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In the trailer that was dropped strategically the other day to drum up interest in the new Netflix docuseries on Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, she posed the question: “Doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?”
And in the first three episodes of the series that started streaming early Thursday, Harry was bolstering that same view, saying at one point that the couple, who stepped back from official royal duties in 2020, have “never been allowed to tell our story.”
However, half-way through the series тАФ the final three episodes drop next Thursday тАФ there is a sense that this telling of their story is in many ways an effort to continue to shape a well-trodden ground of grievance against the Royal Family and raise repeated concerns about issues such as racism and media intrusion into their lives.┬а
“If there hadn’t been the Oprah Winfrey interview, this might have been seen as a more groundbreaking documentary,” Carolyn Harris, a Toronto-based royal author and historian, said in an interview.
But there was that Oprah interview a year and a half ago, which among many other revelations included Meghan’s declaration that an unnamed senior member of the Royal Family had worries about the colour of the skin of their first child before he was born.
While viewers do get a more intimate portrait of their courtship, no similar bombshells┬аlanded in the first three episodes┬а(nor was there any expansion on that specific statement to Oprah).┬а
“I just think it’s more of the same. I mean, this time it’s delivered in quite a sort of feature-like way. There’s no balances at all. It’s very glossy. It’s very gutteral,” British PR expert Mark Borkowski said in an interview.
The series, some marketing experts say, gives Harry and Meghan the chance to shape their own narrative, something that really matters to them.
‘Reshaping public perception’
Viewers were taken via video and snapshot from early moments of their childhoods тАФ a piano-playing photo shoot for Harry with brother Prince William and his parents Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, and scenes from Meghan’s younger days in California тАФ to their life now in that same state, with their children in Montecito.
(From a Canadian perspective, there is some new detail offered up regarding Meghan’s life in Toronto, where she was living in the early days of their relationship.)
Much of the focus of the first three episodes of the series directed by Oscar nominee Liz Garbusis is on the media, particularly the British tabloid media,┬аand the actions of the paparazzi тАФ a longtime target of Harry.┬а
“They have been through quite a difficult time with the British media because there have been quite a lot of negative stories,” marketing consultant Diana Young told the CBC’s Margaret Evans in London.
“This PR strategy that they’re using at the moment is really about reshaping the public perception and also resetting how they’re viewed by the global public, not just in Britain but in the [United States] and further afield.”
The first three episodes of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netlfix docu-series are devoid of bombshells, but still don’t paint the Royal Family in a flattering light. Instead, it mainly takes aim at the tabloid press, which the couple says fuelled racism.
“Even when he was talking about his childhood, he didn’t talk about all those┬аsummers spent at [royal estates or time spent at homes] when he would have been away from the paparazzi,” said Harris.
“He was focusing on those outings with his mother where the press was very much present.”
‘A lot about Diana’
What struck Harris most about the first three episodes, she said, is that “there was very little about Harry’s direct relationship with his father and brother.”
“There was a lot about Diana, Princess of Wales, just as Meghan spoke about her mom a great deal and her mom appeared as part of the documentary.”
The focus on Diana also caught Borkowski’s eye.
“What they’re doing is trying to position [Meghan] as Diana, which she’s not.”
Viewers looking for a purely personal narrative of Harry and Meghan’s perspective wouldn’t have found it here. Instead, there seemed to be an attempt to set some of their experiences against broader issues.
“What we saw was a lot of efforts to intersect their personal narrative with wider political events such as Brexit, opposition to immigration to the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth for instance and other wider themes about race and Britain,” said Harris.
┬а“We see, as so often in royal life, the personal and the political intersecting.”┬а
Harris said it’s clear Harry and Megan wanted to send a message that all this is about more than them.
“Many times тАж their critics have accused them of being rather self-indulgent, of constantly focusing on the challenges they’re facing rather than the bigger issues happening in the world. And they were making an argument in this documentary that the issues that they’re facing very much do intersect with wider issues.”
A part of broader debate?
That intersection with wider issues suggests that even if the first half of the docuseries is seen┬аby many as offering little that is really new, it could continue to play into broader discussions unfolding around the future of the British monarchy, particularly as it moves further into the new reign of King Charles.
“I think it’s going to contribute to a discussion about diversity within the royal household,” said Harris, noting the scrutiny that came last week when a member of the royal household left her role after making what the Palace described as “unacceptable and deeply regrettable” comments about race and nationality to a woman at a reception.
CBC News Network’s Hannah Thibedeau speak with author and journalist Genelle Aldred.
“There was previously press coverage of the backgrounds of the people who work in the royal household and how, for Meghan, she would have met very few people of her own background among those who worked in the royal household. So I think there may well be continued discussion and debate about that,” said Harris.
Still, it all leaves a rather large unknown hanging over Harry and Meghan: how many times can you tell what is essentially the same story, no matter how important you feel it is?
“For Harry and Meghan personally, they are currently famous because of the amount of time they’ve spent talking about their lives and their experiences and the question is going to emerge for the two of them: What happens next? What are they going to do going forward?'” said Harris.
As Borkowski looks ahead, he sees Harry and Meghan having “run out of road,” when it comes to telling their story, one that is finding interest in the United States, but could be wearing thinner in the U.K.
“I was talking to a lot of young people here [on Thursday],” said Borkowski. “They’re saying they don’t really care anymore.”
Harry and Meghan have established their Archwell Foundation, which focuses on issues including mental health, racial justice and efforts to combat disinformation and misinformation.
If Harry and Meghan want to make a wider difference in the world, “eventually they’re going to have to move away from connecting these wider issues to their own personal experiences and become more widely known for their commitment to various causes,” said Harris.┬а
“Right now, when people think of Harry and Meghan, they think about the challenges that they faced as part of the Royal Family.”
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