In "War Against Meghan," Prince Harry Vows to "Tell the Whole Truth"
Duke of Sussex "Didn't Want History to Repeat Itself."
Prince Harry has vowed to "tell the whole truth" in a new trailer for Harry & Meghan, the upcoming six-episode Netflix documentary series. The first part will debut on Thursday, three months after the death of Harry's grandmother Queen Elizabeth, with additional episodes available weekly. Netflix has touted an "unprecedented and in-depth documentary series" in which the couple "share the other side of their high-profile love story."
The project has met with controversy since it was announced, with reports suggesting Buckingham Palace is bracing for embarrassing revelations; the trailers have also attracted criticism on both sides of the pond for their timing and content. "No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth," Harry says in the trailer. Read on to find out what may be in store and why the previews have been so controversial.
The new trailer teases Harry's criticism of the British royal family and their reaction to his marriage to Meghan. "It's really hard to look back on it now and go, 'What on earth happened?'" says Harry in the trailer. "There's a hierarchy of the family. You know, there's leaking, but there's also planting of stories … it's a dirty game." "There was a war against Meghan to suit other people's agendas," says narration that plays over images of Meghan crying. "It's about hatred, it's about race," says Christopher Bouzy, an American businessman, in the trailer.
The trailer shows Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, being pursued by photographers. Harry criticizes the "pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution, this feeding frenzy." "I realized, they're never going to protect you," says Meghan. Harry, seeming to refer to the death of his mother, adds: "I was terrified. I didn't want history to repeat itself."
In an earlier trailer for the series, Prince Harry says: "No one sees what's happening behind closed doors." In another clip, Meghan says: "When the stakes are this high, doesn't it make more sense to hear our story from us?
The new trailer was released on the day Prince William and the Princess of Wales visited Boston for William's Earthshot Prize initiative, which awards $1 million to projects that will improve the environment. Netflix's advisers criticized the company for the timing. "Netflix has been a leader on producing valuable content to educate on environmental issues. It is therefore disappointing that they air negative messages on the very same day as the Earthshot Prize," said Christiana Figueres, a former UN climate chief who chairs the Earthshot board and is a Netflix adviser. Tom Rivett-Carnac, a former UN political strategist who advises Netflix and Earthshot, also complained to company management.
RELATED: The Biggest Royal Romance Scandals of All Time
That's not the only criticism provoked by previews of the docuseries. Various media sources have found that footage and photos in the two trailers have been used in misleading ways. The BBC and The Sun analyzed images in the trailers and determined they were from places unconnected to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. One image of paparazzi that appears when Harry says, "I had to do everything I could to protect my family," was taken from a Harry Potter movie premiere. Another shot of a media swarm involved Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.