Beyond the drama of feuding siblings and Machiavellian royal aides working with a hostile press, the key question emerging from Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s Netflix documentary is whether it does lasting damage to King Charles and the British monarchy.
During six hours of television, Harry and Meghan delivered a series of accusations against what they portrayed as a tone-deaf institution that did not care about their emotional well-being and prepared for them to suffer if it meant better media coverage for other members of the royal family. the highest royal family. .
“It’s like living in a soap opera where everyone sees you as entertainment,” Harry said in one of the latest episodes released on Thursday.
When the couple tied the knot in a glittering ceremony in 2018, their union was hailed as a breath of fresh air, the epitome of a modern monarchy: the then-popular prince and the glamorous biracial American actress.
But as they explained in graphic detail in their docu-series, that fairy tale soon turned sour amid a flurry of negative press coverage, some of which Harry blamed on those working for Prince William, his older brother and now heir to the throne.
“He looked cold, but he felt cold too,” Harry said of his family’s feelings towards him in his final official engagement. In 2020, the couple decided to step back from their royal roles, moving to California and becoming financially independent.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s departure was bad news for the institution, said Catherine Mayer, author of the recent biography “Charles: Heart of a King.”
“Meghan and Harry’s departure from the royal ranks has been far more damaging to the monarchy than the coverage that vilifies them understands or accepts,” he told Reuters.
“His arrival was this source of enormous hope for people of color, and also just for younger people. His departure is seen as a failure and a betrayal, and that’s immensely damaging to the monarchy because the monarchy needs consensus to survive. It needs support to survive, and it’s losing it.”
But opinion polls suggest that may not be the case. According to a YouGov poll last week, Harry, who previously topped those ratings, and Meghan are now Britain’s most unpopular royals, apart from their uncle Prince Andrew, who settled an abuse lawsuit sex in the United States in February. William and his wife Kate were the most popular, although polls show that younger people are far more ambivalent than older Britons about the monarchy in general.
The Royals have been in a similar position before. In the early 1990s, the disintegration of Charles’ marriage to his first wife, Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, was played out in full media glare.
After Diana’s public accusations against the royal household and her death in 1997, the future of the 1,000-year-old institution seemed at times uncertain. But it bounced back and became more popular than ever, with Harry and his brother William at the fore.
According to Harry, Meghan’s subsequent popularity was seen as a problem, stealing the limelight from the “born to do it” – a less than subtle dig at his brother and father.
If Harry’s assessment that negative stories were being planted against him and Meghan is true – an allegation rejected by newspapers and aides who have spoken publicly – then perhaps the campaign could be considered a success.
A Savanta poll found that 59% of respondents in Britain said it was a bad idea for Harry and Meghan to air their documentary, with half saying they did not trust the show to be an accurate account of the experience of the couple
“Personally, I don’t think it will do lasting damage to the monarchy,” royal biographer Claudia Joseph said of the Netflix ( NFLX.O ) documentary.
“I think people who are royalists will continue to be royalists and see it when Meghan and Harry throw their toys out of the pram again, and people who are republicans will continue to be republicans and blame the royal family for the way they have treated Harry. and Meghan.”
Or, as Tarek Hilal, a 45-year-old Londoner, said on Thursday: “In the long run, it won’t make any difference. A tempest in a teacup.”