“She sacrificed everything that she ever knew, the freedom that she had, to join me in my world. And then pretty soon after that, I ended up sacrificing everything I know to join her in her world.”
These words spoken by Prince Harry at the beginning of the first episode of Harry & Meghan sets the tone for the two-part Netflix documentary series, which is based on the former Royals who made history with their inter-racial marriage and their eventual split from the British Royal family.
The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan show how love blossomed between the unlikely couple — Harry, third in line to the British throne, and Meghan, the actress who is the daughter of an American father and an African-American mother, the exploitative role played by media outlets and the undercurrent of racism in the UK. Here are the highlights from the first three episodes that came out on Thursday.
A fairytale that started on Instagram
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had never met before despite their common engagement as public figures. Harry recalls the first time he saw Meghan — it was on a mutual friend’s Instagram video. The friend helped set them up after emailing Meghan about Prince Harry.
The Suits actress revealed that she had checked Harry’s Instagram feed rather than Googling him. “Let me see what they’re about in their feed, not what someone else says about them,” the Duchess of Sussex said.
After getting each other’s numbers, the two decided to meet for drinks. And it’s funny to notice the common touch from the first — Harry was late due to a traffic jam. Another dinner later, the couple started dating, albeit secretly to keep away from being hounded by the media, in July 2016.
How they overcame the fear of being found out
Prince Harry was not confident that he would find someone willing to understand the problems — the prime being his status as a Royal family member — he came with. They maintained a long-distance relationship at first and that strengthened their bond instead of driving them apart.
A major part of Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle was based around the fact that they had to have a quiet relationship in case the press found out about it. But they could not keep it secret for long as the news broke in October 2016, a few months after they had started dating. The two decided to have one last day together without the press and went to a Halloween party. Later, all hell broke loose as the couple were hounded by the press and paparazzi.
Prince Harry and Princess Diana's bond: "I am my mother's son"
It’s quite evident throughout the three episodes that Prince Harry is very emotional about his mother, the late Princess Diana, and that he is immensely proud of her as a person. “My mum made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. I am my mother’s son,” Harry quipped in the first episode.
Harry passionately states how his mother had to suffer at the hands of the media, which led to her eventual death in 1997 after a car chase by the paparazzi in Paris went wrong. He compared Meghan to his mother. “So much of what Meghan is, and how she is, is so similar to my mum. She has the same compassion, the same empathy, she has the same confidence, she has this warmth about her.”
Harry's struggle with paparazzi and cameras
Most of Prince Harry’s early memories of media attention are all about his mother’s struggle with it. The documentary reveals press footage of Princess Diana requesting the photographers to give privacy to her children while they are on vacation. “I think she had a lived experience of how she was struggling living that life,” the Duke of Sussex said when talking about the infamous Panorama interview of Princess Diana that had shocked the world.
Harry himself had his share of struggle with being followed around and once got into a fight with the paparazzi. While tabloids heavily exploited the public life of the Royal families, Harry had to face the brunt of it as he had been labelled as a drug addict and an alcoholic.
Meghan Markle and how she had to face the media trial
Right after the news of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dating broke, the actress had to face a barrage of racist tabloid articles against her. What seemed like a fairytale soon turned sour due to the media coverage of the actress and the extent to which the paparazzi followed her.
Family members of Meghan Markle were also harassed. Her mother, Doria, was relentlessly clicked by the paparazzi even when she was walking her dog.
How Meghan met the different members of the Royal Family
Before their wedding on May 19, 2018, Meghan had already met many of the Royal family members, including the late Queen Elizabeth II. Meghan became the first American in decades to marry into the royal family as well as the first biracial woman to marry into the royal family.
Recalling her first meeting with Prince William and Kate Middleton, Meghan said, “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot.”
The Duchess of Sussex also revealed that she knew only moments before she met Queen Elizabeth II that she was about to meet Prince Harry’s grandmother. “I didn't realise I was about to meet the Queen on the way to lunch. Harry asked, ‘You know how to curtsy right?’ Now I'm realising this is a big deal,” Meghan revealed while showing an awkward curtsy that she performed in front of the longest-reigning monarch.
Meghan also recalled how she met Prince Phillip during her first Christmas with the Royal family, months before the wedding. Both Prince Harry and Meghan also talked about the warmth of the family members and how they had embraced Meghan into their Royal family.
The second volume, which will be released on December 15, promises to take a deep dive into the reasons behind their exit from the Royal family.
