Tag: Harry and Meghan

  • Harry and Meghan’s Netflix series has a peculiar feature that raises a difficult question

    Harry and Meghan’s own videos stand out the most in Netflix’s documentary, says Sky’s, Rhiannon Mills. Because as it paranoia that made them film themselves at a traumatic time, or the knowledge that they would later have some monetary value?

    The anticipation was high, and the start of the first episode delivered the drama.

    It includes videos filmed by the couple, Harry and Meghan wanting to give us a front-row seat into how they were really feeling in those frantic weeks at the start of 2020 when they announced they’d had enough.

    The media and the Royal Family take a direct hit.

    Harry is on a crusade as he explains: “I feel as though being part of this family, it’s my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery which happens within our media.

    “This has always been so much bigger than us. No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth. The institution knows the full truth and the media know the full truth because they’ve been in on it.

    “And I think anyone else in my situation would have done exactly the same thing.”

    A traumatised man now unleashed

    We’ve heard him say a lot of this before, but he does speak at greater length than previously.

    It feels like you’re watching a man who has clearly been heavily traumatised by what happened to him, now unleashed, and using this as some kind of cathartic experience to get it all out once and for all.

    After the racism claims that blew things up around the Oprah interview, it was always going to be fascinating to see if we heard any more on that from the couple.

    The furthest they go in these episodes is to talk about how the UK press allegedly made an issue of Meghan’s race, with her mother Doria speaking for the first time about the struggles her daughter faced.

    ‘The race element’

    That section in episode two also features one of the more difficult claims against the Royal Family.

    Harry suggests it was brushed over by his relatives, and they were expected to just get on with it.

    “What people need to understand is as far as a lot of the family were concerned everything she (Meghan) was being put through, they had been put through as well, so it was almost like a rite of passage,” he says.

    “Some of the members of the family were like, ‘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’.”

    ‘Weary’ royals will likely keep their head down

    The suggestion that the Royal Family was not taking seriously racist abuse leveled at Meghan is not a good look.

    But this is not like the Oprah interview. There is no new evidence – there aren’t any particularly damning new claims.

    For a family who I’m told are generally “weary” and feel “sadness” more than anything about all this, I suspect they will keep their heads down and not feel the need to react.

    Harry and Meghan’s videos ‘feel peculiar’

    It is the couple’s own videos that stand out the most and feel peculiar.

    Harry explains that a friend suggested they should personally document what happened to them.

    Yes, we may all now record our lives to a degree through photos and videos.

    But was it paranoia that made them film themselves at this traumatic time, or the knowledge that the videos would later, down the line, have some monetary value? Which they have, both for the couple and for Netflix.

    A global audience is now poised for the next three episodes to be released next week.

    DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana

    Source:Skynews.com

     

     

     

  • Harry and Meghan: Does Netflix’s documentary live up to the hype?

    Heavily trailed, hugely anticipated – but did ‘Harry and Meghan’ make good TV?

    If you watched the trailers and thought Harry & Meghan, Netflix‘s heavily promoted new series, was going to be explosive, prepare to be disappointed.

    Unless you are an individual member of the Royal Family, in which case, you might be opening the champagne – a drink, we learnt from this new show, that Harry doesn’t usually enjoy.

    To put it kindly, this is slow-burn television.

    Volume One, as it was rather grandiosely titled, came out in three episodes on Thursday.

    Perhaps Volume Two, for which we must wait another week, will get to the details so tantalisingly alluded to in those trailers: who leaked and planted stories about the couple? Who was fighting a “war against Meghan to suit other people’s agendas”? Who was playing a “dirty game”?

    What we got – over almost three hours – were new, private details of their “great love story”, as Harry put it. Think soft focus lenses, Nina Simone playing in the background, lots of private photographs, videos and even, apparently, a call between Meghan and a friend as she was getting engaged (“OMG it’s happening” she says).

    Also discussed at length through the first volume is harassment by the media. Harry calls it his duty to “uncover this exploitation and bribery”.

    More damagingly, the programmes build up a sense that Britain has an endemic problem with structural racism, particularly in relation to the Royal Family and the media.

    Historian and TV presenter David Olusoga describes the optimism many Britons of colour (and others) felt about Meghan’s arrival into the heart of the Royal Family. “There was a hope maybe of having difficult conversations that have been pushed away so many times”. Subtext, addressed later – it wasn’t to be.

    But these three episodes were broadbrush, rather than aimed at specific individuals.

    Netflix has billed Harry & Meghan as an “unprecedented and in-depth documentary series”.

    But the programme, unsurprisingly, was heavily one-sided and selective.

    At one point, Meghan describes the media interview and photocall the couple gave when they got engaged as an “orchestrated reality show”.

    Catherine, William, Harry and MeghanImage source, PETER NICHOLLS
    Image caption,
    The couples went on an unexpected walkabout together in Windsor, ahead of the funeral of the Queen

    Is that what Netflix’s Harry & Meghan, produced in association with the couple’s company, is?

    Interestingly, they began recording video diaries in March 2020, as they stepped away from royal duties. That was many months before their Netflix deal was announced.

    This is their truth in the hands of the Netflix professionals, a slickly produced narrative about a couple who fell in love and had to sacrifice everything as they butted up against systems, protocols and racism.

    The Royal Family – we are told at the start – didn’t choose to make any comment for the programme makers. Both Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace confirmed they received an email purporting to be from a production company from an unknown organisation’s address and attempted to verify its authenticity with Archewell Productions and Netflix, but did not receive a response, PA reported.

    A source told PA the substance of the email did not address the entire series.

    So what we have is carefully curated to back up the couple.

    Netflix is adept at the modern language of television which steers us through the story. The couple met on social media – perhaps the first royals to do so and certainly a great advert for Instagram. Their early messages are shared with us, popping up on screen in a device so often used by TV in our tech age.

    The interviews with Harry set up his wife as the true heir to his mother, Princess Diana. He says Meghan has the “same empathy, the same warmth”. The show regularly cuts to archive footage of Diana, as Harry discusses his fears that history could repeat itself.

    In the documentary, Prince Harry (seen here with Princess Diana in 1988) says his mother made decisions from her heart, and he says he is "his mother's son"Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,
    Prince Harry (seen here with Princess Diana in 1988) says she made decisions from her heart, and he says he is “his mother’s son”

    There are also narrative cliffhangers to keep us watching.

    Harry describes trying to deal with the loss of his mother “without much support or help or guidance”, and describes his “second family” in Africa, a group of friends “that literally brought me up”.

    Where was his father? We can’t help asking.

    He talks about how male royals tend to marry women “who fit in the mould” instead of for love. Is he inferring that’s what his brother did? Does Volume Two answer that question?

    Meghan mentions her first meeting with Kate and William, when as “a hugger” she was informal and tactile. She says that is “jarring for some Brits”. Are we supposed to read more into that, after all the stories about the breakdown of relations between the couples?

    These teasers frankly help along a narrative that gets a little repetitive at times.

    The programme seems made primarily for an American audience. And Harry has embraced the language of the US West Coast. He talks about how, just before news of their relationship broke, they went out for one last secret night and managed to “pull the pin on the fun brigade”.

    We hear about “lived experience” and “cause-driven work”.

    But if you were tuning in for jaw-dropping revelations, Prince Charles on Dimbleby, Prince Andrew on Newsnight, Princess Diana on Panorama this was not.

    Prince Charles was interviewed by Jonathan Dimbleby for an ITV documentary "Charles the private man, the public role"Image source, PA
    Image caption,
    In Jonathan Dimbleby’s ITV documentary in 1994, Prince Charles said he was faithful to his wife until it became clear that the marriage was “irretrievably broken”

    This new Netflix show wasn’t even Meghan and Harry on Oprah.

    That was the last time the couple endeavoured to tell their truth.

    In that bombshell interview, they told Oprah about overt racism by a member of the Royal Family about what colour their future son’s skin might be. We don’t hear anything about that over the three episodes. Who said it still remains a mystery.

    Prince Harry and Meghan being interviewed by OprahImage source, Harpo Productions – Joe Pugliese
    Image caption,
    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that there were “several conversations” within the Royal Family about how dark their baby might be

    But Harry does talk about his own journey to understand “unconscious bias”. He also addresses some of the racism of which he has been accused in the past, describing how “ashamed” he felt after he wore a Nazi uniform costume to a party in 2005.

    The programme shows him on a journey of constant discovery and self analysis about racism.

    It’s left to other contributors to raise Britain’s history around the slave trade, as well as the “skeletons in the closet” in the Royal Family.

    But in the end, will this programme persuade anyone to change their opinions?

    After the show and then Harry’s book, Spare, is published in January, the couple’s “truth” will be fully out there. Will that be enough for them?

    Their currency might begin to wane as they struggle with the law of diminishing returns. They may still want to battle royal institutions and the media, but it may turn out that their real battle will be with ongoing relevancy.

     

     
  • Details about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s upcoming trips to Germany and UK

    The couple will be in Britain in early September for a series of charitable events. They will also travel to Germany to kick off next year’s Invictus Games in Dusseldorf.

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex “are delighted to visit with several charities close to their hearts in early September,” a spokesperson for the couple said on Monday.

    Meghan and Harry will travel to Manchester for the One Young World Summit on Sept. 5, Germany for the Invictus Games’ “One Year to Go” on Sept. 6, and back to the U.K. for the Well Child Awards on Sept 8.

    Harry and Meghan were last in the U.K. in June to help celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. During their visit, they also introduced their daughter Lilibet, 1, to the monarch and her grandfather Prince Charles for the first time. Charles, 73, was said to be overjoyed — in what a source called an “emotional” visit — to also see his grandson Archie, 3.

    The Queen is expected to be in Balmoral for her annual summer holiday during the couple’s visit. However, she may travel to London to meet with the new British Prime Minister, who is due to be chosen in early September, which could provide an opportunity for Meghan and Harry to see her during their visit.

     

    Meghan Markle.Gareth Fuller/PA Images

    Meghan, 41, has a long-standing tie to One Young World, and took part in the 2014 and 2016 summits as a counselor. In 2019 — before she and Harry, 37, stepped back from their roles as working members of the royal family, she attended the 2019 summit alongside Harry. Meghan, who thanked attendees for “letting him crash the party,” spoke in a roundtable discussion about gender equality.

    “In terms of gender equality, which has been something I have championed for quite a long time, you know I think that conversation can’t happen without men being part of it,” she said.

    On Sept. 6, the couple will travel from Britain to Dusseldorf, Germany, to kick off the one-year countdown for next year’s Invictus Games — Harry’s international adaptive sports competition for injured, sick and wounded servicemen and women.

    Prince Harry.Chris Jackson/Getty

    Amid this year’s Invictus Games in the Netherlands, Harry told PEOPLE: “Being a dad certainly adds another emotional layer to it.”

    “When I was in the Army, I promised myself I would be out before having a wife and kids, because I couldn’t imagine the heartache of being apart for so long during deployment, the risk of possibly getting injured, and the reality that my family’s lives could be changed forever if that happened. Every member of the Invictus community has experienced varying degrees of these things. I have tremendous respect for what they and their families sacrifice in the name of service,” he told PEOPLE exclusively in April.

    Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.Kirsty O’Connor/AP/Shutterstock

    The couple will cap off their whirlwind trip with the annual WellChild awards, which celebrate the inspirational qualities of the U.K.’s seriously ill children and young people, along with the family members and carers who make a difference in their lives. The couple has regularly attended the emotional event.

    Source:people.com

  • Texts sent by Meghan and Harry to her father revealed in court papers

    The Duchess of Sussex has revealed text messages she and Prince Harry sent to her father before their wedding, as part of legal action against the publisher of the Mail on Sunday.

    Meghan claims Associated Newspapers misquoted the messages to paint the couple in a less good light.

    She also claims tabloids, in particular those owned by the group, caused a dispute between her and her father.

    Associated Newspapers says it will defend the privacy claim “with vigour”.

    It comes as Meghan and Harry, who have relocated to California after stepping back as senior royals, told the UK’s tabloid press that they are ending all co-operation with them.

    Meghan brought the legal action after a handwritten letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle, was published in the Mail on Sunday.

    She claims the letter was selectively edited by the paper to portray her “negatively”.

    Court papers containing the text messages have been filed ahead of an expected hearing later this week.

    The legal document claims they show the newspaper group edited the messages the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent to Mr Markle before their wedding on 19 May 2018.

    ‘Meg and I are not angry’ It said that on 5 May 2018 Meghan wrote in a text to her father: “I’ve called and texted but haven’t heard back from you so hoping you’re okay”.

    She then messaged her father the next day after finding out photographs of her father had been staged for a paparazzo photographer, the document said.

    “She explains that she had attempted to arrange logistics and supplies for her father discretely and with privacy, with care taken not to feed the press, that she is trying to protect her father from heightened press intrusion and scrutiny and that he should keep a low profile until the wedding,” it says.

    On 14 May 2018, it says, Mr Markle sent Meghan a text message to apologise and confirm that he would not be attending the wedding.

    It says that around half an hour later, after several calls to Mr Markle went unanswered, Prince Harry sent the following messages to Mr Markle from Meghan’s phone:

    “Tom, it’s Harry and I’m going to call you right now. Please pick up, thank you”

    “Tom, Harry again! Really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologize, we understand the circumstances but “going public” will only make the situation worse. If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which don’t involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u. Thanks”

    “Oh any speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1”.

    The legal document claimed the newspaper’s summary of these messages contained “significant omissions” when it “merely” reported that the messages said “Mr Markle did not need to apologise and that he should call”.

    It adds the description of another exchange “intentionally omits” any reference to Meghan or Prince Harry attempting to protect Mr Markle and ensure that he was safe.

    The document also states that the UK tabloid media, particularly Associated Newspapers, harassed, humiliated and manipulated Mr Markle.

    Meghan alleges the newspaper group caused the very “dispute” which they claim justified the publication of the letter and also caused “substantial damage” to their relationship.

    She accuses the paper of misusing her private information, breaching copyright and selective editing when it published the private letter to her father.

    The Mail on Sunday has said there was “huge and legitimate” public interest in publishing the letter.

    The paper argues that members of the Royal Family, including the Duchess of Sussex, “rely on publicity about themselves and their lives in order to maintain the privileged positions they hold and promote themselves”.

    It claims Meghan “did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy that the contents of the letter were private and would remain so”.

    As evidence that it did not infringe her privacy, the paper said the letter was “immaculately copied” in Meghan’s “elaborate handwriting”, arguing that this care in its presentation meant she anticipated it would be seen and read by a wider audience.

    Source: bbc.com