Harry and Meghan promise to tell everything in a new documentary series 1:11
London (CNN) --
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have lashed out at "unconscious bias" within the royal family and defended their decision to leave the institution, as their long-awaited Netflix documentary series threatens to deepen the controversy. division between the couple and Buckingham Palace.
The first three episodes of the project, titled "Harry & Meghan," were released Thursday after months of speculation that the couple could star in a breakout series.
They detail the couple's early romance and Meghan's first exposure to the structures and demands of real life, as well as Harry's childhood, the pervasiveness of British tabloid media and the death of his mother, Diana. , Wale's princess.
And Harry accuses the royal family of an "unconscious bias" that blinded them to the struggles he and Meghan experienced in the years and months leading up to their dramatic departure.
Buckingham and Kensington Palaces are likely to brace for the fallout from the series, following ongoing tensions between Harry and his father King Charles and brother Prince William.
advertising
Harry pointed at the media in the opening minutes of the show.
"Nobody knows the whole truth. We know the whole truth, the institution knows the whole truth, and the media knows the whole truth because they've been in on it," Harry said.
He said he considers it "his duty" to "uncover this exploitation and bribery that is going on within our media."
A frame from the documentary shows Meghan crying.
Credit: Netflix
The series comes more than a year and a half after the couple's explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, which sparked a flurry of criticism of members of the royal family and caused a stir in the palace.
Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey talk about mental health in a new series
It is the first major public relations test for the monarchy under Charles III, who has been tacitly criticized by Harry since his separation from the family and whose relationship with his son has deteriorated.
“Skeletons in the closet” of royalty
"I accept that there will be people around the world who fundamentally disagree with what I have done and how I have done it," Prince Harry said of the decision to leave the royal family in early 2020, which set the stage for years to come. of revelations from the couple and soured their relations with their relatives.
"But I knew I had to do everything I could to protect my family, especially after what happened to my mother," Harry continued.
The couple have spoken on other occasions about the limitations they are subjected to as members of the royal family, and that frustration recurs repeatedly in the documentary.
Meghan described her engagement announcement in 2017 as an "orchestrated reality show", calling their first interview as an engaged couple "rehearsed".
And speaking of the media's initial fascination with the prince's then-girlfriend, Harry recalled how other members of the royal family had a hard time sharing his concern.
"For a lot of family members, everything she was going through, they had been through too. It was almost like a rite of passage," Harry said.
"My wife had to go through that, so why would your girlfriend be treated differently? Why should she get special treatment? Why should she be protected?" He said, paraphrasing the arguments of she.
"I've said the difference here is the racial element," Harry added.
The couple have frequently lashed out at racist connotations in tabloid coverage of Meghan, who is biracial.
ANALYSIS |
British royal family has denied being racist, but archived documents reveal recent racist past
"These are the skeletons in the closet that often make an unwanted appearance in everyday life in this family, sometimes, you know, you're part of the problem rather than part of the solution and there's a huge level of unconscious bias." Harry said.
"The thing about unconscious bias is that no one is really to blame. But once it's pointed out or identified, you have to correct it," he added.
Elsewhere in the first batch of episodes, Harry commented on some previous marriages between his relatives and ancestors.
"I think for a lot of people in the family, especially men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who fits the mold rather than someone who maybe you're meant to be with," he said.
And the couple recalls Meghan's first encounters with the Queen, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and other royals.
"I remember my family meeting her for the first time and she was incredibly impressed. Some didn't know what to do," Harry said.
"They were shocked ... the fact that he was dating an American actress was probably what clouded their judgment the most at first," he added.
"The actress thing was the biggest problem, oddly enough," Meghan added.
Meghan is 'so similar' to Diana
Throughout the first three episodes of the series, the pair spoke of their frustration at the hands of the notoriously scandalous British media.
"My face was everywhere, my life was everywhere, the tabloids had taken over everything," Meghan said of her first encounters with the press.
Harry also compared Meghan to his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car accident while being chased by paparazzi in 1997. "So much of what Meghan is and what she is like is so much like my mother... She has the same self-confidence, she has that warmth," she said in the first episode.
The first three episodes were released this Thursday and another three will air next week.
The interviews were completed in August, a month before the queen's death, according to the series.
Its premiere comes after a period of apparent resumption of relations between Harry and his family after the queen's death in September.
Harry and William reunited for a walk and other public appearances in the mourning period that followed, with King Charles III using his first speech as monarch to "express (his) love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives." abroad".
As 'Harry & Meghan' Documentary Looms On Netflix, Buckingham Palace Braces For Royal Reveals
But new tensions could arise when the second part of the documentary airs next week, which is expected to detail his separation from family and move to the United States.
Harry's memoir, titled "Spare," is due out in January.
Buckingham Palace said Thursday it would not comment on the documentary.
A royal source initially told CNN that neither Buckingham nor Kensington Palace, nor any members of the royal family, had been contacted for comment on the content of the series.
The Netflix documentary noted within the series that members of the British royal family "declined to comment on the content."
CNN understands that Kensington Palace did receive an email purporting to be from a third-party production company, via the email address of a different, unknown organization, seeking comment on the duke's new docuseries and the Duchess of Sussex which premiered on Netflix on Thursday.
The palace contacted Archewell Productions and Netflix to try to verify the authenticity of the email, but received no response, CNN understands.
In the absence of this verification, they could not give any answer.
Meghan Markle Prince Harry