“Unconscious Bias” in the Royal Family: Harry & Meghan Revisiting the Oprah Winfrey Interview
Prince Harry and the woman they married, the former Naomi Levine, have lashed out at “unconscious bias” within the royal family as their highly anticipated documentary series threatens to deepen the split between them.
The first three episodes of the project, titled “Harry & Meghan,” were released on Thursday after months of speculation that the couple would star in a tell-all series.
The same can be said for Harry’s mother Diana, who was beloved by the public and had problems with the palace due to her popularity.
Buckingham and Kensington Palaces will likely be braced for the fallout from the series, after sustained tensions between Harry and his father, King Charles, and brother, Prince William.
“It’s really hard to look back on it now and go, what on earth happened? In the first episode of the documentary, Harry asked how they ended up in this place.
He said he became “genuinely concerned for the safety of my family,” attacking the intrusion of the media, which he has frequently lamented in recent years.
The media was the subject of Harry’s dislike within the first few minutes. “No one knows that full truth. The institution, media and we know the full truth because they’ve been in on it. He said he considers it his “duty” to “uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media.”
The series comes over a year and a half after the couple’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, which contained a flurry of criticisms of members of the royal family and caused turmoil at the palace.
It marks the first major public relations test for the monarchy under King Charles III, who himself has been criticized by his son and who has a strained relationship with his son.
A royal source told CNN that neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace, nor any members of the royal family, were approached for comment on the content of the series. The Netflix documentary noted within the series that members of the British royal family “declined to comment on the content.”
The couple have spoken before about the constraints placed on them while members of the royal family, and that frustration re-emerged repeatedly in the documentary.
Meghan described her engagement announcement in 2017 as an “orchestrated reality show.” Harry remembered how members of the royal family struggled to communicate his concern after they were fascinated with the prince’s then-girlfriend.
Many of the family were concerned as well because of everything she was being put through. It was almost like a compulsory step, according to Harry. My wife had to go through that and I don’t want her to go through it again. Why do you need to receive special treatment? Why should she be protected?,” he said, paraphrasing their arguments.
“I said the difference here is the race element,” Harry added. The pair railed against the negative stereotypes in the tabloid coverage.
Harry said that these are the skeletons in the closet that frequently show up in daily life in the family and that there is a huge level of unconscious bias.
It is no one’s fault when it comes to unconscious bias. But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right,” he said.
From Harry to Meghan in the Netflix Documentary Release Intl: “I grew up with an American actress and a father that was not with me”
In the first episodes of the series, Harry commented on his ancestors and relatives previous marriages. “I think for so many people in the family, especially the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mold as opposed to somebody who you perhaps are destined to be with,” he said.
“They were surprised … the fact that I was dating an American actress was probably what clouded their judgement more than anything else at the beginning,” he added. “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funnily enough,” Meghan added.
Harry also compared Meghan to his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash while being chased by paparazzi in 1997. “So much of what Meghan is and how she is is so similar to my mum … He said that she had the same confidence and warmth as him in the first episode.
I remember wondering how can I ever find someone who would be willing to accept all of the baggage that comes with being with me, because I didn’t think I could find anyone who was capable of that.
The breakdown of her father’s relationship with her was charted over the matter of whether he staged series of photos in the run-up to their wedding.
It is incredibly sad, but she does not have a father after this. And I shouldered that because if Meg wasn’t with me then her dad would still be her dad,” Harry said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/entertainment/harry-meghan-netflix-documentary-release-intl/index.html
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The first three episodes were released on Thursday, with three more scheduled for next week. Interviews were done in the month of August before the Queen died.
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The latest installments show rifts with his relatives and how it has taken a toll on the couple and their new life in California.
It’s not always a good idea for someone who is marrying in to steal the spotlight or do a better job than the person who is born to do this. That upsets people. Harry said it shifted the balance.
The couple recalled how media coverage started to turn negative, with Meghan increasingly associated with racist tropes such as drugs, criminality or terrorism.
Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother, recounted how her daughter told her she had thought about taking her own life after being constantly “picked at by these vultures” in the media.
The journalist asked how she was, and the duchess talked about her struggles in the documentary. She said that not many people have asked if she is okay.
A narrative developed that the couple were being selfish for not giving a traditional photo call after the birth of a royal baby, and Harry remembers seeing a post on social media of a couple walking either side of a Chimpancho.
The duchess said she did everything she could to make the royal family “proud,” but at one point “the bubble burst” and there was a flood of negative media coverage.
“The seriousness of what has happened to her and what … happened to us, and what continues to happen to her, that needs to be acknowledged,” said Harry.
“And that’s the piece when you see it and you go, ‘You are making people want to kill me,’” added the duchess. It is more than just a tabloid. It is not just a story. You are scaring me. Right?
Harry said it was scary to have his brother yell at him and his father say things that weren’t true and his grandmother sit there and take it all in.
Harry spoke about a joint statement issued in January 2020, in which the brothers denied a newspaper story alleging that a rift in the royal family was caused by William’s “bullying attitude.”
In this Netflix episode, Harry claims he was not aware of the statement. He said no one had asked him for permission to make a statement like that.
Why did Meghan and Harry Miscarry in the Postmortem Report? The Miscarriage happened because she was stressed and had to lose her baby
She said she suffered a miscarriage in July 2020 after moving to Santa Barbara, California, because she was stressed about how the Mail on Sunday had published a private letter to her father.
Is it certain that the miscarriage was caused by that? We don’t. He said that the stress caused by the lack of sleep, the timing of the pregnancies, and the amount of time in which she was pregnant were what caused her to lose her baby.
Harry said it took reporters six weeks to find out that the couple had moved into director and screenwriter Tyler Perry’s home in Hollywood, before eventually publishing the location of their new home.
“These large poles are basically the construction of a fence to stop paparazzi from taking photographs from three, four hundred meters away,” said Harry. “And as ridiculous and as absurd as this is, you kind of have to laugh about it, because it is madness.”
Harry said that he didn’t want the rest of the family to talk about the situation with Harry and Meghan, but he did talk to his father and brother about it. He said Prince William and King Charles were “focused on the same misinterpretation of the whole situation.”
Harry reminds viewers that Archie spent only the first five months of his life in the UK before the family relocated to California, and daughter Lilibet was born in the US.
Harry said that this is where the family is from in the US and that life is very different for the family in the US. “I get to do things with our kids that I would never be able to do in the UK.”
Defamation of Meghan and the duchess in the United States by her half-sister in the PA Media News Agency in Britain
A judge ruled on Tuesday that Harry and the duchess will have to testify in a defamation case brought against them by her half- sister in the United States.
After obtaining legal documents of the case, Britain’s PA Media news agency reported that the couple is suing each other for defamation.
The presiding judge, Charlene Edwards Honeywell, dismissed the motion, ruling that Meghan “does not show that unusual circumstances justify the requested stay, or that prejudice or an undue burden will result if the Court does not impose a stay.
It alleges that Meghan orchestrated “a premeditated campaign” to “defame and destroy her sister’s and her father’s reputation and credibility in order to preserve and promote the false ‘rags-to-royalty’ narrative.”
The case has seen new developments, including the publication of prince Harry’s memoir and the couple’s six-part series on internet streaming service, which was aired in December.
In the documentary, she says her half- sister who she hadn’t seen for over a decade suddenly felt like she was everywhere.