Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Netflix series is a ‘form of revenge’ that will prove ‘catastrophic’ for the Duke of Sussex‘s relationship with his brother, a royal expert has warned.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams also called on filmmakers to back up claims made by Meghan Markle and her allies that she was ‘fed to the wolves’ and used as a ‘scapegoat’ to distract from other negative stories about the Royal Family.
It comes after the Duchess today ramped up her war on The Firm in the latest trailer for the final three episodes of the Sussexes’ docuseries being released worldwide on Thursday.
In yet another extraordinary and explicit attack on her husband’s relatives, Meghan said that stories would be leaked or made up about her or Harry to ensure negative press about other royals would ‘go away’.
Meghan adds dramatically: ‘I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves. I was being fed to the wolves’
Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on the long Walk at Windsor Castle on September 10, 2022 in Windsor, following the Queen’s death
In the teaser Meghan claims there was a conspiracy to attack her while her British privacy lawyer Jenny Afia described it as a ‘war against Meghan’ from within Buckingham Palace ‘to suit other people’s agendas’.
Ms Afia insists she has seen the evidence before Meghan’s friend Lucy Fraser, whose real name was revealed by MailOnline as Lucy Meadmore, a British former PR manager who was a mystery figure until a week ago, declares: ‘Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace’.
The Duchess also suggested she was made a scapegoat, adding: ‘You would see it play out. A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they’d go: ‘We’ve got to make that go away’.’
Responding to the teaser, Mr Fitzwilliams told MailOnline it showed ‘how much of a coup for Netflix this docuseries is.’
He added: ‘The claim is that the Palace used Meghan as a ‘scapegoat’ so other damaging stories about other royals would go away.
Ms Afia said the ‘final straw’ was negative press about her relationship with Thomas Markle
Footage of Buckingham Palace was used as Meghan’s allies described a briefing war against her
Prince Harry and his brother William await for Meghan Markle to walk down the aisle during the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018
‘So the question is, to benefit which royals and who knew about it? Which other members of the royal family were involved or were courtiers briefing without their knowledge?
‘William was named in an earlier trailer by Harry. This will be catastrophic for the relationship between the once close brothers.
‘What exactly is the evidence that backs up their claim that Meghan was ‘fed to the wolves’?
‘Essentially the claim is that the institution was working against them and using the media to discredit them with a barrage of negative articles. Her lawyer Jenny Afia says she has seen evidence. However what evidence will we be shown?’
He continued: ‘We have heard that she was dissatisfied with many aspects of royal life. The formality, what she felt she had to wear and what Harry has called ‘unconscious bias’ linked to race.
‘Harry has even implied their safety was at stake. He has said his second family was in Africa. He has talked about the way royals are expected to marry someone ‘who fits the mould’, a clear dig at William and Catherine.
‘Their supporters In the series have attacked the Commonwealth, the Queen’s special legacy.
‘This is undoubtedly a form of revenge. It remains to be seen after tomorrow’s series airs, if the royals will respond and if so, how.’
Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Netflix series is a form of ‘revenge’ that will prove ‘catastrophic’ for the Duke of Sussex’s relationship with his brother, a royal expert has warned (Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend a Creative Industries and Business Reception on October 02, 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa)
Today’s 65-second trailer does not feature Prince Harry, who has already accused unnamed shadowy figures of lying about him and his wife to protect his brother Prince William.
He also talked of ‘institutional gaslighting’ – believed to be an attack on his own family and their staff. Royal experts predict the Netflix series will destroy Harry’s relationship with William, who will view it as disloyalty.
But critics have accused the couple of using Netflix to launch a disinformation campaign against the Royal Family and the British Press. There are growing calls to see the evidence for these highly damaging claims with one royal source declaring yesterday: ‘No one is taking lessons in honesty from them.’
In today’s trailer, Meghan, who said she was ‘fed to the wolves’ when she was in the UK, suggested that she would be used by their aides to divert coverage away from negative press for other royals.
She added: ‘There’s real estate on a website homepage, there is real estate there on a newspaper front cover, and something has to be filled in there about someone royal.’
Lucy said: ‘Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace. And so they would feed stories on her, whether they were true or not, to avoid other less favourable stories being printed’.
Meghan’s privacy lawyer Jenny Afia, a partner at Schillings, said: ‘There was a real war against Meghan and I’ve certainly seen evidence that there was negative briefing from the Palace against Harry and Meghan to suit other peoples’ agendas.’.
She added that negative press about Meghan’s estrangement from her father Thomas Markle was the ‘final straw’ for the Duchess.
‘This barrage of negative articles about the breakdown of the relationship with her father was the final straw in a campaign of negative, nasty coverage about her’, she said.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment.
Yesterday in the first trailer for the second part of their lucrative tell-all Netflix documentary, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex talk about ‘institutional gaslighting’. It is assumed this is directed at the monarchy.
Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse in which a person is manipulated into questioning their own sanity and perceptions of reality.
The documentary makers also use a picture of Buckingham Palace and footage of the duke and Prince William at their grandfather’s funeral as Harry says: ‘They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.’
Meghan adds dramatically: ‘I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves. I was being fed to the wolves.’
The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan – part of the Sussexes’ multi-million-dollar deal with Netflix – were streamed last week, with the final three hour-long episodes coming tomorrow.
The initial tranche covered the couple’s courtship and romance, but many were left deeply unhappy about the programme’s full-on assault on the late Queen’s Commonwealth legacy, with some saying it seemed as if the couple want to ‘bring down the monarchy’.
Harry also let rip with a string of sly digs at his family, particularly his father and brother, including the suggestion that they had married not for love but to a woman who fitted ‘the mould’.
But the clear suggestion was that the second part – covering the couple’s wedding, their subsequent falling out with William and Kate and acrimonious departure from the Royal Family – would be far more brutal for Buckingham Palace.
And it seems as if the gloves are well and truly coming off.
Meghan’s privacy lawyer Jenny Afia, a partner at Schillings, said: ‘There was a real… war against Meghan’ and that negative stories about her relationship with Thomas Markle was the final straw
The final three episodes will be released worldwide tomorrow, after today’s trailer (pictured)
The documentary makers also use a picture of Buckingham Palace and footage of the duke and Prince William at their grandfather’s funeral as Harry says: ‘They were happy to lie to protect my brother’
The Duke of Sussex continues: ‘They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us’
During the trailer, Harry makes the astonishing claim that he and Meghan were victims of ‘institutional gaslighting’
The new trailer starts with Harry saying: ‘I wonder what would have happened to us had we not got out when we did.’
Meghan adds: ‘Our security was being pulled, everyone in the world knew where we were’, before the film cuts to Harry recalling: ‘I said, “We need to get out here”.’
The trailer then flits to self-filmed footage of Harry – presumably flying from Canada to California in early 2020 – saying: ‘We are on the freedom flight.’
In 2019, the couple were given the Queen’s blessing to spend time in Canada, where they borrowed a friend’s mansion on Vancouver Island, ostensibly to have some ‘time out’ from the limelight.
In reality they were already plotting their departure, working on plans to create a ‘hybrid’ working model for themselves – earning money while conducting occasional royal duties – and even creating their own website.
The story continues with more of the misrepresentations that have characterised the couple’s Netflix project so far, with its use of ‘fake’ footage to illustrate media harassment of the couple.
Meghan talks about being ‘fed to the wolves’ accompanied by a photograph of her being supposedly hounded by a bank of photographers.
Except the picture was clearly taken when she flew by private jet to New York for a lavish baby shower when she was expecting her first child, Archie, accompanied by a team of taxpayer-funded police officers.
Even more inexplicably – and controversially – Harry is shown talking about how ‘they’ were happy to ‘lie to protect my brother’.
As he says this, the trailer cuts to footage of Buckingham Palace followed by a second sequence of himself and William at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in April last year.
Given the juxtaposition of the statement and film, many have taken ‘they’ to refer to the Royal Household.
But on a slightly different trailer featured on the Netflix website, subtitles can be seen which instead read: ‘The British media were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.’
After this discrepancy was exposed on social media earlier today, the second trailer appeared to have been mysteriously taken down.
On a slightly different trailer featured on the Netflix website, subtitles can be seen which instead read: ‘The British media were happy to lie to protect my brother’
Harry’s words echo comments made by Meghan in their Oprah Winfrey interview last year, when she alleged that Kensington Palace aides had lied, saying: ‘I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.
‘It was when everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family.
‘They weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.’
The trailer also includes a clip of an interview with Christopher Bouzy, a US tech entrepreneur who has set up a firm to track disinformation and harassment online – despite having posted a string of disparaging posts, particularly about the Prince and Princess of Wales.
He says: ‘They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation’, but does not make clear who ‘they’ are.
Christopher Bouzy says: ‘They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation’, but does not make clear who ‘they’ are
Sources also point out that official Royal Family accounts have at times been forced to shut down their own public comment forums due to online abuse from the so-called ‘Sussex squad’ – the couple’s self-styled band of acerbic fans.
The trailer also includes a clip of Hollywood star Tyler Perry, who lent the Sussexes his Hollywood mansion when they first moved to the States. He says: ‘They just wanted to be free. They wanted to be free to love and be happy. I applauded that.’
This sets the film up for a series of pictures of the couple looking happy and relaxed – Meghan with a birthday balloon arch, Harry jumping in the ocean – juxtaposed with stock footage of printing presses and critical headlines.
Harry adds: ‘In order for us to be able move to the next chapter, you gotta finish the first chapter,’ as the footage – pointedly – moves to some of the couple’s wedding photographs featuring Harry’s late grandparents.
Alongside footage of Harry playing football in the garden of their US home with his children and mother-in-law, Doria Ragland, Meghan says: ‘It gave us a chance to create that home we had always wanted.’
A series of pictures show the couple looking happy and relaxed – Meghan with a birthday balloon arch, Harry jumping in the ocean
Ironically the home subsequently depicted is Frogmore Cottage, the couple’s Windsor residence, when they returned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.
The house underwent a £2.4million programme of taxpayer-funded renovations which Harry and Meghan eventually paid back when they quit as working royals.
The photographs, which appear professionally taken, feature both their children Archie and Lilibet, who was making her first visit to the UK and celebrating her first birthday.
The children are both formally dressed, leaving some royal insiders to suspect they could have been taken after Lilibet was introduced to her namesake great-grandmother, the Queen.
It has been reported that they asked to take a photographer in with them but the Queen, who was, it is believed, distrustful of their motives, refused.
Ironically the home subsequently depicted is Frogmore Cottage, the couple’s Windsor residence, when they returned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June
Royal sources believe Harry and Meghan got one of their favourite private photographers, Chris Allerton, to shoot dozens pictures for their documentary that has been years in the planning. They began filming their video diaries as far back as March 2020.
The trailer ends with a montage of pictures and video of the couple and their children looking happy and relaxed, as a contrast to the family they constantly criticise.
Harry says: ‘I’ve always felt as though this was a fight worth fighting for.’
Both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace declined to comment.
It is understood that the royal households intend to wait until the entire series has been made available before they decide whether to respond to some of the couple’s more hurtful or damaging claims.