Prince Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary: Royals insist it’s ‘business as usual’
The Royal family will treat the coming week as “business as usual” to plough ahead with a full programme of engagements, as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unleash the untold story of their “challenges” to millions of viewers around the world.
The first instalment of the “unprecedented” six-part Netflix series is expected to be released on Thursday, in the middle of an ordinary week for the Royal family.
On the same day, the King will carry out two community visits, while his siblings fulfil commitments to charities ranging from Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, honouring their late father.
The Telegraph understands that the attitude of the family towards any predicted Sussex bombshells will be to “keep calm and carry on” in the face of provocation, underlining their differing approach to public life.
Events are expected to include the annual white-tie Diplomatic Reception, which has traditionally been held at Buckingham Palace and usually sees the Royal family out in force to honour several hundred foreign and British diplomats.
Elsewhere, the Queen Consort will invite seriously and terminally ill children to Clarence House to decorate its Christmas tree, and the Prince of Wales will carry out an investiture celebrating worthy members of the public.
A palace source said: “The Royal family will be going about their business as usual. There are engagements in the diary and they will carry on with them.
“That’s their only focus.”
‘Weariness’ to Sussexes’ interviews
The attitude of the King and his family towards the ongoing Sussex interviews has been described as “weariness”.
Promotional material from Netflix promises that members of Prince Harry and Meghan’s family and friends will be taking part in the show, in their first on-camera interviews about “what they witnessed”.
They are not believed to include any extended members of the Royal family.
While some have predicted Princess Eugenie could speak up for the couple, remaining on good terms with her cousin Prince Harry and visiting the family in California, The Telegraph can confirm that none of the York family will take part.
The Duchess of Sussex is not known to be on trusted terms with members of her own family except her mother Doria Ragland, with her father Thomas Markle entirely estranged.
The programme, called Harry & Meghan, will explain the “challenges that led to them feeling forced to step back from their full-time roles in the institution”, according to Netflix.
The one-minute trailer reveals a stream of previously-unseen photographs of the couple. The only image of the Royal family shows the Prince and Princess of Wales looking stern during a Westminster Abbey service in 2019, with the Sussexes behind them.
One picture, which flashes across the screen amid shots of photographers and newspapers rolling off the press, suggests the programme will also focus on the history of the Royal Family, the public and Commonwealth.
Taken in 1938 when Queen Mary visited Brixton, it shows smartly-dressed smiling black and white school children waving Union flags. The little-known picture has previously been used to illustrate articles including the BBC’s “the Black British history you may not know about”.
Netflix confirmed the documentary will “discuss the state of the British Commonwealth today”, with an extended blog post on its website explaining it will see “historians and journalists… dissect how media influenced Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the Royal family and the Commonwealth at large”.
Sources have previously told The Telegraph that it will cover the issue of race and racism, and how it intersected with the perceived treatment of the Duchess of Sussex in Britain.
Any claims airing in the coming week will be particularly topical, following a “race row” at Buckingham Palace in which a long-serving senior member of staff resigned after being accused of interrogating a British-born black visitor about where she was “really” from during a reception.
Netflix has not yet confirmed when the documentary will stream. It is reported that three episodes will air on Thursday, with the remaining three coming a week later on the same day as the Princess of Wales’s Westminster Abbey carol concert for children.
