A source from Buckingham Palace revealed to US media on Wednesday that the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, are actively “avoiding the series,” and are instead having aides watch the show.
"It will take a long time before there is harmony between the brothers," the source said. "There is a lot of anger there."
The source added that King Charles III is open to reconciling with his youngest son and would “certainly rescue the situation if he could. He would love this to stop.”
The series, “Harry & Meghan,” is a £112 million deal between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Netflix that documents the couples’ departure from their position as working senior royal members in 2020 and some of the fallout thereafter.
But, as TV critic Daniel D’Addario writes, the show is only a surprise for viewers in the fact that it illustrates “how narrow their vision of their fame is, how pinched and unimaginative their presence on the world stage has become.”
If viewers are able to look past the cringe-worthiness of Meghan referring to her husband as “H” and Harry referring to her as “M,” they may start to sympathize with the couple's disdain of the British media.
The docuseries—which uses historians to touch upon the colonizing and racist history of the British monarchy including its Commonwealth—spends most of its time in the first three aired episodes criticizing British tabloids, which the couple views as immoral, money-seeking, and relentless with the goal of wanting to “destroy" Meghan, the Duchess claimed.
At one point in the series a video shows a distressed Meghan inside a car running through the locations of where she and Harry have clashed with paparazzi and strategized about how to avoid them.
Harry also claimed the British media, which was attacking Meghan with critical, racist undertones, were “happy to lie to protect [William],” and that they were “never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”
"When Will and Kate came over and I had met her for the first time, they came over for dinner," Meghan said in the documentary. "I remember I was in ripped jeans and barefoot."
"Like I was a hugger, always been a hugger," she added. "I didn't realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."
"I guess I'd start to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside," she continued. "There is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and you relax now. But that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me."
After leaving the British royal family, Harry and Meghan are now living in the coastal city of Montecito in California with their two young children. The couple are, apparently, focusing on their work as campaigners, charity benefactors and media personalities. Meghan currently has a feminist-aimed podcast called "Archetypes".
Bob Seely, a Conservative Party lawmaker, said he would try to introduce a bill to Parliament that will strip Harry and Meghan of their royal titles because he views the documentary as an attack on an “important British institution.” Employment Minister Guy Opperman has called the couple “utterly irrelevant.”
According to Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty, palace officials were “braced for the worst” following the bombshell interview Meghan and Harry did with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. The couple had made allegations of racism in the royal family, which William publicly denied. Buckingham Palace has made no comment on the docuseries.