Harry and Meghan should dump Netflix over The Crown

Prince Harry and Meghan need to back out of their Netflix deal in protest against The Crown because it comes down to money or reputation, Duncan Lay writes.

Prince Harry and Meghan face a simple choice. They need to either dump their Netflix deal in protest at the way The Crown has portrayed his parents — or get bum implants and join the Kardashians.

That’s what it comes down to. Money or reputation. For a member of the Royal Family, you would have thought that was an easy question.

Well, at least until Prince Andrew decided holidaying with a convicted paedophile sounded like jolly good fun.

But certainly Queen Elizabeth would never have trashed her family name for a bag of gold.

So why is Harry happy to do so?

Netflix series The Crown hasn’t been particularly kind to the royals over its first three seasons. But season four has been nasty.

Season 4 of The Crown has brought out some controversy. Picture: Netflix

This season of The Crown has thrown their reputation down the toilet.

Apart from making Diana (Emma Corrin) look mentally unstable, it has Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) as a pantomime villain.

Given all that has been done over the decades to preserve and rehabilitate Diana’s reputation, this has to be upsetting to William and Harry.

William has been using the old “friends of the Prince say” trick to get it out there that he’s pissed off with the way his parents are being hammered.

Harry? Well, we’ve heard nothing. Instead, he and Meghan are quietly trousering millions from Netflix in a deal to make “inspiring” programming for the streaming giant.

Normally those two love a good video message. During the American election you couldn’t get them to shut up. But they have gone very quiet on this issue.

Harry’s biographer Angela Levin has been giving interviews this week where she has repeated claims Harry told her he had done a deal with Netflix where The Crown would finish before William and Harry’s story would be told.

Meghan and Harry to back out of their deal with Netflix over The Crown, Duncan Lay writes. Picture: Michele Spatari/AFP

But that chat was a few years ago, before the juicy “Megxit” storyline.

With The Crown the top Netflix show in Australia, the temptation to do a few more seasons must be getting very strong.

So how will Harry feel when, in a few years’ time, someone watches the episode where he and Meghan break from the family – and then the end credits suggest you go and watch their new documentary afterwards?

It will seem as if they have given their blessing and, no doubt, some juicy information to the show.

Or, worse, The Crown finishes before Megxit and word leaks out there was a deal with Harry where he inserted a clause to save himself and Meghan – but was happy to throw his dead mother under the bus?

At the moment, the impression I have is that Meghan and Harry are looking to cash-in on their name. And I’m not exactly alone there.

Most of us have no choice and have to do things for money. The royals are supposed to be different.

So, if they broke their Netflix deal in a powerful video message that stood up for his family and his beloved mother’s memory, they would do more for their reputation than a thousand well-meaning documentaries on Netflix.

But I fear it’s more likely Meghan will get her buttocks pumped full of fat and change her son’s name to Karchie.

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Originally published as Harry and Meghan should dump Netflix over The Crown