The rebels of the British royal family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, have once again occupied the front pages of the British and American media in recent days. The first three episodes of Harry and Meghan, the couple's eponymous documentary, were released on Netflix in early December, and the last three are expected to be updated on December 15.
Nearly three years after announcing their separation from the British royal family, the controversial couple once again took the initiative to become the focus of the camera, and using their own hand to tell the media to "correct" the deviation was the original intention of the two to launch this documentary. One of Meghan's responses in the interview became the documentary's advertising slogan with perfect accuracy: "Why not hear what we have to say when we need to bear a huge price?" ”
Despite the obvious intention to save public image and attract media support, the first three episodes have actually backfired: from the United Kingdom, where the main target audience is located, to the United States, where the couple currently lives, these three documentaries have attracted more scolding for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex than they did three years ago. A CNN review bluntly stated that it seems that what the little couple is really interested in is not getting a low-key private life that is not being noticed by the camera, but controlling the camera that follows them, in other words, they are not not welcoming public attention, but just not welcoming negative comments from public opinion.
On the other hand, because the couple revisited the old story in the documentary, once again made the British royal family's "institutional racism" one of the targets of attack, and repeatedly implied that the royal rules were "dirty", the royal family, which has remained silent so far, is now in a passive position, and Prince Harry's mother, Princess Diana, and the past with the royal family thirty years ago have also re-emerged as a hot topic of public opinion in recent days.
The first three episodes of Netflix / GTRES
The royal family has just lost Elizabeth II, who was once seen as an integral part of the Commonwealth and the monarchy, and Charles III has yet to impress the world in just two short months. Harry and Meghan, who suddenly shot at this time, have a bit of a "wounded enemy by a thousand, self-inflicted damage by eight hundred" posture, two unpopular rebels can not shake the British royal family they regard as enemies, but it may still be possible to press a few more straws on the beautiful but old cabin panel.
The "promotional video" that sparked the controversy
For naysayers, Harry and Meghan's "documentary" has been very uncomfortable from the beginning: the first two scenes of the feature film are from 2020, the first of which is Prince Harry's selfie in the Windsor VIP Suite at London's Heathrow Airport, which was in March 2020, just officially leaving the royal family, he was waiting for a flight to Canada, and then the picture switched, and Meghan on Vancouver Island, Canada, also captured her moment with her mobile phone. In these two echoing images, Harry asks, "What happened?" How did we get here? And Meghan said: "Harry is in London, I'm here and I don't even know where to start. ”
Although Harry once said that he chose to leave the royal family at the time of "Brexit", even if you only look at these two shots, it is easy to conclude that the couple had decided to make such a documentary three years ago.
Later, footage from pre-installed cameras in the car was filmed of American paparazzi trying to chase the duo — a bit of a pre-camera-like subtlety given that the footage is used to complain about "lack of privacy and personal space."
Although nominally, this "Harry and Meghan" recalls the process of the husband and wife from acquaintance, love to leaving the royal family, Harry accused the British royal family of "playing dirty games" in the narration of the first trailer, and said that his mother Diana and wife Meghan did not receive the protection they deserved, and Meghan repeatedly hinted at the British royal family in her interview that the British royal family is hierarchical and implicitly racist, making this six-episode documentary essentially tantamount to another round of fierce artillery fire on the royal family.
Megan covers her face with her hands in the documentary / video screenshot
However, the British press is not idle either. Just a few days after the first three episodes of the documentary were announced, there have been many details accused of falsification, Meghan's love process in the documentary has been significantly contradictory to the content of the previous interview several times, Harry's revelations of rules such as marriage proposals have also been found to be inconsistent with the marriage process of his brother William and sister-in-law Kate, former royal reporter Chris Ship angrily denounced that some paparazzi shots were specially contacted by media reporters to complete the posing, and more outrageously, it is still in the part that highlights the paparazzi's stalking, There were even photos from the London premiere of the movie Harry Potter - despite the same name, this Harry is not Harry after all.
More people accuse Harry and Meghan, although called a "documentary" using first-hand narration, is more like a "propaganda film" dedicated to defending themselves, which does not contain much new factual material, but continues to attack the royal family and suggests themselves as victims of banal traditions - on the premise that the historic "separation" in early 2020 has been successfully resolved by grandmother Elizabeth II herself, and both sides have been able to retain decency and break up peacefully. Now another round of offensive launched by the little couple looks somewhat lacking in style.
Breaking the news, can't stop
But beyond the controversy in public opinion, the British royal family, which has just lost Elizabeth II, is in a more permanent crisis called "Harry and Meghan".
Since the fall of 2019, when the newlywed couple showed a tendency to be maverick and unwilling to keep room for détente with the royal family, Harry and Meghan seem to have made attacking the British royal family a cause. In January 2020, after Harrystone unilaterally announced that he would retire from the royal family and no longer perform his duties, Elizabeth II personally intervened, issuing a statement in a very short period of time, first acknowledging the pressure caused by the couple's scrutiny over the past two years, and then promising to "fully support young families to start a new life", agreeing to the two to leave the royal family and stand on their own.
But this concession did not allow Harry and Meghan to really start their own independent new lives on the other side of the ocean: a year later, in March 2021, the two broke the news on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, saying that the real reason for leaving the royal family was that Meghan was "racially discriminated", and the contradictions between Meghan and her sister-in-law Kate, Harry and her father Charles were also unilaterally made public, which once caused an uproar, causing royal spokesmen and Prince William to come forward separately to refute rumors, and also aggravated the brotherly gap between William and Harry.
William Kate at the funeral of Elizabeth II (front row) vs. Harry Meghan (back row) / net
In addition to the visible "results" of the three years before and after, Harry and Meghan have also been exposed to the intention of contacting the mass media and trying to cooperate with it to produce content since at least 2019, and even intend to use it as a long-term job. Netflix is the latest line in the list of former Disney and DreamWorks boss and well-known filmmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg and the now-defunct streaming platform Quibi — and few doubt that if more collaborations come true in the future, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will still be able to produce for media that will remain a royal scene and family strife.
In addition to the considerable traffic and money, it is not yet certain that Harry will gain anything else from such deviance, but what is certain is that the royal family will inevitably continue to "lose blood" in the process.
Despite being removed from royal duties, Harry did not renounce his succession, and as the second son of the current King of England, Harry is currently fifth in the order of succession to the throne, after his brother William and three nephews and nieces. As a direct member of the royal family, every revelation between Harry and Meghan inevitably stirred up disputes about the British royal family in the UK and world public opinion, and the current King Charles was accused three years ago that Harry's rebellious actions would only "thunder".
At the same time, Harry and Meghan may not be as brutal as they seem: when rigid, extravagant, medieval remains... and other keywords have been repeatedly associated with the royal family, and the passage in which the couple portrays themselves as victims of the royal hierarchy in the documentary, although the gesture is not high, but each sentence can accurately hit the hearts of those in the British people who already have doubts and dissatisfaction with the royal family.
At the moment, the British royal family has not responded to this latest documentary, but the situation is quite similar to last spring, and I am afraid that the incident will eventually lead to a positive response that forces the royal family to respond.
In his acceptance remarks, Harry and Meghan received the Kennedy Foundation's Ripples of Hope Award for their work on "racial justice and mental health" at a dinner party in New York on December 8, saying, "We know that ripples of hope can be waves of change." He did not specify what the "change" he was referring to, but many doubted whether Harry would have dared to continue accepting the award if his grandmother, Elizabeth II, had been alive.
Prelude to a royal crisis?
In the nineties, due to the marriage crisis with Charles, Princess Diana became the antithesis of the British royal family in the public eye under the impetus of the times, and her sudden death after that unexpectedly shook the gray and serious royal tradition for decades, becoming a turning point for Elizabeth II to begin to go to the media and into the public eye.
Now, thirty years later, Harry does not intend to hide his intention to revisit the old story: Princess Diana is mentioned many times in the documentary, especially the picture of her being surrounded by a large number of media reporters is highlighted, and Harry also bluntly said in the narration that one of the reasons for choosing to leave the royal family is not to let the fate of his mother repeat itself on his wife, "women who marry into the royal family suffer pain and suffering." This time, the attack was still directed at the same Charles, but now there is no longer Elizabeth II in the royal family.
Competing for public attention and sympathy as much as possible is at the heart of this tussle, and Harry and Meghan, whose images are controversial, may not win much initiative in the proactive gesture, but on the other side, how will Charles III and Prince William respond to the offensive from Harry? After all, the internal conflict of the highest family is what the public really wants to see in this court drama – and it is also what the royal family must suppress as best it can.