Friends of Prince William, Kate Middleton ‘sickened’ by Prince Harry, Meghan Markle trailer
Friends of Prince William and Kate Middleton are reportedly “appalled” by how they’ve been portrayed in the trailer for the Sussexes’ docuseries, and why the royal family is “nervous”.
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Friends of Prince William and Kate Middleton are reportedly “sickened” by the way the couple have been portrayed in the trailer for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s controversial docuseries, a royal expert has revealed.
British royal correspondent Richard Eden said that he was “appalled” by the trailer, which he said was “everything we feared”.
Netflix dropped the “official teaser” to Harry & Meghan late this week, which featured never-before-seen pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as a black and white picture of a grim-faced Prince and Princess of Wales taken during the Commonwealth Day Ceremony at Westminster in 2020 when tensions between the family played out publicly.
“I’ve heard from friends of Prince William and Catherine and they’ve been frankly sickened by what’s appeared in this video,” Mr Eden said.
“The use of an image of William and Catherine and my goodness, the way it’s presented, you see Meghan with her head in her hands looking distraught and then it pans immediately to a stony-faced image of Catherine.”
“Friends pointed out that [Meghan and Harry] seem to have gone to great lengths to find the one unflattering image of Catherine for this trailer,” Mr Eden said.
“I mean, come on, Meghan is meant to have given up acting but she seems to be back acting again for this reality show. This could be an Oscar-winning performance.”
Mr Eden said that the timing of the trailer’s release could “hardly be worse”, given the Wales’ are currently in the US on a tour, a tour that has been overshadowed by the release of the clip.
“It’s a deliberate attempt to upstage [Prince William and Middleton] and the use of their images in it really rams that point home. This documentary series is meant to be about Harry and Meghan but they’re featuring William and Catherine,” Mr Eden said.
“It really is appalling. I think the royal family will be waiting nervously to see what's in it. They’re clearly hinting at controversy and scandal.”
NETFLIX DROPS TRAILER
Netflix dropped the trailer to Harry & Meghan, the hotly anticipated docuseries that will give the world a look into the private life of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The six-part series is billed as a behind-the-scenes look at the couple’s early days from when they tried to keep their burgeoning relationship a secret to later becoming the most famous couple in the world.
It’s packed with emotional moments and features a number of the couples’ private photos including one of Markle crying with her head in her hand.
But the release of the trailer has been “deliberately designed” to “take away” from Prince William and Catherine’s landmark US tour, a royal expert has claimed.
Calling the Sussexes “unpredictable”, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said that the trailer’s release was “obviously timed to take away from the Wales’ trip to Boston”, adding that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “like to control their narrative”.
“The timing draws attention away from William and Catherine’s visit to Boston, which is highly prestigious,” he said.
“William is launching the Earthshot Prize and meeting [Joe] Biden, which is very, very prestigious.”
Piers Morgan also weighed in on the trailer, labelling the docuseries as “fake” and wanted to “puke” watching it.
“Imagine bleating constantly about privacy, including repeatedly suing news organisations for intrusion, and then making a kiss-and-tell reality show about your private lives?,” he said.
“Or preaching endlessly about compassion, yet once again trashing your family on global television?.”
Meanwhile, the Sussexes’ friend and biographer Omid Scobie further stoked the fire by gleefully tweeting: “If tomorrow is Prince William’s Super Bowl, then here’s your Halftime Show …”.
The trailer give a glimpse at the couple’s private photos and brief footage of the Sussex’s new life in California.
“No one sees what’s happening behind closed doors,” Prince Harry says in the trailer.
“When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?” Markle adds.
The promo dropped one day after the Wales’ arrival in the US during which they attended a Celtics basketball game, amid a racism storm at Buckingham Palace.
Prince Harry and Markle made allegations of racism within the royal family in their bombshell interview with Oprah in March 2021, prompting Prince William to hit out, saying: “We are very much not a racist family.”
According to the New York Post, Netflix had remained tight-lipped on the Liz Garbus-directed project — despite Markle openly talking about it.
The series will premiere globally on December 8.
“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,” Markle told Variety in October, of working with Garbus, an Oscar-nominated director.
Markle also previously said that the series will focus on her relationship with Prince Harry, calling it “the piece of my life I haven’t been able to share, that people haven’t been able to see … our love story”.
The series has been at the centre of much media speculation ever since the royals signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix and started filming last year. They first worked with another Oscar nominee, director Garrett Bradley, before hiring Garbus.
The couple — who left the UK for California in early 2020 — were then “having second thoughts” on the project following the Queen’s death in September, a source told the New York Post.
“Harry and Meghan are panicked about trying to tone down even the most basic language.”
Many know that, since stepping down from their royal duties, the couple has been condemned relentlessly, especially after sitting down with Oprah Winfrey in a tell-all interview back in March 2021.
In it, Markle detailed how she had been hounded by British media to the point where she contemplated suicide while pregnant with her son, Archie.
“I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” she told Winfrey, adding that she “just didn’t see a solution” to the barrage of negative reports about her.
“I would sit up at night, and I was just like, ‘I don’t understand how all of this is being churned out,’” she said.
Markle also talked about how she was rebuffed when she asked a senior royal member — who remained unnamed — for help.
During the interview, the couple shockingly revealed that members of the royal family had questioned the colour of Archie’s skin when he was born.
The trailer’s release comes as Prince Harry’s older brother, Prince William, and sister-in-law, Catherine embarked on their three-day visit to Boston to present the Earthshot Prize.
The future king was questioned about racist comments made at Buckingham Palace this week during his trip to Boston.
“I was really disappointed to hear about the guest’s experience,” he said.
“Racism has no place in our society. Those comments were unacceptable and it’s right the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect”.
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