Royal Family Says It Was Not Approached for Comment Regarding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Docuseries—Despite Disclaimer at the Beginning of the Show
Netflix claims otherwise. Who do you believe?
In the opening moments of Harry & Meghan—Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s newly released six-part docuseries on Netflix—a title card reads “Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within the series.”
But, according to a Palace source, members of the royal family were not approached for comment at all regarding the docuseries.
The source tells People “that neither members of the family nor Buckingham Palace or Prince William’s office at Kensington Palace were approached for comment on the content of the series”—likely because, as Marie Claire has reported in the past, no one from the royal family (just like the rest of us) had any idea what was in the series prior to the release of its first three parts on Thursday (the final three parts will debut this upcoming Thursday, December 15). “The Palace will also not be providing any comment on the episodes,” People continues.
The source adds “Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace did receive an email claiming to be from a third-party production company through an unknown organization’s email address. When they contacted Archewell [Harry and Meghan’s company] and Netflix to verify the source, they received no response.” The source continues “the substance of the email did not address the entire series.”
Netflix tells the outlet, however, “communications offices for King Charles and Prince William were contacted in advance and given the right to reply to claims within the series.”
In addition to the title card reading “Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within the series,” it also reiterated that all interviews were completed by August 2022, the month before Queen Elizabeth died on September 8.
Page Six reports that Charles intends to stay out of the drama surrounding Harry & Meghan, with royal expert Tom Bower telling the outlet that the family is “shocked by it all” and “the question is only—this is really a story in the air—is whether they’re going to do an interview to rebut the claims, or whether they’re going to strip them [Harry and Meghan] of the titles.”
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Bower continues “the whole problem is that Charles hates confrontation, and someone who had dinner with him earlier this week told me he wants to stay out of it. But I think that it’ll be impossible for him to stay out of it.”
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.