Harry & Meghan reveal secret details of early dating life
In his new Netflix documentary, Prince Harry sledges male royal family members for choosing wives because they 'fit the mould', while he claims he married for love.
Volume one reveals secrets.
The first volume of the highly-anticipated US$100m Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary has dropped, revealing explosive accusations of racism, secret details of the pair's early dating life and countless subtle insults thrown at members of the Royal Family.
Episode one:
- Secret details of Harry and Meghan's early dating life
- Harry blasts media for intrusions in the wake of Diana's death
- Harry likens Meghan to Diana, wishing to 'protect' her from the media
Episode two:
- Meghan’s mum Doria is ‘ready to have her voice heard’
- Harry says Meghan deserves paparazzi protection because of race
- Meghan wore ripped jeans and bare feet to meet Will and Kate
- Harry and Meghan wore penguin suits to onesie-themed engagement party
Episode three:
- Harry 'ashamed' of his own racist history
- Going to war 'twice' gave Harry the 'lived experience' other Royal Family members wouldn't have had
- Meghan 'no longer has a father'
'I am my mother's son'
Harry drew rich comparisons between his late mother Diana and his wife Meghan to explain the reasons for his marriage and eventual departure from the Royals.
Speaking in a piece-to-camera spliced with still images of Meghan, Harry said his decision to marry her was “from the heart”, unlike other marriages within the institution.
“I think for so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mould as opposed to somebody who you perhaps are destined to be with,” he said.
“The difference between making decisions with your head or your heart. And my mum made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. And I am my mother’s son.”
Diana's Panorama interview
The controversial Panorama interview of Princess Diana is aired in the first episode of the US$100m Netflix docu-series, despite Prince William denouncing the clip and saying it should “never be aired again.”
Prince William said the interview held “no legitimacy” after it was revealed BBC journalist Martin Bashir had tricked Diana into speaking with him by using forged documents to claim the royal family was monitoring her. But the controversial clip featured in the first half of episode one, with Harry commentating: “I think we all know she was deceived into giving that interview, but at the same time she spoke the truth of her experience.”
It is unclear whether Harry gave permission for the clip to be used.
“My mum was harassed throughout her life with my dad. But once they separated the harassment went to new levels,” Harry said. “The moment she divorced, the moment she left the institution, then she was by herself… She was completely exposed to this.”
READ MORE: The Queen's private thoughts on Megxit
Harry grieves Diana's death
Harry said when his mum died in 1997 he had "two hats to wear" - the role of a grieving son, and the role of a prince supporting distraught British citizens.
"The UK literally swept me and William up as their children. The expectation to see us out and about was really hard on us," he said.
Following Diana's death, paparazzi swarmed to the elite Eton school to harass the young prince in between classes, Harry claimed. Tabloid headlines detailed drug and sex scandals, which Harry said featured "a lot of typical exaggeration and rehashing".
"It was too much," he said. “Everything that was happening in the UK was so intense. I was trying to balance the whole experience of being a young boy trying to deal with the loss of his mum without much support or guidance. It didn’t seem right, it didn’t seem fair.”
The first date
The pair were introduced by a mutual friend after Harry took a liking to Meghan after spotting her in his Instagram feed. Their first date at Soho House 76 Dean Street in London.
Harry was late, due to traffic and was “panicking, freaking out,” he said in a piece-to-camera, with a beaming Meghan by his side.
“He was just so fun. So refreshingly fun,” Meghan said. “That was the thing, we were childlike together.”
Harry 'protects' Meghan from the Royal Family
When Harry met Meghan, he said he was reminded of the “pain and suffering” endured by women who marry into the royal family, and wanted to protect her from being harassed by keeping their relationship a secret for as long as possible.
“I remember thinking ‘How will I ever find someone who is willing and capable to withstand all the baggage of being with me’,” he said.
“Every relationship I had, within a matter of weeks or months, was splattered all over the newspapers, and that person’s family was harassed.
“So when I got to meet M, I was terrified of her being driven away by the media. The same media that had driven so many people away from me.”
“I knew the only way this could possibly work was by keeping it quiet for as long as possible.”
READ MORE: Prince Harry unable to answer citizenship questions
Meghan 'deserved special protection because of race'
Meghan should have gotten special protection from paparazzis and security threats due to her race, Harry said in episode two.
“As far as a lot of the family was concerned, everything (Meghan) was being put through, they had been put through as well,” he said.
Family members told Harry their wives “had to go through that” asking why Meghan should get any special treatment.
“And I said the difference here is: the race element," Harry responded.
Nobody treated Meghan like a black woman until she went to the United Kingdom, she said. Until that point, she had felt her entire life that she either wasn’t white enough, or not black enough.
Meghan was a 'big nerd' growing up
“I was a big nerd growing up. This is like an important part that people don’t understand about me, Like i was not the pretty one.”
“My entire identity was wrapped up in being the smart one. And there are those catalysing moments in your life and from my standpoint I had a commercial change when I was younger because I found it to be sexist.
The first time Meghan heard the 'N word'
Meghan first heard the N word during a road rage incident.
A woman "screamed the N word at my mum," Meghan recalled from her childhood in episode two. Her mum, Doria, gripped the wheel and stayed silent. The pair never discussed it.
READ MORE: A Royal Family joke broke Meghan Markle
The first meeting with Will and Kate
Markle “realised really quickly the formality on the outside carried through on the inside” when she invited Will and Kate over for dinner.
Wearing ripped jeans and no shoes, Meghan - who has “always been a hugger” - realised how jarring that affection was for the royal couple.
A onesie-themed engagement party
Harry and Meghan wore penguin suits to their engagement party with a small group of friends before the world knew they were to be wedded.
‘We pay, you pose’
Former palace spokesman and Executive Director of Archewell Foundation, the couple’s charity, James Holt recounts a moment where he told the couple to “play the game,” after hearing Harry was slowly falling out of favour with the press.
Holt says he was told by a journalist “Harry doesn’t perform for us anymore,” prompting him to encourage the couple to engage in the “invisible contract” between royals and the press - a decision he says he “regrets” now.
“If you didn’t, you would fall out of favour,” Holt recalls telling the pair.
Meghan, Samantha and a disinvited niece
Detailing the hounding she received, Meghan described the “complex” relationship she experienced with her half-sister Samantha Markle, and her niece Ashleigh Hale.
She said despite her sister’s claims they were “very close”, they hadn't met in over a decade and had little to no relationship with her at the time she was branded a “pushy princess” and was the focal point of Markle’s auto-biography.
“I don’t know your middle name, I don’t know your birthday,” Meghan said of her half-sister.
“I don’t remember seeing her when I was a kid at my dad’s house,”
The former actress said she never had a “closeness” to begin with to have a falling out with her half-sister.
Also appearing in the episode is an interview with Markle’s estranged daughter Ashleigh, Meghan Markle’s niece, who was like a “little sister” to her.
Speaking to the camera, Ashleigh details the moment she cut her mother off entirely, calling Samantha Markle’s tirade against Meghan a product of “resentment”.
“Some people you just can’t reason with,” she says.
The episode then cuts back to Meghan admitting she was forced to disinvite her niece from the couple’s wedding, as a result of the controversy her half-sister had stirred in the press. Meghan suggested the media storm had reached such a flashpoint that the couple would not be able to rationalise why her niece was invited but her half-sister wasn’t, and were advised by their communications at the team to cut her out of the ceremony.
Meghan 'no longer has a father'
Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland slammed her father Thomas Markle, and said “that’s not parenting” in response to his staged photoshoot with the press in the months leading to the couple’s wedding.
Meghan recounted calling her father numerous times to no avail, adding at one point the couple believed his phone had “been compromised” after he referred to her as “Meghan” instead of “Meg” in a series of text exchanges.
“He’s never called me Meghan any day on this planet,” she explains.
“We said pick up the phone we need to know that it’s you… we never spoke to him.”
Harry said Meghan no longer “has a father” and he “shouldered” the fall out.
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