spoken to senior palace aides who said they are reluctant to comment unless there is anything damaging, untrue or defamatory.
"In this docuseries, they really don't want to be drawn into it for the simple fact that they don't want to give an already much-hyped docuseries even more oxygen or publicity.
"So, I think if they can ride this out without being drawn into it, then that's probably the strategy. I'm told by a senior palace aide, it's a case of keep calm and carry on, and let's not get too distracted by this."
Before the trailer came out, a royal source told the Mirror (in an article also written by Myers), "As far as everyone is concerned it’s business as usual and there is no desire to engage in a tit-for-tat war of words.
"There’s certainly nothing in the first half worth engaging with and there’s nothing new about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex talking in public about their time in the Royal Family."
This narrative isn't entirely true, since a Palace source denied Netflix' claim that they reached out to royals for comment in Volume 1, which may not be much, but isn't total silence, either.
Regardless, the source added, "A dignified silence is the order of the day as the focus is entirely on getting on with the job."
But the incendiary teaser, released Monday, may well have changed all of that.
As ever, all that's left to do is to wait and see.
