This Is Why the Original Director of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix Docuseries Quit the Project

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published 19 November 2022

Marie Claire reported yesterday that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s docuseries on Netflix—their first offering with the streaming giant after signing a multi-million-dollar deal to produce content back in 2020—will drop next month. (!) The docuseries is directed by Liz Garbus, who has also directed 2012’s Love, Marilyn (about the late actress’ writings), 2015’s What Happened, Miss Simone? about the iconic singer, and 2020’s Ariana Grande concert film Excuse Me, I Love You. But Garbus wasn’t the docuseries’ original director—that was Garrett Bradley. As OK reports, “not long into the process, trouble started brewing.”

“Garrett wanted Harry and Meghan to film at home, and they were not comfortable doing that,” a source says. “There were a few sticky moments between them, and Garrett left the project. Harry and Meghan’s own production company captured as much footage as they could before Liz Garbus was hired.”

That is why, the outlet reports, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been spotted with two different film crews over the past several months. The Sun reports that the project cost 88 million pounds (!) to film, and, even though Bradley was replaced by Garbus, according to Meghan’s own words—speaking to Variety in a recent interview—there are creative differences there, as well.

“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 the way we would have told it,” Meghan said. “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.”

After will-they-or-won’t-they rumors plagued the docuseries' release, it seems as though Netflix is all systems go to release the project next month, with a source saying “Netflix has been keen to have the show ready to stream for December. There’s a lot of pressure on [Netflix CEO] Ted Sarandos, who has the relationship with Harry and Meghan, to get this show finished.”

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.