If you were after melodrama, you got it.
The second course of Harry and Meghan’s banquet of gossip and scandal-mongering has been served up on Netflix. And it’s a feast.
Here are the biggest bombshells:
“William screamed and shouted at me”
Describing the “Sandringham Summit” in January 2020 (when the Royal family met in the wake of “Megxit”) the Duke of Sussex said: “I went in with the same proposal that we’d already made publicly, but once I got there I was given five options – one being all in, no change, five being all out. I chose option three in the meeting – half in, half out. Have our own jobs but also work in support of the Queen.
“It became very clear very quickly that goal was not up for discussion or debate. It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren’t true. And my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there and take it all in.”
Harry blames Mail for Meghan’s miscarriage
Meghan was locked in a legal dispute with Associated Newspapers over its publication of letters from her father, Thomas Markle, when Meghan lost the baby in July 2020.
“I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what the Mail did,” Harry says. “I watched the whole thing. Now do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was caused by that? Of course we don’t. But bearing in mind the stress that that caused, the lack of sleep and the timing of the pregnancy, how many weeks in she was, I can say from what I saw that that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.”
Harry hates himself
Harry reveals that he hates himself for how he initially reacted to his wife’s depression and suicidal thoughts, and talks about the moment she confided in him: “I was devastated. I knew that she was struggling, we were both struggling. I never thought that it would get to that stage and the fact that it got to that stage. I felt angry and ashamed.
“I didn’t deal with it particularly well. I dealt with it as institutional Harry as opposed to husband Harry. And what took over my feelings was my royal role. I had been trained to worry more about what people would think if we didn’t go to this particular event, we are going to be late.
“And looking back on it now – I hate myself for it. What she needed from me was so much more than I was able to give.”
*
Harry and Meghan might elicit more sympathy if their “truth” was a bit closer to the real thing. For instance, the documentary-makers edit a speech Queen Elizabeth made on her 21st birthday. Addressing the British people, the young Elizabeth declared that her “whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong”. The clip played in the documentary twists the Queen’s meaning, so that she is heard saying: “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong.”
The Palace has not yet responded to any of the accusations made in the series. It may be that the institution feels it has no choice but to put its version of events out there before long.
