Now that the six-part series Harry & Meghan is widely available on Netflix, the reviews are in from the one place that matters most: Buckingham Palace.
While there have not been—nor will there likely be—any official reactions from King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, or the Prince and Princess of Wales, that won’t stop people within the Palace’s organization from speaking to members of the press, either on or off the record.
The biggest issue currently seems to be the rift that has grown between Prince Harry and his older brother, Prince William. In the Netflix series, Harry accused the heir to the throne of screaming at him in front of their late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, during a conversation about the Sussexes stepping down from their royal duties. He also said that William broke a promise the two had made about never pitting their offices against one another in the press. Harry accused William of being trapped within the “institution” of the monarchy.
“I think that’s it,” a source told PageSix, concerning the brothers. “They’re done.”
A source told Vanity Fair that a rapprochement seems highly unlikely at this juncture. “There’s a great sense of mistrust, it’s why William won’t speak to Harry, because he is nervous that anything he says might end up in a book or a TV series.”
Parallel to this, officials at the Palace are contesting the remarks that open the show, suggesting that the royal family declined to respond to any of the charges made in the documentary. While it is still unclear if they ever would, representatives from the family accused the Netflix producers of telling a fib, and that they were never approached. This was backpedaled a bit after producers pushed back, and the Palace admitted they were approached for comment via email from a “third-party production company.” They further claim that they did not receive the proper confirmation that they were indeed representing Netflix or the Sussexes. While this does seem like a realistic miscommunication (no doubt the King of England received a lot of wacky emails!), one does wonder if anyone can pick up the damn telephone anymore.
