Prince Harry has appeared to discuss his family and its complicated relationship with the media in the latest full-length trailer for his upcoming Netflix docuseries with Meghan Markle titled Harry & Meghan, which was released on Monday.
The show, which is billed as an "unprecedented and in-depth" series focusing on Harry and Meghan's love story, will be released in two installments through streaming giant Netflix. Part one will see episodes 1 to 3 released on December 8, and part two with episodes 4 to 6 will follow on December 15.
During the trailer, clips of news coverage praising the couple following their 2018 wedding are played, after which Harry is seen saying: "Everything changed."
The prince's voice is then overcut with a photograph of members of his family standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, saying: "There's a hierarchy of the family...You know, there's leaking but there's also planting of stories."
Harry and Meghan have previously spoken out about Meghan's treatment at the hands of the British press following their marriage, most explicitly in their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
As well as calling some of the coverage racist, the couple spoke about an "invisible contract" between the press and the royal family that dominates behind palace doors.
"To simplify it," Harry told Winfrey, "it's a case of...if you as a family member are willing to wine, dine and give full access to these reporters, then you will get better press."
On this theme, Meghan added: "I think there's a reason that these tabloids have holiday parties at the Palace. They're hosted by the Palace, the tabloids are. You know, there is a construct that's at play there. And because from the beginning of our relationship, they were so attacking and inciting so much racism, really, it changed our...the risk level, because it went...it wasn't just catty gossip.
"It was bringing out a part of people that was racist in how it was charged. And that changed the threat. That changed the level of death threats. That changed everything," she said.
Following the broadcast of the interview, Buckingham Palace released a statement saying that "the whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan."
It continued: "The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan, and Archie will always be much-loved family members."
The couple stepped away from their royal roles and moved to the United States in 2020, one year before the sitdown with Winfrey.
The year of their move, Harry and Meghan signed a multi-million-dollar content creation deal with Netflix, the first product of which is the forthcoming docuseries.
Also featured in the trailer are photographs of the late Princess Diana, shown as Harry says in a voiceover: "The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution, this feeding frenzy...I was terrified. I didn't want history to repeat itself."
Diana's death and the parallels between the media treatment of Meghan are expected to be explored in the docuseries, as well as in the prince's upcoming memoir due for publication on January 10 titled Spare.
The prince has previously spoken about his fears that his wife would succumb to the same fate as his mother, who died at age 36 in a Paris car crash alongside boyfriend Dodi Fayed while being pursued by paparazzi photographers.
"My biggest regret is not making more of a stance earlier on in the relationship with my wife in calling out the racism when I did," he said of Meghan's time in Britain," he said during the 2021 docuseries The Me You Can't See.
"History was repeating itself. My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn't white and now look what's happened. You want to talk about history repeating itself? They're not going to stop until [Meghan] dies."
Harry & Meghan streams globally on Netflix from December 8.
Newsweek reached out to Buckingham Palace and representatives of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for comment.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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