{"id":152289,"date":"2022-12-09T00:38:13","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T00:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-docuseries-most-shocking-revelations-rolling-stone\/"},"modified":"2022-12-09T00:38:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T00:38:13","slug":"prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-docuseries-most-shocking-revelations-rolling-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-docuseries-most-shocking-revelations-rolling-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Docuseries’ Most Shocking Revelations \u2013 Rolling Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tIf there are<\/span> two sides to every story, and one of those sides is the Royal Family backed by a spectacle-hungry media and tabloid circus while the other is the very couple they’ve both placed under an unsparing microscope \u2013 which holds the truth? In the new documentary series Harry & Meghan<\/em>the first three episodes of which are now streaming on Netflix, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make a case for their perspective: \u201cWhen the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tWhen the Duke and Duchess of Sussex split from the Royal Family in 2020, complete with a move to North America, they left behind their duties to serve a life of public service and ditched the institution’s penchant for keeping its perpetual mess behind closed doors along the way \u2014 giving them the upper hand over those roaming the grounds of Buckingham Palace, and those stationed outside of it. An early title card in the first docuseries episode reads: \u201cMembers of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within this series.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tDirected by Liz Garbus, Harry & Meghan<\/em> follows last year’s Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special<\/em> as their first on-camera interviews since the conversation that exposed the racism, harassment, and financial retaliation that drove them away from the palace, and later from the UK entirely. The six-part docuseries \u2014 the first release in a rumored $100 million deal with Netflix \u2014 goes back to the couple’s relatively normal beginnings (if there’s anything normal about your friend setting you up on a date with a literal prince) and maps out how it all went wrong, coincidentally after they tied the knot.<\/p>\n

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\tAhead of the premiere, senior members of the British press \u2014 described by historian David Olusoga as fostering a \u201ctoxic\u201d mentality \u2014 alleged that footage and images featured in the docuseries trailers included misleading footage. Analysis from BBC <\/em>claimed that videos meant to depict the media frenzy the couple often faced were actually pulled from the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2<\/em>. Other clips capture model Katie Price appearing at a courthouse and lawyer Michael Cohen being swarmed by paparazzi. <\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor’s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

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\tThe second set of episodes drops Dec. 15. For now, here are the key takeaways from the first half of one side of the story. <\/p>\n

\n\tthe<\/strong> Royal Palace Silenced Meghan and Harry When It Came to Racism<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\tBefore her relationship with Prince Harry went public, and months after they began dating, Markle says she wasn’t often treated like a Black woman. \u201cIt’s very different to be a minority, but not be treated as a minority right off the bat,\u201d she explained. When press headlines and commentary made the Black element of her biracial identity the centerpiece of their grievances against her, the Prince added, the palace issued clear instructions to them both: \u201cDon’t say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cAs far as a lot of the family was concerned, everything that she as being put through, they’d been put through as well,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo it was almost like a rite of passage. Some of the members of the family were like, ‘But my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’ And I said, ‘The difference here is the race element.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tMarkle recalled instances during her early childhood where she realized that her Black, darker-skinned mother was treated differently, even though it would be years before she would directly face racism in a way that disrupted her known experience. She remembered women questioning her mother in the grocery store, insisting that she had to have been a nanny. Then, there was the time a woman screamed the N-word at her mother in the Hollywood Bowl parking lot. \u201cShe was just silent the rest of the ride home,\u201d she said. \u201cWe never talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tAppearing on camera for the first time, Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, expressed regret for not having the racism sit-down with her daughter sooner. Now, her own children are positioned to be subject to the same scrutiny. During their primetime special last year, the Duchess first detailed the institutional racism she faced while pregnant with her first child, Archie. According to Markle, a high-level member of the Royal Family \u2014 suspected to have been King Charles III or Prince William, possibly both \u2014 expressed concern about how dark his skin would be. The reveal stumped a rarely-ever speechless Oprah. <\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tPrince Harry Felt ‘Ashamed’ After Wearing Nazi Costume<\/strong> <\/p>\n

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\tWhile Markle addressed injustice and racism woven into both her own life and the fabric of England and America, Prince Harry made note of the time he’s spent \u201cblissfully sleepwalking through life,\u201d but asserted that he believed his travels had made him sufficiently privy to unconscious biases and varied living conditions throughout the world. <\/p>\n

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\t\u201cThe thing with unconscious bias is it’s actually no one’s fault,\u201d he said. \u201cBut once it’s been pointed out or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right. It’s education. It’s awareness. And it’s a constant work in progress.\u201d This same conversation had emerged in 2020 when images resurfaced of Prince Harry wearing a Nazi uniform at a private party in 2005, something he now references as being \u201cprobably one of the biggest mistakes of my life.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\tHe added: \u201cI felt so ashamed afterwards, all I wanted to do was make it right.\u201d His plight to do so led him first to a chief rabbi in London, then to a Holocaust survivor in Berlin. \u201cI could’ve ignored it and probably made the same mistakes over and over again in my life. But I learned from that.\u201d The then 20-year-old issued a statement of apology for the press recognizing \u201cany offense or embarrassment\u201d he had caused. <\/p>\n

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\tin the book Battle of the Brothers<\/em>published in 2020, royal correspondent Robert Lacey alleges that the Nazi uniform incident drove a wedge between Harry and William, particularly citing an imbalance of blame distributed between Harry and William, who was 22 at the time and supposedly accompanied his brother on his outing to buy the costume. <\/p>\n

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\tIn January, Prince Harry will release a 415-page memoir titled spare<\/em>, a reference to the phrase \u201cheir and spare,\u201d referring to himself and William, who is first in line for the throne. the New York Times<\/em> reported that the book has faced multiple delays, namely due to a reluctance from the prince to share certain elements of its content. <\/p>\n

\n\tMeghan’s Mother Was ‘Stunned’ By Ex-Husband‘<\/strong>s Royal Wedding Shenanigans<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\tIn the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding, familial drama took center stage in the press. The stories started small in comparison to what would later come, centering in on the Duchess’s paternal half-sister who allegedly fabricated the extent of their relationship, though a title card reads: \u201cSamantha Markle maintains that she and Meghan had a close relationship until 2018 \u201d And while Markle denies having any meaningful connection to her, she became expressly close with her niece, Ashleigh Hale, raised by Samantha’s parents.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMeghan Markle (R) and her mother, Doria Ragland, arrive for her wedding ceremony to marry Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor, on May 19, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOli Scarff\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\u201cHow do we explain that this half-sister isn’t invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister’s daughter is?\u201d Markle recalled questioning the royal communications team at the time. Still walking on eggshells, the actress-turned-royal was understandably hesitant of feeding the hungry media frenzy, even when she was trying to do the right thing. \u201cThe guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding,\u201d she explained. \u201cI was in the car with H. I had her on speaker phone and we talked her through what guidance we were being given and why this assessment was made. And that’s painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tIt proved to have been a mostly futile decision once news broke of Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, staging photos for the press in the weeks before he was meant to walk her down the aisle and meet Prince Harry for the first time. \u201cI was absolutely stunned that Tom would become part of this circus,\u201d her mother shared. \u201cIt’s sad that the media would run with this, that he would capitalize. Certainly as a parent, that’s not what you do. That’s not parenting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tWhen Markle found out that her father would no longer be attending the ceremony, it didn’t come directly from him. \u201cThe unraveling happened that week when he would n’t pick up my call,\u201d she said of the days after she offered to have him picked up early to avoid the swarms or paparazzi that would surely appear outsie of his home. \u201cAnd instead you’re talking to TMZ. And I’m finding out that you’re not coming to our wedding through a tabloid.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\tArchival footage pictures Markle with her father, flashing back to a once-healthy relationship that crumbled away as her life went full Princess Diaries<\/em>. \u201cShe She had a father before this, and now she she does n’t have a father,\u201d Prince Harry lamented. \u201cAnd I shouldered that. Because if Meg was n’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeghan Knew She Was Fighting a Losing Battle <\/strong><\/p>\n

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\tEarly in the docuseries, Prince Harry speaks of the \u201cpain and suffering of women marrying into this institution,\u201d now being able to speak both from his experience watching his mother navigate it and standing with Markle as she does the same. Even from when they announced their engagement in a staged press opportunity at the palace, she had come to understand an essential truth: \u201cNo matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they were still gonna find a way to destroy me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tThis bled into her everyday life down to her fashion choices. In 2019, a royal source told HANDS<\/em> that Markle’s closet full of neutral clothing \u2014 all department store beiges, navy blues, and inoffensive black and white options \u2014 was strategic in creating a so-called \u201cfunctional work uniform\u201d that wouldn’t distract from her philanthropic and charity work. Now, the Duchess has shared that she actually just didn’t want to poke the bear any more than she already had, however unintentionally. <\/p>\n

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\t\ttrending<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

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\t\u201cTo my understanding, you can’t ever wear the same color as Her Majesty if there’s a group event,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut then you also should never be wearing the same color as one of the other more senior members of the family. So I was like, ‘Well, what’s a color that they’ll probably never wear?’\u201d All of the camel, beige, and taupe outfits were also helpful in allowing Markle to hide in plain sight. She added: \u201cIt was also so I could just blend in. Like, I’m not trying to stand out here.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\tMarkle claimed during every interview with Oprah that she hadn’t done any digging on Harry or the Royal Family when she first started dating him. In the docuseries, she confessed that her first instinct was to dissect his Instagram feed, rather than to google him. But it’s hard to know if a crash course on dating a royal would have done her any good when she follows more in the footsteps of Princess Diana than her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, or even Queen consort Camilla. The Duke and Duchess don’t speak at length about Princess Diana in the first set of episodes, but a preview for the coming footage features Harry admitting: \u201cI was terrified. I didn’t want history to repeat itself.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n