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Writer's picturesandra aisien

I finally watched the Netflix docuseries: Harry and Meghan, ep 1. caught in a lie

What is this story really about?


An Opinion Piece


Harry and Meghan

Photo via NetFlix


It's been a little over a year since the Netflix docuseries was released (Dec. 8, 2022). I had been dreading it for a couple of reasons:


First, I find it hard to watch divisive storylines, especially when it involves families. It is becoming more and more rare to see emulatable family structures represented in films or television. Gone are those days when television brought to our screens wholesome family values and parents raising their children in a manner that truly prepares them for the real world.


Second, having seen a handful of documentaries about the life and subsequent tragic death of Princess Diana and the role the media played in it, I wasn’t in any capacity going to sit through a documentary in which that sad event would be exploited and to a certain degree, distorted into fitting a narrative that supposedly mirrors the life of the late Princess Diana - all be it, understandably close in similarities.

Third, I detest race hustling. It is a term that has entered into today's vocabulary; it is used to:


Describe those individuals of a particular race (skin tone or ethnicity) who project themselves into the media spotlight as spokespersons whenever there is an alledged racial incident that involves their race. These individuals exploit a racial situation to serve their interests.

I think race hustling is despicable, primarily because it is a slap in the face of people who truly face racism or are at a disadvantage in society because of the color of their skin. Likewise, it saddens me when every discomfort one feels is automatically attributed to racism or discrimination. We do ourselves a disservice as a society when we fail to judge people on the content of their character. Instead, we focus on the skin color. It is also disrespectful to people who lived through the Ku Klux Klan and the Jim Crow era when we trivialize real racism.


Nonetheless, I did watch it, and I was immediately taken aback by the fact that the two protagonists, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, claimed they wanted privacy but sat in front of cameras talking about themselves. One has to question the authenticity and validity of their story and why signing a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix was the only way they could tell their story.


Episode One: caught in a lie


The documentary is a one-season, six-episode series covering the whole story as we know it today. According to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, doing the Netflix series was their way of setting the record straight. Sort of taking charge of the narrative.


In the first episode, Prince Harry and Meghan tell the story of how they met how Meghan had no idea who Prince Harry was, she said:


Because I'm from the States, you don't grow up with the same understanding of the royal family. And so, while I now understand very clearly there's a global interest there, I didn't know much about him.

However, moments earlier in the same episode, Prince Harry and Meghan react to an interview of Meghan a year before they met, in which she is asked to pick between the two princes, William and Harry, proving right there and then that she did know who Prince Harry was and therefore, was deliberately being deceitful when she claimed otherwise. Some have gone as far as to suggest that Meghan Markle meticulously planned the entire meeting with the prince, that contrary to her now debunked claims, she indeed knew about the royal family and had written about them in her now-deleted blog "The Tig."


My first take: what I could tell was that she genuinely cared for Prince Harry, and they both wanted to be together, which was blissful and romantic to watch. How much of that is the result of a brilliant Netflix post-production?


In the same episode, we are introduced to the first hurdle, if you like: the ever-constant intrusion of the press, the paparazzi, and the media in general.

Harry talks about this from the stance of never having wanted to be a part of it, which is understandable from a child’s perspective, constantly being hounded by groups of strangers must have been unbearable. He also talked about the panorama interview that Princess Diana was tricked into doing.

He touched on a point that I thought was quite telling of the true intentions behind the Netflix series and them supposedly taking control of the narrative: Prince Harry talked about how his mother’s separation and subsequent divorce exposed her to more press harassment and her being left to kind of fend for herself. Well, unless we want to pretend to live in a fairy tale, the truth of the matter is, when people decide or choose to get divorced, what happens is that both parties start to live separately and conduct their lives as they please, as sad as that might sound, that is one of the realities of divorce, it is the breaking up of a family. She stopped being part of that family.

Another thing worth mentioning in the first episode is how their relationship had to be kept a secret because, from Harry’s perspective, he was afraid Meghan would be driven away by the media as they had done to many others (even though we are not given examples of those people that were driven away by the media). However, Prince Harry isn’t the only royal in that family; his brother also had an 8-year relationship with his now-wife Catherine, Princess of Wales, a relationship they both chose to keep private for their well-being.

It appeared as though Prince Harry desperately and forcefully wanted to weave Meghan into the royal family, starting with the comparison to Princess Diana. Stating that Meghan reminded him of his late mother in how she was very caring, kind, and protective of their relationship. I would respectfully interject and say that there is nothing unusual about that, his description of Meghan to compare her to Princess Diana isn't different from most mothers' protective nature towards their children or some women in their relationships. There is no need to over-emphasize or praise something that should be the norm.


And finally, he claimed he received little to no support and guidance after his mother’s death. Needless to say, this statement has been debunked countless times, even by Prince Harry himself in old footage where he thanks his brother and father for the support he received following the death of Princess Diana.


Episode two commentary up soon




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