Meghan Markle Says Her Forthcoming Netflix Docuseries Is Not How She, Prince Harry “Would Have Told It”
Despite much buzz about it, no one has actually confirmed the docuseries exists—until now.
Of the many revelations dropped during Meghan Markle’s recent interview with Variety, one that stood out: she doesn’t seem pleased with the much buzzed about docuseries surrounding her life with Prince Harry and their children.
In the cover story, Meghan not only confirmed the existence of the docuseries—which, according to Page Six, Netflix itself has been cagey about acknowledging, as the streaming giant said “there’s never been any documentary from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed”—but also hinted that she wished the docuseries’ director, Liz Garbus, had taken a different approach.
“It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story—a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired—even if it means it may not be told the way we would have told it,” Meghan told Variety. “But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.”
It’s priming the pump, potentially, for controversy that could swirl around the docuseries, which was initially reported to be due by December but has also been said to have undergone major edits and revisions since the Queen’s death in September, with reports circulating it could be pushed back to 2023 or not happen at all. But Meghan’s interview makes it seem as though it is going forward, even though, as Page Six reports, there seems to be ample parts of the docuseries that contradict what Harry said in his forthcoming memoir, which is also allegedly due by the end of the year. These inconsistencies confused Netflix executives and the docuseries’ filmmakers, and “a lot in the show contradicted what Harry has written, so that was an issue,” a senior Netflix source told Page Six. “Then Harry and Meghan made significant requests [to filmmakers] to walk back content they themselves have provided, for their own project.”
The outlet reports that “the Sussexes are believed to have dished on camera about the royal family, including Prince William and Kate Middleton, as well as King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, and reportedly wanted to edit some of it out.”
The docuseries’ release date was originally slated for December, about a month after the sure-to-be controversial fifth season of The Crown drops November 9. The release date for the show remains ambiguous. “They’re rattled at Netflix, and they blinked first and decided to postpone the documentary,” a source told Deadline, per Page Six.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a multi-year, multimillion dollar deal with the streaming giant in 2020. So far, nothing has been released from the partnership, though another docuseries—this one about Harry’s Invictus Games, called Heart of Invictus—is in production. A Meghan-backed project, an animated children’s series called Pearl, was cancelled last year.
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You can read the full Variety interview here.
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.