Prince Harry, Meghan Markle’s latest ‘attention-seeking’ series ‘likely to bomb’

The new Netflix series from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry has been branded a “giant bomb” for the streaming giant.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new Netflix docuseries has been described as yet another “desperate” attempt to seek attention and be in the spotlight, a royal expert has claimed.

Just three weeks after the debut of their own controversial docuseries premiered on the streaming giant, the couple are now fronting, Live to Lead, a seven-part series featuring interviews with different high-profile world leaders and cultural icons, including New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and climate activist, Greta Thunberg.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry front a new Netflix docuseries, Live to Lead. Picture: Netflix

The timing has raised eyebrows from royal expert, Eric Schiffer, who branded the Sussexes’ tactic a “smug con job”.

“Harry and Meghan are cleverly honouring great leaders to align their brands,” he told the Daily Star.

“The master plan is to gain the glow of great cultural leaders and benefit from the position they hold in the minds and hearts of the people.

“But many will see this strategy by Harry and Meghan as a smug con job, powered by attention-seeking desperation for their ultimate desire to be saluted as heroes under the guise of honouring great leaders.

“This is likely to be a giant bomb for Netflix.”

Meghan Markle pays tribute to New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern in the new Netflix docuseries, Live to Lead. Picture: Netflix

The seven-part series, which was released on New Year’s Eve, has been called “a torrent of motivational gloop” by the Telegraph in the UK.

Forbes asked whether audiences would “want to look at Jacinda Ardern, or Greta Thunberg, or Justice Ginsburg through Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s editorial (production) lens. “Bluntly put, the metric is whether Harry and Meghan can stop being Harry and Meghan long enough to tell us a good story, so that we keep coming back for more.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex greet Jacinda Ardern during their 2018 visit to New Zealand. Picture: AAP Image/David Rowland

Following on from their internet-breaking reality drama, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s latest series as part of their megabucks Netflix deal consists of interviews and profiles with “people who have made brave choices”.

Each episode begins with an introduction from the Sussexes, and is dedicated to Nelson Mandela and featuring those who have “followed in his footsteps” by “caring for others and working for a better and more equal world”.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is featured in Live to Lead, and is praised by the Duke of Sussex. Picture: AFP

Along with Ms Ardern and Ms Thunberg, those featured in the series are Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the late US Supreme Court justice; feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem; Bryan Stevenson, the US lawyer who challenges racial discrimination in the US justice system; Siya Kolisi, captain of the Springboks; and Albie Sachs, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner.

In the series, Ms Markle pays tribute to Ms Ardern. “The legacy that New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is building stems from a belief in never losing her capacity for empathy,” Ms Markle says.

Ms Ardern recently stated that she had no idea the couple were fronting the series when she was interviewed for it prior to the pandemic.

Prince Harry introduces the episode centred on Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate change activist, saying: “In speaking for a new generation, her brave campaigning is both an inspiration and a stark reminder that everything we do matters.”

Originally published as Prince Harry, Meghan Markle’s latest ‘attention-seeking’ series ‘likely to bomb’