Meghan Markle, Prince Harry documentary is 'self-serving twaddle': royal expert
True Royalty TV co-founder Nick Bullen says the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are "Kardashians on a regal basis" with their Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan."
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were determined to tell their "full story" in their bombshell Netflix docuseries, but one royal expert says they’ve depicted themselves as "the Kardashians on a regal basis."
On Thursday, the streaming giant released the first three hour-long episodes of "Harry & Meghan," with three more due on Dec. 15. The program features new interviews with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as their friends and experts on race and the media. It also highlights never-before-seen photos of the couple, as well as video diaries recorded by them – apparently on their phones – from March 2020 amid their acrimonious split from the British royal family.
"I think it is the most enormous pile of self-serving twaddle that I’ve watched in quite a long time," Nick Bullen, co-founder of True Royalty TV, told Fox News Digital. "I mean, please, how much of this have we heard before? I think Netflix is probably really angry with the Oprah interview [from March 2021] because she got all the really juicy stuff. This is just a rehash of lots of things we’ve heard about like Harry’s anger with the press. We’ve heard about the so-called institutional racism in Britain. We’ve heard about the formality of the British royal family, how Meghan was a breath of fresh air at first – we’ve heard it all before."
Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, released the first installment of their Netflix docuseries on Thursday. (Netflix)
"The thing that is most shocking to me, though, is that this is a couple who left for a private life," Bullen shared. "They were fed up with the press intrusion and wanted their privacy. And in this series, they’ve not only opened up their home, but they’ve revealed their text messages, they’ve shown photos from their most private moments – there are even photographs from the moment that Harry went down on one knee to propose. It’s just hypocritical beyond belief that they wanted privacy and now they are opening up every single aspect of their lives."
Bullen is an award-winning documentarian who has been producing programs about the British royal family for 20 years. He has also worked closely with Harry’s father, King Charles III, for about a decade.
As a filmmaker, Bullen said the program plays out more like "a reality show" than a documentary that addresses all sides of the royal saga. He also wondered why the Sussexes opened their lives for public consumption after they willingly chose to give up their roles as senior royals and move to California. The couple resides in the coastal city of Montecito, where they are raising their two children.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reside in Montecito, California, with their son Archie and their daughter Lilibet. (Netflix)
"It’s great for viewers in terms of a reality show, but why do they feel the need to share that with us if they want to keep some privacy in their lives?" he wondered. "That’s the thing that surprised me the most, just how much this was thrown up. I was also really surprised that it’s being billed as a documentary. This is not a documentary. This is a reality show. This is the Kardashians on a regal basis. A documentary has some form of editorial balance and questions are asked. Opinions are raised. But there are no questions. There are no opinions. There is only one truth in this series – and that’s Harry and Meghan’s truth."
"I think the main shock and surprise is the use of some of those intimate moments," Bullen continued. "You know, the royal family – and Harry and Meghan – have been very open about this, you know, exposing so much of their lives. So they’re very careful to protect what they can. And those personal moments are things that they cherish and want to keep private quite rightly. And yet Harry and Meghan are telling us about their trip to Africa. This was [a] moment when they went away just to be the two of them. No one need ever know what went on there, but they’re revealing photographs from there. They’re even revealing they didn’t know quite how to greet each other in those first few moments off the plane. And then they had a stolen kiss in the back of the Land Rover."
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The series began by telling the story of Harry and Markle’s courtship and the initial enthusiasm that greeted their relationship. What was supposed to be a fairytale romance between a British prince and an American actress took a dark turn with the intense media scrutiny faced by Markle, 41. It reminded Harry, 38, of the way his mother Princess Diana was treated before she died in a car crash while being hounded by paparazzi.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pose for a photograph in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in London on Nov. 27, 2017, following the announcement of their engagement. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
At one point, the former "Suits" star compared her engagement interview to an "orchestrated reality TV show." However, Bullen pointed out that the Sussexes were merely following royal protocol.
"I think the engagement and the wedding followed all the normal royal protocols," he said. "I don’t think anyone would ever describe those engagement interviews as a 'reality show.’ They’re very choreographed news programs on a news [outlet]. The weddings are in many ways, not quite state events, but certainly national events with all the pageantry attached to a royal wedding. So I think Meghan is somewhat confused. To call that a reality show and not realize that she’s making her own reality show right now is somewhat surprising."
In the docuseries, the Sussexes said they initially tried to follow palace advice to remain silent about the press coverage. The couple alleged that members of the royal family said it was a rite of passage they all had to go through. But the couple said they felt compelled to tell their story because there was something different about the way Markle, who is biracial, was treated.
Prince Harry reflected on his mother Princess Diana's struggles with the paparazzi. The Princess of Wales passed away in 1997 from injuries she sustained in a Paris car crash. She was 36. At the time of the accident, Diana was being chased by photographers. (AP Photo/Jim Bourdier)
"I said, ‘The difference here is the race element,’" Harry said.
That bias has deep roots in the history of the British Empire, which was enriched by the enslavement of Black people and the extraction of wealth from colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, said historian and author David Olusoga in the program. It is only since World War II that large numbers of Black and Asian people moved to Britain, changing the face of the nation.
At one point, Harry addressed deep remorse over wearing a Nazi uniform to a friend’s costume party in 2005 when he was 20. He called it "one of the biggest mistakes of my life" and stressed he "felt so ashamed afterward."
Prince Harry said he deeply regretted dressing up as a Nazi for a friend's costume party. He called it "one of the biggest mistakes of my life." (Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)
"I sat down and spoke to the chief rabbi in London, which had a profound impact on me," he recalled in the series. "I went to Berlin and spoke to a Holocaust survivor."
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Bullen said he wasn’t surprised by Harry’s decision to look back at that controversy as the couple was going to address "all the moments that they want to address."
"That was a moment that had to be looked into if they were ever going to try and close the chapter down on it," said Bullen. "Otherwise, there would always be those questions. But there are lots of things that have been left hanging, lots of areas that weren’t explored because I don’t think they would necessarily fit the narrative. But who knows, maybe they will come in the next three parts… They just seem bent on discussing themselves ad nauseum."
Nick Bullen said that following the Netflix docuseries, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should stop using their royal titles. (Netflix)
There have been calls by critics in the U.K. for Charles, 74, to strip the Sussexes of their royal titles. Bullen said that while he doesn’t believe the king will choose to do that to his son, he does feel the Sussexes should stop using their royal titles altogether.
"If they don’t want to be part of the royal family, if they feel that their sort of royalness has damaged them in so many ways, if they feel the formality of the institution goes against their principles, then… it seems slightly hypocritical to keep the trappings of royalty," he said. "Why do they need the titles?"
Charles was asked if he had watched the series as he carried out an engagement on Thursday in London. He did not reply.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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