The first volume of Harry and Meghan — the Netflix docuseries recounting the couple’s decision to step back from royal life — avoided shocking revelations about their treatment in the institution. Though the three one-hour-long installments add new detail to the couple’s long-distance courtship up to their wedding day, nothing much too shocking is revealed. Oprah already got the scoop on the racism allegations against nameless members of the royal family. Several lawsuits describe the couple’s disillusionment with the British tabloid machine. And who could forget that the British Empire was built on profits from the transatlantic slave trade and imperialism, as the documentary lightly touches on? But storybook tales of their courtship and Meghan’s first encounters with then soon-to-be in-laws are the main plot points in this fairytale.
The second volume is far more revealing, bringing new stories of their difficult disentanglement with Buckingham Palace to light. Prince William and The Daily Mail are caught in the crossfire, with Harry even indicting himself for not doing enough to support Meghan as her mental health collapsed. Below, all the revelations from the Harry and Meghan docuseries — some of which might have officials at the Firm clutching their pearls, while others might be a welcome relief for the British royal family.
Volume I
Meghan met Harry during her “single girl summer.â€
A recently single Meghan vowed to spend her vacation sipping martinis and galavanting through Europe in 2016, but the world had other plans. “I was really intent on being single and just have fun girl time,†she said in an on-camera interview. “I had a career. I had my life. I had my path … and then came H. I mean, he literally, talk about a plot twist.†Her friend Lucy Fraser dubbed the adventure Meghan’s “single girl summer,†in yet another win for the versatile phrase Megan Thee Stallion coined a couple years back. While on her getaway, she heard “Prince Haz†was interested in her, to which she responded, “Who’s that?â€
Harry fell for Meghan when he saw a picture of her using a doggy-ears Snapchat filter.
It was Harry’s idea to set up their very first date. He saw a picture of Meghan using a doggy-ears Snapchat filter and was immediately smitten. “I was scrolling through my feed and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them; it was like a Snapchat,†he explained. “That was the first thing.†A mutual friend connected the two at Harry’s behest. Who knew the already historic Snapchat filter, easily one of the best to use for thirst traps, would actually ensnare a prince?
Kids of divorced parents understand each other, they theorize.
Though they were raised in dissonant backgrounds, they bleed the same color (the color of being children of divorce). “I think most kids who are the product of divorced parents have a lot in common, no matter what your background is,†Harry shared. Meghan wrote a poem with rhyming couplets about her two households in grade school, which she recited from memory. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that bad / But often times it makes me sad.†Dr. Seuss is shaking.
Prince Harry makes a quip about having red hair.
“They were surprised a ginger could land such a beautiful woman.â€
He also expresses his shame over wearing a Nazi costume to a party when he was 20.
“The thing with unconscious bias is actually no one’s fault, but once it’s been pointed out or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right,†he said. The fifth in line for the British throne called the 2005 antisemitic incident “one of the biggest mistakes of my life,†feeling “so ashamed afterwards.†To try to learn from the incident, he met with a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor in the wake of the backlash.
Meghan’s race and her dishonorable background (Hollywood actress) was a turnoff for the royal family.
Though the story of the royal family’s alleged issue with Meghan’s race has been well documented, the actress discussed one of the other problems the firm had with her background. She’s an actress (derogatory). “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funnily enough,†Meghan said. “There was a big idea of what that looks like from the U.K. standpoint. Hollywood — it was very easy for them to typecast that.†Harry added that the family thought a relationship with an actress meant that it wouldn’t “last.â€
Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, makes her first extensive public comments.
Ragland says she had to explain to her daughter that the backlash to her presence in the royal family was “about race.†“As a parent, in hindsight I would absolutely like to go back and have that very real conversation about how the world sees you,†she said. As for what she thought of Harry? “He was six-foot-one, a handsome man with red hair, really great manners. He was just really nice. And they looked really happy together. Yeah, like he was the one.â€
The Princess Diaries’ princess training doesn’t exist in real life.
One of Anne Hathaway’s best works is about being suddenly thrust into royal life. “Do you remember that old movie, Princess Diaries with Anne Hathaway?†Meghan began. “There’s no class and some person who goes, ‘Sit like this. Cross your legs like this. Use this fork. Don’t do this.’†So she had to Google things like the British national anthem. She taught herself how to do the royal wave. “It was baptism by fire.†Can’t believe The Princess Diaries turned out to be so unrealistic.
Volume II
Harry claims his brother, Prince William, “screamed and shouted†at him during a family meeting.
Although it seemed like he wanted to, Harry couldn’t just go quietly into that good night. During a family meeting to discuss the embattled royal’s options for stepping back from his role, Prince William allegedly yelled at his little brother. “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that simply weren’t true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in,†he described. “The saddest part of it was this wedge created between myself and my brother so that he’s now on the institution side.†No agreement was reached at that meeting.
He felt he wasn’t able to do enough for Meghan when she was struggling at the palace …
The prince explained how his upbringing did not prepare him to worry about interpersonal conflict. Instead, his main concerns were public perception. When Meghan’s mental health began to sharply decline and she struggled with suicidal thoughts as a result of negative press and her treatment within the family, he was not able to properly care for her. “I had been trained to worry more about what are people going to think,†Harry said. “And looking back at it now, I hate myself for it. What she needed from me was so much more than I was able to give.â€
After spending the Christmas holidays away from family in 2019, Harry described a time when their plans to step back from royal roles continued to be thwarted. “The toll was visible, the emotional toll that it was having on both of us, but especially my wife,†he said. “We’re going to have to change this for our own sake.â€
… And blames the legal battle with The Daily Mail for his wife’s miscarriage.
One of the main story lines running through the docuseries is the British tabloid’s tendency to invade the couple’s privacy and spread false rumors (which may allegedly be at the behest of other royals to diminish the Sussex’s approval rating). “I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what the Mail did,†Harry said, referring to the couple’s lawsuit filed against the paper claiming that it violated her privacy by publishing a private letter written to her formerly estranged father. “I watched the whole thing.†The series recounted how Meghan would be up at all hours of the night, while pregnant, speaking with her lawyer about the case.
“Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was created, caused by that? Course we don’t,†Harry said. “But bearing in mind the stress that that caused, the lack of sleep, and the timing of the pregnancy … I can say, from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.â€
Jealousy is a disease that the royal family might have had.
Though it’s never explicitly said out loud, Prince Harry suspects that William and Kate sent their goonies PR team to spread negative stories about him and his wife following the rise in the couple’s popularity. “The issue is, when someone who’s marrying in, who should be a supporting act, is then stealing the limelight, or is doing the job better than the person who was born to do this, that upsets people,†he speculated. “It shifts the balance, because you’ve been led to believe the only way that your charities can succeed, the only way that your reputation can be grown or improved, is if you’re in the front page of those papers. But the media are the ones who choose who to put on the front page.â€
Tyler Perry is the godfather to Harry and Meghan’s daughter, Lilibet Diana.
After loaning his Los Angeles compound to Harry and Meghan when they fled Vancouver in his private plane at the beginning of the pandemic and providing them security for a time, the Sussexes named the Medea creator godfather to Lilibet Diana. Perry first got in touch with Meghan in 2018 just before the royal wedding, sending her a note of support after hearing about her struggles with her estranged father, who took money from the paparazzi.
Beyoncé personally texted Meghan in the aftermath of the Oprah interview (!).
The most bombshell revelation of the entire six-part docuseries is the fact that Beyoncé Knowles-Carter personally texted Meghan to check in following the release of the Oprah interview. “Beyoncé just texted,†the Duchess says in shock. “I still can’t believe, I still can’t believe she knows who I am.†Harry tells Meghan to call the queen (Bey) back, but she declines. “She said she wants me to feel safe and protected. She admires and respects my bravery and vulnerability and thinks I was selected to break generational curses that need to be healed,†Meghan paraphrases.
Now that’s something the other royals should be jealous of.
This post has been updated throughout.