#HarryandMeghan #RoyalHypocrites #RoyalFamily #Documentary
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00:00:01Harry and Meghan, once the darlings of the nation,
00:00:04heralding an exciting new era for the royal family.
00:00:08It did seem like a marriage made in heaven.
00:00:10It seemed like a truly glamorous transatlantic fairy tale.
00:00:15Now, one of the most divisive couples in the world.
00:00:19So what happened?
00:00:21The Duke and Duchess of Sussex say they intend to step back
00:00:25as senior members of the royal family.
00:00:27Some believe that what they say and what they do
00:00:30are two very different things.
00:00:32Harry, almost all of his life, he was the prince of privacy.
00:00:36But at some point, he just performed this about-face
00:00:39and decided that actually he was going to be the prince of telling it all.
00:00:42Today, they continue to stoke the fires of controversy.
00:00:46I think it's easy to see why people think it is hypocritical.
00:00:50You're saying this and then you're doing something else.
00:00:52I think Meghan and Harry like to dip their toes in controversial issues.
00:00:56and then run for the hills.
00:00:58It's very simple.
00:00:59If you're going to campaign against climate change,
00:01:01don't take private jets.
00:01:03But are Harry and Meghan victims of a hostile press?
00:01:06There are some newspapers which continue to be obsessed with them.
00:01:10And you look at them and think, why are you still doing this?
00:01:13Or are they, in fact, royal hypocrites?
00:01:15They don't help themselves, do they?
00:01:17They make these big statements and then they go back on it.
00:01:20So, as the public, you're saying, well, you're saying this
00:01:22and then you're doing something else.
00:01:30Harry and Meghan now live in Montecito,
00:01:32100 miles north of Los Angeles,
00:01:35with their two children, Archie and Lilibet.
00:01:37Archie took his very first steps right here.
00:01:40Right here.
00:01:42They're no longer working royals,
00:01:45and are effectively living in exile from the royal family.
00:01:52In order to work out whether Harry and Meghan really are royal hypocrites,
00:01:56we've got to go all the way back to the very beginning.
00:02:02Early on, the couple's relationship created a huge buzz of excitement.
00:02:06When Harry and Meghan got together,
00:02:09this felt like a new departure for the royal family.
00:02:11The first time I saw Meghan Markle with Prince Harry
00:02:15was in Nottingham on a very cold December morning.
00:02:19And Meghan was really welcomed with open arms.
00:02:21She did a walkabout alongside Prince Harry,
00:02:24accepting gifts, accepting flowers,
00:02:26and there was a real sense of excitement.
00:02:29They seemed so in love.
00:02:31Actually, something we haven't really seen before with the royal couple,
00:02:34they were so touchy-feely in public.
00:02:37You'd look at them, and you'd think,
00:02:38wow, this couple are really into each other.
00:02:41Oh, she looked beautiful.
00:02:43She was amazing, didn't she? She was lovely.
00:02:44I just said, turn you up.
00:02:46Your mom would be so happy for you.
00:02:48It's made me cry.
00:02:50It was really exciting for people like us in the media,
00:02:53because she was such a modern breath of fresh air for the royal family.
00:02:56She was a Hollywood glossy celebrity,
00:02:58beautiful, fabulous hair and makeup and teeth and clothes already.
00:03:03So, yeah, she was completely different.
00:03:05She broke the royal mould.
00:03:06It was very awkward at first.
00:03:08Like, oh, God, do we kiss?
00:03:10And I just remember he handed me a chicken sandwich.
00:03:15So with this changing dialogue in society,
00:03:17greatness, awareness and diversity,
00:03:19how did the royal family fit into that?
00:03:22Along comes Meghan into that mix.
00:03:25There was a huge amount of hope,
00:03:28a huge amount of positive dialogue
00:03:30of what the Shadrall family could be for the future.
00:03:37Before the wedding,
00:03:38she got involved with the community kitchen
00:03:40near the site of the Grenfell fire.
00:03:42Meghan then had the idea of suggesting to these women
00:03:45who run the kitchen of publishing a cookbook,
00:03:48which was a fantastic success.
00:03:50That showed Meghan's initiative,
00:03:53her ideas, her energy, her fresh approach.
00:03:56There was this real idea
00:03:57that Meghan as a woman of colour
00:03:58was going to come into the monarchy.
00:04:00She was going to sweep away the cobwebs
00:04:02and she was going to make everything better.
00:04:04And, you know, this whole legacy of colonialism,
00:04:06which is connected to monarchy for progressives in Britain,
00:04:09would be kind of resolved and it would just go away.
00:04:12We were all so excited.
00:04:14She was completely different.
00:04:15She broke the royal mould.
00:04:17This is the royal family
00:04:18getting with the programme, if you like.
00:04:20I'm mixed race myself.
00:04:21So when I saw Meghan,
00:04:22I thought, this is really exciting.
00:04:23She's mixed race.
00:04:24She stands for people like me.
00:04:27We already had William and Catherine
00:04:29married, very, very popular.
00:04:33And then you add in to the mix Harry and Meghan
00:04:36and, of course, they started being promoted as a foursome.
00:04:40The fab four, such a brilliant set-up.
00:04:43You have the two brothers and then the two sister-in-laws.
00:04:46And you just thought, the chemistry, this is going to fly.
00:04:49Everyone felt that excitement.
00:04:51The public felt it.
00:04:52That was reflected in the press.
00:04:54She was 10 out of 10.
00:04:56For me, she could have done no wrong.
00:04:59And then, obviously, it all went wrong.
00:05:03Many of the accusations of hypocrisy
00:05:05seem to stem from Harry and Meghan's
00:05:07troubled relationship with the press.
00:05:10Harry and Meghan were very, very sensitive to any criticism
00:05:14and particularly, of course, to any hint of racism
00:05:17in the coverage that Meghan was getting.
00:05:20And he was not backward in coming forward
00:05:22with those criticisms of the press.
00:05:25And that was very different to what had been done before.
00:05:28The palaces handled the press very differently.
00:05:32If there was something they didn't like,
00:05:34they didn't draw attention to it
00:05:36by overtly criticizing and making public statements.
00:05:40But Harry didn't want to do it that way.
00:05:42He wanted to do it his own way.
00:05:44There was toxic stuff being printed about Meghan
00:05:47that created a massive argument
00:05:49and prompted Harry to release through his press secretary
00:05:52this incredibly dramatic statement
00:05:54calling out the racist undertones of comment pieces.
00:05:57Britain's Prince Harry's household
00:05:59has issued an unusually strongly worded statement
00:06:01attacking the British tabloid press
00:06:03for their treatment of his latest girlfriend, Meghan Markle.
00:06:08Harry's statement raised the stakes
00:06:10and made the serious allegation of racism
00:06:13against the British press.
00:06:18I think when you compare the headlines,
00:06:19you've got Catherine and you've got Meghan,
00:06:21there's no doubt about it
00:06:23that there were racial overtones when it came to Meghan.
00:06:25They were both doing exactly the same things,
00:06:27yet somehow they'd always find fault with Meghan.
00:06:30The worst, in my view,
00:06:32was a terrible, terrible piece in Mail Online
00:06:35saying Harry's girl is straight out of Compton.
00:06:39It's a smear as though she comes from gangland territory.
00:06:43And it was completely untrue.
00:06:44I think it's very clear to see
00:06:46there's headlines that have a racial slur to them
00:06:49or have an angle that,
00:06:50if you compared that to Harry's previous girlfriends,
00:06:53never existed.
00:06:54I do not think it's fair
00:06:55that there was a racial undertone.
00:06:57It's a commentary about Meghan.
00:06:59If anything,
00:07:00I think sometimes she's invited that kind of commentary.
00:07:03Harry has accused the British press
00:07:06of having a racial undertone since day one,
00:07:08and I don't think it's fair.
00:07:10I never even thought about racism.
00:07:13I think there's always a conversation there
00:07:15about how much of that is racism,
00:07:17and how much of it is classism,
00:07:18how much of it is the British press just being mean.
00:07:21And I think probably all of those things exist
00:07:23and all of those things are true,
00:07:25and not one of them is the single universal factor.
00:07:28Harry and Meghan's relationship with the press
00:07:30was fraught from the start,
00:07:32as they sought to maintain control over their private lives.
00:07:35But it would emerge as a constant theme
00:07:37in the allegations of double standards in the years to come.
00:07:41Never underestimate what it must feel like
00:07:44to be the eye of that media storm.
00:07:47Every single day, day in, day out.
00:07:50And not only from tabloid press,
00:07:52where it's your photo and these headlines
00:07:54and, you know, all the things that go around that,
00:07:56but also just sort of online commentary.
00:07:59It is non-stop, 24-7.
00:08:02Harry was always looking for the media and the press
00:08:05to revolt him, to disgust him,
00:08:07and the closer he looked,
00:08:09the more confirmation of his own bias, I think,
00:08:12you could say he did get.
00:08:17At the hands of the press,
00:08:19to pretty much any other young royal,
00:08:21I personally don't feel it was much different.
00:08:24But it was Harry and Meghan's wedding in 2018
00:08:27that opened them up to the first charge of inconsistency.
00:08:31We know that in 2014,
00:08:33at the time of William and Catherine's wedding,
00:08:35that Meghan was writing in her blog
00:08:37and seemed to think that all the fuss and palaver
00:08:41about the royal wedding happening in the UK
00:08:43was over the top.
00:08:45Harry and Meghan seemed to say
00:08:48that they wanted something a bit smaller
00:08:51and more intimate on their wedding day.
00:08:53And her wedding was a monster of a royal wedding.
00:08:56Millions of people watching,
00:08:58everybody getting caught up in their almost hysteria.
00:09:01There were people at the wedding that they didn't know.
00:09:04These were just celebrities that they invited to their wedding
00:09:07and the celebrities couldn't resist saying yes
00:09:09because it's a royal wedding.
00:09:10I think they didn't know the Clooneys.
00:09:12I think a lot of people questioned why it appears
00:09:15that the only member of Meghan's family
00:09:18was her mother, Doria, within St. George's Chapel.
00:09:22Lots of celebrity friends,
00:09:24but in terms of close family, or indeed friends,
00:09:26there weren't many there.
00:09:28What they say and what they want us to believe
00:09:31don't always seem to be the same thing.
00:09:34I think, personally, it was hypocritical
00:09:37because if Harry really wanted a smaller wedding,
00:09:40he could have got married at Ulstrup.
00:09:42That's the Spencer home,
00:09:44and I thought they would get married there.
00:09:47I don't know what world they're living in
00:09:50to think that they could have ever, ever had a small wedding.
00:09:53Come on, it is Prince Harry.
00:09:55We've been working out who he's going to marry
00:09:57for the past 25 years, the poor boy.
00:10:00Like, of course it's going to be a big wedding,
00:10:03and this is pretty much like the role of the royal family.
00:10:06They need to give us these wonderful standout moments
00:10:10that showcase the UK, that establish them as royalty.
00:10:14Boy, wasn't it all that.
00:10:16The idea that Harry and Meghan might say one thing
00:10:19and do another had been seeded.
00:10:22A year after the wedding,
00:10:24Harry launched a new global travel company called Travelist,
00:10:27the aim to focus on sustainable travel options.
00:10:32For Prince Harry, there was a point when, you know,
00:10:35the environment was a huge, huge subject that he was campaigning on.
00:10:38As we sit here today, our world is on fire again.
00:10:43And I think the most troubling part of it is
00:10:45that I don't believe that there's anybody in this world
00:10:48that can deny science.
00:10:50Together, I believe we can make a lasting difference.
00:10:53He has this organization Travelist,
00:10:55and the whole point of Travelist is to create the system
00:10:58where you can choose as a consumer
00:11:01to pick the environmentally friendly option when you fly.
00:11:04Sometimes when we appreciate the world's beauty,
00:11:07we heighten its fragility.
00:11:09It's a paradox.
00:11:11But in our enthusiasm, we can put great strain
00:11:14on the natural wonders we travel to see.
00:11:16Harry's eco-credentials were soon in the spotlight.
00:11:20Of course, the more Harry talks about green matters,
00:11:22the more people start to take notice
00:11:24of the type of transport he's taking.
00:11:27The first time they took a private jet as a married couple,
00:11:30the press picked up on it, slammed him for being a hypocrite.
00:11:34Now, at that point, you quickly pivot your strategy.
00:11:37I'd have a conversation and say, you know,
00:11:39oh, dear, darling, let's not take a private jet again.
00:11:42At least not while we're launching Travelist,
00:11:44an eco-travel company.
00:11:47Their belligerence, I think, is what gets them in so much trouble,
00:11:50because it's just the easiest and most obvious PR win in the world.
00:11:54Some people say it's for their security,
00:11:57and then you see a very obvious comparison
00:12:00where you'll see William and Catherine getting on an easy jet flight.
00:12:04I've been on a commercial jet with Harry.
00:12:07He seemed perfectly safe at the time.
00:12:09It's all about being self-aware.
00:12:11I'm not always sure they hit the nail on the head with that.
00:12:16But Harry and Meghan are not the only high-profile celebrities
00:12:20guilty of contradicting the green values they're promoting.
00:12:24The trouble is when people are really keen on climate change,
00:12:28they all look hypocritical.
00:12:30You look at Leonardo DiCaprio,
00:12:31who is a big supporter of climate change,
00:12:34and then he takes private jets.
00:12:36I think you get into quite murky waters quite quickly
00:12:39when you start to scrutinise individual actions
00:12:42and look at it compared to sort of the really big causes
00:12:45that they're standing for.
00:12:47Bill Gates, he gets private jets,
00:12:49but he still does enormous good in the world.
00:12:52I think if there's any opportunity to nitpick
00:12:54or to highlight any hypocrisy,
00:12:56then the tabloids are on it straight away.
00:12:59There is a whole industry that makes money
00:13:02out of hating on Harry and Meghan.
00:13:07Coming up...
00:13:08my jaw hit the floor.
00:13:09Harry and Meghan make one of the biggest decisions
00:13:12of their lives and decide to step back
00:13:14from their roles as working royals.
00:13:16There really was no other option.
00:13:26Harry and Meghan now live in California.
00:13:28Their relationship with the royal family is in tatters,
00:13:31and public opinion is divided.
00:13:33I think, unfortunately, everything that Harry and Meghan have done
00:13:37sort of smacks of hypocrisy
00:13:39and therefore is rather distasteful.
00:13:41But in 2019, the cracks between the newlyweds
00:13:45and the rest of the royal family were only just starting to show.
00:13:49The royal family is an institution.
00:13:53It is governed by duty.
00:13:54It is governed by arcane rules.
00:13:57And in comes two people who want to breathe life into it
00:14:02and modernise it and reflect the values of a modern society.
00:14:06And they didn't understand the rules.
00:14:12In 2019, Harry and Meghan's son Archie was born.
00:14:16Six months later, they went on a tour of South Africa
00:14:19and it became clear they wanted to do things their own way.
00:14:23The Tom Bradby documentary was a big turning point.
00:14:28Tom Bradby was able to elicit a response from Harry
00:14:32and from Meghan that no one else had done before.
00:14:36Both of them clearly upset, feeling vulnerable,
00:14:40feeling angry and feeling quite isolated.
00:14:43She's biting her lips.
00:14:44She's looking up at him, looking very vulnerable
00:14:47and saying, you know, thank you for asking if I'm okay,
00:14:50because I'm not okay.
00:14:51Not many people have asked if I'm okay,
00:14:54but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.
00:15:00And the answer is, would it be fair to say not really okay,
00:15:05since it's really been a struggle?
00:15:07Yes.
00:15:09Some of the press and some within royal circles
00:15:12were very disapproving of the fact that Harry and Meghan
00:15:15had decided to speak personally about themselves
00:15:19rather than to speak about the issues that they were supposed to be
00:15:22drawing attention to.
00:15:24I remember my jaw hit the floor,
00:15:27because this is so unlike what you'd expect from a royal family member.
00:15:31Harry and Meghan disregarded the royal family's mantra,
00:15:35never complain, never explain.
00:15:37Other members of the family will always respond, you know,
00:15:41I'm absolutely fine, thank you very much, never been better,
00:15:44no matter what was going on in private.
00:15:46I don't feel like she's letting it all out.
00:15:49She's pretty composed in that moment.
00:15:52You can see her thinking about her responses.
00:15:55You can see her trying to keep her face in order
00:15:58and not to sort of, you know, crumple on camera.
00:16:02They did a huge amount promoting other causes,
00:16:05making speeches, visiting different areas,
00:16:08promoting different charities.
00:16:10But that doesn't make as much noise as it does when she's saying,
00:16:14Oh, I am really struggling at the moment.
00:16:17But that wasn't the only issue critics had with the documentary.
00:16:21The intimate nature of what they were divulging in their interviews
00:16:24seemed at odds with the privacy they'd been calling for from the press.
00:16:29It's very difficult not to smell hypocrisy
00:16:33when you look at Harry and Meghan's tour
00:16:36as they promote themselves and promote their own stories
00:16:39whilst asking for privacy.
00:16:41I think there is a perception that Harry has wanted to have his cake and eat it.
00:16:45I've never found it hypocritical that they say they want privacy
00:16:49and they also then release some information about themselves.
00:16:53I think we all do that, admittedly, on much smaller levels.
00:16:56Just because I post a picture on Instagram
00:16:58doesn't mean I want you to come to my house.
00:17:00Just because I write an article about a breakup
00:17:02doesn't mean I want you to go and find the guy I was dating
00:17:04and ask him about me.
00:17:06In early 2020, Harry and Meghan announced
00:17:09they'd decided to leave their positions as working royals.
00:17:13Their plan was to move to America
00:17:15and establish financial independence.
00:17:18The bond which was once so close
00:17:21has, in every formal royal sense, been shattered.
00:17:24I've accepted this knowing that it doesn't change who I am
00:17:28or how committed I am.
00:17:30But I hope that helps you understand what it had come to.
00:17:34That I would step my family back from all I have ever known.
00:17:38To take a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life.
00:17:43I actually think it was the right decision to quit.
00:17:46I think that Harry was not happy in the monarchy.
00:17:49I think Meghan did not get on as a royal
00:17:51and probably was never really going to
00:17:54because she was always looking to the future
00:17:56and the monarchy is a relic of the past.
00:18:00After Harry and Meghan stepped back,
00:18:02they agreed not to use the word royal,
00:18:05but they decided to keep their Duke and Duchess titles,
00:18:08which proved a wise decision.
00:18:10Harry and Meghan decided to step back from the royal family.
00:18:13They said that they didn't want to be part of the inner circle anymore.
00:18:17But then once you're out of the monarchy,
00:18:19it's like, well, actually, keeping the title
00:18:21is a hugely important part of being able to market yourself
00:18:24as a unique product in the private sector in Hollywood
00:18:27because nobody else is a prince or a duke or a duchess.
00:18:31So I think there was an about turn.
00:18:33They have reportedly changed their children's surname to Sussex
00:18:37to match their own titles.
00:18:39And they use the Sussex title as a surname
00:18:43rather than what they previously claimed in 2019
00:18:46when Prince Archie was born,
00:18:48that he would have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
00:18:52So why are you using your granted royal status as a surname
00:18:57if you are so opposed to having anything to do with the royal family?
00:19:00They don't help themselves, do they?
00:19:02Because they make these big statements,
00:19:03clearly in a moment of anger,
00:19:05clearly in a moment of feeling like they want to rip it all up.
00:19:08And then they go back on it.
00:19:10So as the public, you're saying,
00:19:12well, you're saying this and then you're doing something else.
00:19:17Soon after the titles controversy,
00:19:19Palace Insiders leaked a story about unhappiness
00:19:23within the ranks of Harry and Meghan's staff.
00:19:25So when Meghan first came onto the scene,
00:19:27it was all about her being this kind of social justice era icon.
00:19:32She was going out and doing charity work
00:19:34and she was turning stereotypes on their heads.
00:19:37But obviously, part of the social justice world view
00:19:40is that you have to be nice to people.
00:19:42And Meghan was accused of bullying two PAs out of Kensington Palace.
00:19:46It sort of emerged that there was this group of people
00:19:49called the Sussex Survivor Squad.
00:19:51And they all believe that they suffered at the hands of Meghan and Harry.
00:19:55One girl said she was reduced to tears,
00:19:58that they had 5am emails,
00:20:00that they were hounded by this couple
00:20:03and their behavior was abhorrent.
00:20:05She was known as Duchess Difficult,
00:20:08and that really rankled with her.
00:20:10When the allegation of bullying first surfaced,
00:20:13Meghan rejected it,
00:20:15saying this was the latest attack on her character.
00:20:18I find all the reports around Meghan's bullying very confusing
00:20:23because the Meghan I see when I'm watching on interviews
00:20:26and seeing her interact with the public,
00:20:28that does not ring true at all to somebody who could be a bully.
00:20:33But there's a part of me that thinks there's no smoke without fire.
00:20:38Some would say it's just an Americanism,
00:20:41you know, just are more demanding,
00:20:43that she wasn't very royal in the way that she behaved with staff members.
00:20:47I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.
00:20:50These same allegations have now been made against Meghan in America,
00:20:53where staff within their American operation have described Meghan as,
00:20:57you know, one person said a dictator in high heels,
00:20:59their words, not mine.
00:21:01You know, that is the recurring allegation that exists in both contexts.
00:21:05By the spring of 2021,
00:21:07Harry and Meghan were living in California
00:21:09with their children, Archie and Lilibet,
00:21:11estranged from the rest of the royal family.
00:21:14They agreed to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey,
00:21:17a broadcast that has now been seen by almost 50 million people.
00:21:21So you left because you were asking for help and couldn't get it?
00:21:26Yeah, basically.
00:21:27It's been so spun in the wrong direction,
00:21:29as though we quit, we walked away.
00:21:31My biggest concern was history repeating itself.
00:21:33I think the Oprah interview was a sort of nuclear bomb
00:21:39dropped on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.
00:21:41It was absolutely extraordinary.
00:21:43It was saying the unsayable.
00:21:45It was giving us an insight into a distorted relationship between father and son.
00:21:53It was as powerful as Diana's interview on BBC.
00:21:59There was no holes barred.
00:22:01The interview made an immediate impact.
00:22:05The Oprah interview was littered with hand grenades throughout it.
00:22:11Prince Harry accused his father,
00:22:13the then Prince Charles, now King,
00:22:15of financially cutting him off
00:22:17when he stopped being a working member of the royal family.
00:22:21My family literally cut me off financially,
00:22:24and I had to afford security for us.
00:22:27Wait, hold up, wait a minute.
00:22:29Your family cut you off?
00:22:31Yeah.
00:22:32Meghan claims and Harry claims
00:22:34that she was offered no help
00:22:36with her mental health struggles.
00:22:39To receive no help at all,
00:22:41and to be told continuously,
00:22:43this is how it is.
00:22:44This is just how it is.
00:22:45We've all been through it.
00:22:47It gave Harry and Meghan a high-profile opportunity
00:22:50to tell their side of the story.
00:22:52I think that's exactly why they did the Oprah interview for a start.
00:22:56Why shouldn't they have their say?
00:22:58One of the claims Meghan made in the interview
00:23:01centered around how much knowledge she had
00:23:03about the royals before she met Harry.
00:23:06What did you think it was going to be like?
00:23:09I will say I went into it naively.
00:23:11Mm-hmm.
00:23:12Because I didn't grow up knowing much about the royal family.
00:23:16How much Meghan knew about being a part of the royal family
00:23:19has been highly debated for years.
00:23:22Meghan knew exactly what she was doing.
00:23:24There's even photographs of her sitting outside Buckingham Palace
00:23:27on a tourist trip to London.
00:23:29Of course she knew about Harry.
00:23:31She was a Princess Diana fan.
00:23:33It's perfectly normal for anyone,
00:23:35when they are a tourist in London,
00:23:37they would go to Buckingham Palace.
00:23:39It doesn't mean that you're obsessed with the royals.
00:23:41There have been claims that she was looking for her prince,
00:23:46but not necessarily a real-life prince,
00:23:48perhaps just somebody who was British,
00:23:50who had status, who had money.
00:23:53She blogged about the royal family, about Kate's wedding.
00:23:56She must have Googled Harry.
00:23:57Sometimes she says she hasn't,
00:23:58but there are other times that she's admitted she has.
00:24:00She obviously didn't have zero knowledge of him
00:24:03when she was friends with his cousin.
00:24:05She was friends with Princess Eugenie before she ever met him.
00:24:08And this is one of the things that's so frustrating about Harry and Meghan,
00:24:11is even when they do have a legitimate point to make,
00:24:13they will often pluck some absurd and weird example out of thin air
00:24:19that is implausible.
00:24:21Meghan's knowledge of the royal family was probably quite limited.
00:24:24She knew as much as all of us do,
00:24:26but I don't think she was quite prepared
00:24:28for what was in front of her.
00:24:31Meghan also spoke about how unprepared she was
00:24:34for the royal family's customs and traditions.
00:24:38Harry and I are in the car,
00:24:40and he says,
00:24:41OK, well, my grandmother's there, so you're going to meet her.
00:24:43I go, great.
00:24:44I love grand...
00:24:45I loved my grandmother.
00:24:46I used to take care of my grandma.
00:24:47This is great.
00:24:48He goes, right, do you know how to curtsy?
00:24:49She famously said
00:24:50that she didn't know how to curtsy for the queen
00:24:52and that Fergie had to give her a quick 30-second briefing.
00:24:56He said, do you know how to curtsy?
00:24:58Now, I thought genuinely that that was what happens outside.
00:25:02Yeah.
00:25:03I thought that was part of the fanfare.
00:25:05Uh-huh.
00:25:06I didn't think that's what happens inside.
00:25:08And I said, but it's your grandmother.
00:25:09He goes, it's the queen.
00:25:11Personally, I don't find that those two stories
00:25:13are particularly at odds with each other.
00:25:15I think you can have an understanding of the royal family.
00:25:18You can have thought that Princess Diana
00:25:20was fantastic and glamorous and exciting when you're young,
00:25:24but not understand that curtsying behind closed doors is a thing.
00:25:27I think many people would think
00:25:29the royals would be much more informal away from the public
00:25:33than they would be in front of the public.
00:25:36Meghan didn't actually try and understand it.
00:25:39That's the difference.
00:25:40She didn't try or seem to want to understand it.
00:25:43The most controversial claim was that Meghan had faced racism
00:25:47from within the royal family.
00:25:49Meghan made this very high-profile allegation
00:25:52of racism in the royal family.
00:25:54You know, she said an unnamed royal family member
00:25:57had commented on how dark her unborn child's skin might be
00:26:01and expressed concern about it.
00:26:03There is a conversation with you...
00:26:07With Harry.
00:26:08..about how dark your baby is going to be?
00:26:12Potentially, and what that would mean or look like.
00:26:15Ooh.
00:26:19And you're not going to tell me who had the conversation?
00:26:21I think that would be very damaging to them.
00:26:24This is the most sensational thing you could imagine
00:26:27coming out of an interview.
00:26:28The very fact the interview was taking place at all
00:26:31was unbelievably shocking.
00:26:33And then, to make a claim like that, it was next level.
00:26:36And when you just sort of put it out there,
00:26:38but you don't specify who it was or exactly how it happened,
00:26:41a media storm will be created around that.
00:26:44The repercussions, the ripples that are going to be felt
00:26:47by the entire royal family and the UK,
00:26:50it's going to be huge.
00:26:52Another media storm followed in the summer of 2021,
00:26:57when Harry and Meghan decided to name their daughter Lilibet,
00:27:00the childhood name of her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
00:27:03They say they don't even want their royal status,
00:27:08but they still have called their daughter Lilibet after the Queen.
00:27:12Harry likes to give the impression they asked the Queen.
00:27:16And I know for a fact that afterwards,
00:27:19the Queen went around telling people in private,
00:27:21well, they never asked me.
00:27:25I would name my kid after my grandma,
00:27:27and she's not any old lady, she's Queen Elizabeth,
00:27:30you know, and what a lady she was.
00:27:34Coming up...
00:27:35I just don't see how he's going to make money
00:27:37unless he flogs his royal title.
00:27:39Harry is accused of double standards
00:27:42as he funds his expensive Californian lifestyle
00:27:45by invading the very privacy he'd been trying to protect.
00:27:56By 2021, Harry and Meghan were living on the west coast of America
00:28:00and trying to establish their financial independence.
00:28:03The accusations of double standards were about to get much worse.
00:28:07They made that move to California,
00:28:10and they need to make a vast amount of money.
00:28:16One of their biggest expenses was their security,
00:28:19and a fight developed about who should pick up the substantial bill.
00:28:24When Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from being senior royals,
00:28:27they lost their top-level security protection.
00:28:30Now, Prince Harry's legal team is challenging that decision.
00:28:34As a senior member of the royal family,
00:28:36you are entitled to 24-7 taxpayer-funded police protection.
00:28:43When Harry stood back as a working member of the royal family,
00:28:46he and Meghan's security status was downgraded.
00:28:49Harry felt that was unfair,
00:28:52because although he is no longer a working member,
00:28:54from Harry's perspective, they still have targets on their backs.
00:29:00In the autumn of 2021,
00:29:02Harry began legal action against the government,
00:29:04arguing that he shouldn't have to pay for his own security.
00:29:08I think what he wants is the super security,
00:29:11which is when you have the outriders,
00:29:13and they stop the traffic, and the car whizzes through.
00:29:16He doesn't want to sit in the back of a car
00:29:18with a police protection officer in the front.
00:29:20He wants the whole works.
00:29:22You can hardly blame him for wanting to be looked after properly.
00:29:25He says it's just not enough for the level of protection needed
00:29:28when he returns home.
00:29:30Security experts in the UK are unsympathetic.
00:29:33I can understand why Harry's upset.
00:29:35You've got the likes of Theresa May, our former prime minister.
00:29:38She's got lifelong protection.
00:29:39Why can't Harry and Meghan have that too?
00:29:42How to cover the cost of their expensive lifestyle
00:29:44has been at the heart of Harry and Meghan's struggles
00:29:47since they left the royal family.
00:29:49Practically, the first thing they did
00:29:50was starting to look at ways of making money
00:29:54by giving interviews.
00:29:56And I think that's incredibly hypocritical,
00:29:58having said you want a private life.
00:30:00They don't want a private life.
00:30:01That is the biggest joke of all time.
00:30:04His job is being royal,
00:30:06and he's qualified for very little else
00:30:08apart from being in the army,
00:30:09which he's very talented at.
00:30:11But, you know, he bought a very expensive house.
00:30:13He's got to pay for it somehow.
00:30:14It's tricky, really, for him.
00:30:15I just don't see how he's going to make money
00:30:17unless he flogs his royal title.
00:30:20In North America, there was a cachet
00:30:23of being X in line to the throne,
00:30:25this celebrity royal couple.
00:30:27They need to be pulling in millions and millions of pounds a year
00:30:33in order to support themselves.
00:30:35And they have no means of doing that
00:30:37other than relying on the royal brand.
00:30:39So you might find it distasteful,
00:30:41but I don't think anybody has a better suggestion
00:30:43of what they could do.
00:30:44So what were these financial deals,
00:30:47and why were they so controversial?
00:30:49One of the biggest things that happened
00:30:52when they first moved to America was the Netflix deal.
00:30:54Why did you want to make this documentary?
00:30:58When the stakes were this high,
00:31:01doesn't it make more sense to hear our story from us?
00:31:04It was massive.
00:31:06It was going to set them up with a multi-year deal,
00:31:08so it was going to give them a certain financial future.
00:31:11Then they negotiated Spotify.
00:31:14That seemed incredibly positive
00:31:16at the point that they landed that deal.
00:31:18Shall we start?
00:31:19No? Ladies first?
00:31:20No, say it,
00:31:21because I think it sounds really nice with your accent.
00:31:23Shall we?
00:31:24Yeah, let's do it.
00:31:25Hi guys, I'm Harry.
00:31:26And I'm Meghan.
00:31:28Yes, they have made a lot of money,
00:31:31but the successful projects they've had
00:31:33have been the ones that have lifted the lid
00:31:36on private matters within the royal family.
00:31:39It's really nice to just be able to have the opportunity
00:31:42to let people have a bit more of a glimpse
00:31:44into what's happened and also who we are.
00:31:47Harry's put up his own secrets into the public domain,
00:31:50and when he's launching some quite,
00:31:52sometimes personal and searing criticisms
00:31:54of his own family and making money off it,
00:31:57that is the point at which it becomes hypocrisy,
00:32:00because that is the very thing
00:32:01that the tabloid press were doing to Harry his whole life,
00:32:04that destroyed him psychologically his whole life.
00:32:07So they find themselves in a difficult position
00:32:10where even if they don't want
00:32:12to hang out the dirty linen of the royal family,
00:32:15that is the way that they are going to make money.
00:32:18In the Netflix documentary,
00:32:21Harry claims in that that the royal family
00:32:23or their courtiers were willing to lie
00:32:26and paint Harry and Meghan in a bad light
00:32:28in order to protect their own principles.
00:32:32Harry also claims that the royal household lied
00:32:36to protect his brother, Prince William.
00:32:39They were happy to lie to protect my brother.
00:32:42They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.
00:32:45They were revealing quite a lot
00:32:47in that documentary series, weren't they?
00:32:49It was basically reality TV, but my goodness,
00:32:51what great reality TV!
00:32:53We can look around their home,
00:32:55we can see their family dynamics play out,
00:32:57we can see them kissing in the kitchen, you know?
00:32:59This is brilliant television,
00:33:01and this is what we're hungry for.
00:33:03So, yeah, it is revealing a lot,
00:33:06but hey, we lap it up, don't we?
00:33:08Although people are allowed to disclose
00:33:10what they want in public
00:33:11and still keep other parts of their lives private,
00:33:14critics felt the intimacy on camera
00:33:16was at odds with their requests to respect their privacy.
00:33:19Many people thinking,
00:33:21well, if it smells hypocritical
00:33:23and looks hypocritical, it is hypocrisy.
00:33:26Many people thought that
00:33:27and it's difficult to disagree.
00:33:30And just as the press and public
00:33:32thought they'd heard everything,
00:33:33Harry released a tell-all memoir, Spare.
00:33:37Probably the biggest success that they've had
00:33:40was Harry's book Spare,
00:33:42which was a huge publishing phenomenon.
00:33:45It sold 1.4 million copies in the first day.
00:33:49It was the fastest-selling non-fiction book,
00:33:52I think, of all time.
00:33:53It was extremely controversial in many parts.
00:33:57I was just gobsmacked
00:33:59that he just didn't take it to level one.
00:34:01He took it to level ten out of ten.
00:34:04But he could have done what a lot of celebrities do,
00:34:06which is give a sort of glossy, stylized version of their life
00:34:09where they invade their privacy a little bit,
00:34:11but they keep a lot back.
00:34:13Look, if you're paid, I don't know, 100 million,
00:34:16no publisher wants to sort of, you know, a soft book.
00:34:19They want headlines.
00:34:21But critics argue that Spare
00:34:23was another example of double standards,
00:34:26given Harry's stance on other members of his family
00:34:28telling their stories.
00:34:30Harry has said in his defence,
00:34:32well, it's fine for me to do all these interviews,
00:34:34it's fine for me to write this book,
00:34:35because palace sources are telling the tabloids
00:34:38about my wife and my life
00:34:40and they're saying all of these things,
00:34:41so why don't I get the chance to tell my side of the story?
00:34:44But I think, of course, Harry wouldn't like it
00:34:46if William did that.
00:34:47He wouldn't tolerate other people behaving the same way he does,
00:34:50but this gives rise to a hypocrisy
00:34:52in a lot of the things that he says and does.
00:34:54And it wasn't just the tell-all nature of the book
00:34:59that sparked controversy.
00:35:01I actually broke one of the exclusives
00:35:03for the inaccuracies in Spare.
00:35:05So Prince Harry claims within his book
00:35:09that he was at school when his great-grandmother,
00:35:14Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, passed away.
00:35:17Now, I know from photographic evidence,
00:35:20news reports at the time,
00:35:22and from speaking to someone who was with him at the time,
00:35:25that he was actually skiing
00:35:27with his father and brother in Switzerland.
00:35:30So that may seem like a very pedantic point,
00:35:33but what it does do is question whether there are
00:35:36other more important inaccuracies
00:35:38within Prince Harry's memoir Spare.
00:35:41I think the problem with this couple is they perceive reality
00:35:44different to how other people do, frankly.
00:35:46But you've got other people involved,
00:35:48you know, such as members of the royal family,
00:35:50saying, no, that just isn't what happened, you know?
00:35:52Such as, for example, Meghan feeling
00:35:54that she wasn't supported by the royal family.
00:35:56But, you know, it is a fact that the Queen
00:35:58gave her best royal aide, Samantha Cohen, to Meghan.
00:36:02And, you know, you couldn't get better support than that.
00:36:04Do you know, when we talk about contradictions,
00:36:05I think, you know, everybody went through Spare
00:36:07with a fine-tooth comb and found lots of contradictions,
00:36:10did this really happen, did it not?
00:36:12Who cares, it's a memoir.
00:36:19For some, Harry and Meghan talking about
00:36:21the perceived injustice in their lives
00:36:23and asking for privacy is not as contradictory
00:36:26as others have argued.
00:36:31For me, it's not surprising that they've done
00:36:32these tell-all interviews because the one big thing
00:36:36that comes up time and time again with Harry and Meghan
00:36:39is that they want to tell their truth,
00:36:42tell the series of events how they see it happened,
00:36:45and them not having control of that narrative
00:36:47is something that clearly deeply, deeply affects them.
00:36:51I just don't think they're the only celebrities in the world
00:36:54who don't mind telling their own stories,
00:36:56but on their terms.
00:36:58It's what happens all the time.
00:37:00And they're no better, no worse than anyone else
00:37:03when they do that.
00:37:04Some commentators have argued that when it comes
00:37:06to revealing intimate details about their lives,
00:37:09they don't have a choice.
00:37:11It's important to remember that it's the bear-all,
00:37:15tell-all elements of their work that sells well.
00:37:19The more sort of earnest or worthy elements,
00:37:23so Meghan talking to business leaders,
00:37:27Meghan doing archetypes, podcasts,
00:37:29these sorts of things haven't been massively successful
00:37:31because people aren't terribly interested in their opinions,
00:37:35they're more interested in their stories.
00:37:39So is there a contradiction between railing against the tabloids
00:37:42and telling all on international television?
00:37:45I think it really is exactly the same thing
00:37:47as just selling information about your family members.
00:37:50If they don't want to be scrutinised
00:37:52and they want genuinely to be private people
00:37:57with private lives,
00:37:59then they can't go around making headlines,
00:38:01they can't go around making TV shows,
00:38:03they can't go around criticising members of the royal family,
00:38:06they can't have their cake and eat it.
00:38:08It does feel a little bit contradictory at times,
00:38:10but I guess, you know, they're human beings like us,
00:38:13they don't have to tell us everything,
00:38:14they don't have to share everything with us.
00:38:16And I guess they wanted to do it on their own terms.
00:38:19The media world would be lost
00:38:22without the discourse around Meghan and Harry.
00:38:25What do you replace it with?
00:38:30While the contents of Spare caused a media storm,
00:38:33Harry also used it as an opportunity to row back
00:38:36on the couple's earlier claims of racism in the royal family.
00:38:40Prince Harry is asked about that claim
00:38:43within a promotional interview for his memoir Spare.
00:38:46And Prince Harry cuts off the interviewer and says,
00:38:49Meghan was accusing that member of the royal family of racism.
00:38:53In the Oprah interview,
00:38:54you accuse members of your family of racism.
00:38:56You don't even...
00:38:57Well, of...
00:38:58The British press said that.
00:39:00Right.
00:39:01I...
00:39:02Did Meghan ever mention they're racist?
00:39:05She said there were troubling comments about...
00:39:08There was concern about his skin color.
00:39:10Right.
00:39:11Wouldn't you describe that as essentially racist?
00:39:13I wouldn't, not having lived within that family.
00:39:15It feels like it's being swept under the carpet
00:39:17because, you know, they don't talk about it anymore.
00:39:19Harry didn't put much about it in his book.
00:39:21They didn't get deeply into it in Netflix.
00:39:23Now, when I heard that, I was confused.
00:39:27Because why would you let a narrative run
00:39:30that a member of your own family was racist?
00:39:33Why wouldn't you set the record straight?
00:39:35And he didn't.
00:39:36He let that narrative run.
00:39:37Thank you for sparing the time.
00:39:38Pleasure to see you as always.
00:39:40Thanks for coming all this way.
00:39:41Coming up...
00:39:44It basically fell apart.
00:39:46It disintegrated and both sides walked away from it.
00:39:49Harry and Meghan's business deals hit rock bottom.
00:40:00In early 2023, Harry released his tell-all memoir, Spare,
00:40:04which sold well and made him a small fortune.
00:40:07But it also prompted a new wave of criticism.
00:40:10I think people accuse Prince Harry of hypocrisy
00:40:16because, on the one hand, he wants privacy,
00:40:19but Prince Harry has aired his dirty laundry in public
00:40:23for the entire world to see.
00:40:25Harry, the interview.
00:40:27Harry, the interview.
00:40:28What an original name, huh?
00:40:31The release of Spare prompted Harry to give a series of interviews
00:40:35to major news and TV outlets.
00:40:37Harry has given countless interviews.
00:40:41And he's done at least a dozen, probably more.
00:40:44And he's always the victim.
00:40:46This is an old-fashioned, good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up.
00:40:51I refer to it as air-spare, but also older brother, younger brother.
00:40:54And every single time I've tried to do it privately,
00:40:56there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories
00:40:59against me and my wife.
00:41:00The thing, I think, damaged Harry and Meghan
00:41:04almost more than anything else
00:41:06was having the mickey taken with the privacy tour.
00:41:10It's the world-wide privacy tour.
00:41:13It's the world-wide privacy tour.
00:41:14Come on.
00:41:15Respecté nos vies privées.
00:41:16Respecté nos vies privées.
00:41:17Respecté nos vies privées.
00:41:18When they were the butt of jokes with a cartoon
00:41:20showing them as completely hypocritical,
00:41:23going on a tour to ask for privacy,
00:41:26but meanwhile bearing all on all sorts of late-night TV shows.
00:41:30And now you've written all about it in your new book.
00:41:32Where?
00:41:33I remember when he was in his 20s and 30s,
00:41:36he hated the press.
00:41:37Anyone he even suspected of talking to the press
00:41:40would cut off immediately.
00:41:41It's completely confusing to us in the media
00:41:43because they invade their own privacy the whole time.
00:41:46They really, really struggled not having a voice
00:41:50when they were part of the royal family.
00:41:52They clearly felt really suffocated by all of that.
00:41:55So it's no wonder that they said,
00:41:57we want to be able to tell our truth
00:41:59the way that we've perceived it.
00:42:03People will always be critical of someone
00:42:05who monetizes their private life at the expense of others.
00:42:10You know, Harry telling his story
00:42:12and betraying all those family confidences,
00:42:16that's always going to come under criticism.
00:42:18Harry, almost all of his life,
00:42:21he was Mr. Privacy or the Prince of Privacy,
00:42:24but at some point he just performed this about-face
00:42:27and decided that actually he was going to be kind of,
00:42:29you know, the Prince of telling it all.
00:42:31And so he then started to do the exact thing
00:42:34that the tabloids have been doing to him his whole life,
00:42:36which was to put other people's private information
00:42:38in the public domain.
00:42:39And it is a hypocrisy, you know.
00:42:41Some argue that Harry is not bound to secrecy
00:42:44when he's talking about his own experiences or mistreatment,
00:42:48while others claim that selling stories about their lives
00:42:51is the only way for Harry and Meghan
00:42:53to achieve financial independence.
00:42:55It's like two still relatively young people
00:42:59trying to find their path, trying to make it up as they go.
00:43:03They haven't left a trail of success in their wake
00:43:06since leaving the royal family.
00:43:08When they try and do something that is not to do
00:43:10with their royal connections,
00:43:11so Meghan's attempt at making an animated series
00:43:14which is going to be called Pearl, her children's book,
00:43:17those things which are not a direct response
00:43:20to having been royal
00:43:22either do badly or get cancelled.
00:43:24They negotiated Spotify.
00:43:26That seemed incredibly positive
00:43:28at the point that they landed that deal.
00:43:30In the end, they made one show, Archetypes,
00:43:32and then after that, it basically fell apart.
00:43:35Both sides walked away from it.
00:43:37Spotify firing this parting shot, calling them drifters.
00:43:40The travellist seems to have died a death,
00:43:42which is Harry's travel company.
00:43:44Then sent to Bali, his charity's gone terribly, badly wrong.
00:43:47I think without Meghan and Harry's royal associations,
00:43:51no one would be remotely interested in them.
00:43:53As well as trying to define their approach to business,
00:43:57Harry's political outlook has also changed significantly,
00:44:01which has come in for criticism.
00:44:03If you look at Harry throughout his life,
00:44:07he clearly has gone through a big change.
00:44:10If you compare young, bumptious Harry
00:44:14dressed in a Nazi uniform for a fancy dress party,
00:44:18if you compare the young officer in the army
00:44:21who was using racial slurs,
00:44:23that is a very, very different person
00:44:25to fully paid-up member of the woke karate
00:44:28that you see in front of you now.
00:44:30So in Harry's 60 Minutes interview,
00:44:32he talks about the fact that he did change when he met Meghan
00:44:35and that he got a bit of criticism for that.
00:44:37Hell, I was probably bigoted before the relationship with Meghan.
00:44:41You think you were bigoted before the relationship with Meghan?
00:44:44I don't know.
00:44:45Put it this way, I didn't see what I now see.
00:44:49The trouble is that people who knew the old Harry,
00:44:52I think, don't particularly like the new Harry.
00:44:55They see the new Harry as being a reaction against the old Harry,
00:45:01and people think that's hypocritical.
00:45:03You used to be one of us.
00:45:04Now you're part of the California woke liberal left,
00:45:08and you've left us behind and you're rude about us.
00:45:11We all have things where we're embarrassed about in our past,
00:45:14and Harry has done that on a public stage his whole life.
00:45:18So, yes, there are times where he's got it majorly wrong,
00:45:21but he's clearly learned from that,
00:45:23and we shouldn't be using that as evidence that he's a hypocrite.
00:45:26We should be celebrating that and saying,
00:45:28yes, this is something we should all aspire to do.
00:45:30If you get it wrong in the past, try and change it.
00:45:33Listen, Harry made a mistake, didn't he,
00:45:35when he dressed up as a Nazi?
00:45:36He has apologized for that, and I guess let him move on.
00:45:39He may have made mistakes in the past, but he still has a voice.
00:45:42Why can't we hear it?
00:45:44I've always loved taking something pretty ordinary and elevating it.
00:45:49Meghan has also tried to broaden her business interests
00:45:52beyond the royal family,
00:45:54and in early 2025 she launched a new show on Netflix,
00:45:58which showcased her passion for cooking and gardening,
00:46:01alongside a new commercial brand, As Ever.
00:46:04Meghan's latest money-making venture is As Ever,
00:46:07which she promotes on her program with Love, Meghan,
00:46:10which is on Netflix.
00:46:12Netflix is opening shops all around America,
00:46:14and they've worked with Meghan to create a proper line of products,
00:46:17such as pancake mix, her famous jams, her raspberry preserves,
00:46:21and I think that's going to go quite well.
00:46:24Meghan's new business venture has caused surprise in some circles,
00:46:29as it seems to go against some of her earlier statements about feminism.
00:46:34Well, Meghan's talked about her feminism more times than I can count.
00:46:38I think it's timely right now, the conversation of feminism
00:46:41and women feeling empowered, but to plant those seeds starting really young.
00:46:45She's spoken about it on her Archetypes podcast,
00:46:48she's spoken about it at the UN and in New Zealand.
00:46:51You have to be so authentically the role model and the example of confidence.
00:46:56Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
00:46:58I am tremendously honoured to be UN Women's Advocate
00:47:04for political participation and leadership.
00:47:07There was this story that she's told a thousand times
00:47:09about Ivory Clear washing liquid,
00:47:11that she got this advert changed
00:47:13because it had said women belonged in the kitchen
00:47:15and so she was this force for a new era of bold, powerful feminist women.
00:47:23The gloves are coming off.
00:47:26Women are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivory Clear.
00:47:30When we first saw the commercial,
00:47:32I knew something could be done because I was furious.
00:47:35And I said, wait a minute, how could somebody say that?
00:47:38I think I'll write a letter.
00:47:39It feels like this is a core part of her brand.
00:47:41That's an anecdote she's told a hundred times, if not a thousand.
00:47:44You know, it said women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.
00:47:47And the boys said, yeah, that's where women belong in the kitchen.
00:47:49And at 11, I just found that infuriating
00:47:53and wrote lots of letters and put pen to paper
00:47:56and they ended up changing the commercial.
00:47:58There is something a little uncomfortable if you juxtapose the Meghan
00:48:03who was fighting the big corporations to be less sexist,
00:48:08to new Meghan fronting a show which is all about it being very, very feminine
00:48:15and being the hostess with the mostess
00:48:17and some gushing about flower arranging and little tokens
00:48:22and making your house as homely as possible.
00:48:25She's made her whole brand to be kind of this domestic goddess, a mum.
00:48:35She makes balloon arches in the show.
00:48:37I'm a mum of three. I've never made a balloon arch.
00:48:40You've just got to ask, you know, is this a feminist thing to do?
00:48:43It's not who Meghan has professed to be up until this point.
00:48:46One minute Meghan is this hardcore feminist, you know,
00:48:50talking about modern values of women.
00:48:52Next time she's a 1950s home frow, you know, cooking jam.
00:48:56It's that changing narrative.
00:48:58Can you be an ultra-feminist homemaker wearing a pinaful?
00:49:02Well, it's a difficult trick to pull off.
00:49:05For others, however, there's no contradiction.
00:49:08Of course you can be both.
00:49:10Of course you can be interested in entertaining and hosting people
00:49:13and still be a feminist.
00:49:15Like, both things can be true.
00:49:17And I think it's actually really sort of anti-feminist
00:49:21to suggest that that isn't the case.
00:49:23Like, she's a career woman.
00:49:24She's now successfully built up a brand.
00:49:26She has secured multi-million dollar deals.
00:49:29Like, come on.
00:49:30Like, you can't be saying she's just a trad wife.
00:49:33She is so much more than that.
00:49:38It's not the first time that Meghan has been challenged
00:49:40about her feminist values.
00:49:42One of the most memorable and slightly uncomfortable moments
00:49:45from the Meghan Markle television show on Netflix
00:49:48is where Mindy Kaling, who is a friend of Meghan Markle's,
00:49:52starts talking to her and she makes reference to,
00:49:54who knew that Meghan Markle does blah, blah, blah.
00:49:57And Meghan goes, why are you calling me Markle? I'm Sussex.
00:50:00I don't think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle
00:50:02has eaten Jack in the Box and loves it.
00:50:04It's so funny, too, that you keep saying,
00:50:06Meghan Markle, you know I'm Sussex now.
00:50:08Comedian Mindy Kaling used Meghan's family name,
00:50:11but Meghan was quick to point out
00:50:12that she now uses her married name, Sussex.
00:50:15We know that Meghan Markle talked about keeping her maiden name.
00:50:20But just a few years ago,
00:50:22Meghan was defiant about not losing her maiden name.
00:50:25I nearly lost my name.
00:50:28I mean, there's the loss of identity, but I'm still standing.
00:50:32I have some sympathy.
00:50:34I think when you have children,
00:50:36actually you really want to have the same surname as them,
00:50:39really no matter how much of a feminist you are.
00:50:42And I think that was the actually genuine struggle
00:50:45that Meghan was having with that issue.
00:50:47And it's a struggle I had as well, and many, many women have.
00:50:51Some critics have pointed to another way
00:50:57in which Meghan has tried to project
00:50:59two contradictory versions of herself.
00:51:02They couldn't be more A-list if they tried.
00:51:05Like, they are hanging out with the superstars,
00:51:08living the life over in California.
00:51:10They look perfect the whole time.
00:51:12They have this exquisite set-up.
00:51:15It could not be more shiny, veneered lifestyle
00:51:18that they're showing.
00:51:19And then at the same time,
00:51:21they're trying to be one with the people.
00:51:23That doesn't ring true.
00:51:25Who can forget her engagement photo?
00:51:27She wore a ball gown and had a very stylized shoot.
00:51:30Whereas, you know, Catherine and William sort of stood there.
00:51:32She had a dress from a middle-of-the-range designer called Isa.
00:51:36Not exactly a luxury £20,000 ball gown.
00:51:39So you've got these two sides to Meghan.
00:51:41The Hollywood starlet,
00:51:42who wants to be super famous and wear a tiara
00:51:44and have a huge wedding.
00:51:46But then she wants to be relatable,
00:51:48and she's just a mum cooking at home for her children.
00:51:51And I think her biggest problem is authenticity.
00:51:53I don't know if she even knows.
00:51:55I think she was trying to flog both at the same time,
00:51:57and that's what drives people crazy about this couple.
00:52:00I guess there's two worlds colliding there.
00:52:02There's her trying to be relatable mum of two,
00:52:05and then there's still the old ways of being part of the royal family.
00:52:09And they're trying to navigate that at the moment.
00:52:11And I think they don't always get it right.
00:52:13She's a Hollywood actress in her own right.
00:52:15Of course they're going to have celebrity friends.
00:52:17They're not going to hide that.
00:52:19And I think you can have that duality.
00:52:22Harry and Meghan really want to basically live Diana's legacy.
00:52:25They want to be seen as the heirs to Princess Diana.
00:52:28But Diana really understood something that they don't understand.
00:52:31You know, being humble, being relatable,
00:52:33it's not about going out and telling people that you're relatable.
00:52:38Love them or hate them, Harry and Meghan divide opinion.
00:52:42But are they simply scrutinised more than the rest of us?
00:52:47I think they do come in for too much scrutiny, possibly.
00:52:50You know, they cannot do anything without the world watching.
00:52:53But they also invite that by staging these crazy stunts.
00:52:56What you can't do is be front and centre of the world stage
00:53:00and then complain when you're faced with a lot of scrutiny.
00:53:04Coming up, Harry's relationship with his family is shattered.
00:53:08I've been treated very, very, very differently to everybody else.
00:53:13This is a family drama on an epic scale.
00:53:16In the spring of 2025, Meghan was interviewed by American makeup millionaire
00:53:30Jamie Kern-Lima for her podcast.
00:53:33Before her appearance, Meghan gave Kern-Lima a present
00:53:36with a gift card using HRH to describe herself,
00:53:39a title she'd been asked not to use following her departure from the royal family.
00:53:44When Meghan recently was found to have used the HRH title in a note,
00:53:48again, it's this idea that she hates the royal family,
00:53:51she hates everything it stood for,
00:53:53it was rigid, it was hierarchical,
00:53:55it didn't allow her to be herself,
00:53:57and yet she can't resist using it,
00:53:59and she's been categorically told not to use that title.
00:54:02If we believe her people who said, oops, it was just a mistake,
00:54:06well, that's pretty bad,
00:54:07because her people should know that that is a massive no-no.
00:54:11I think that it's an own goal, definitely,
00:54:16and isn't thought through, but again, it's about the advice.
00:54:19If you're determined to push forward your point,
00:54:21you're not going to listen to the people giving you the advice you don't want to hear.
00:54:25It's a situation that a decent press officer would never have allowed.
00:54:30To me, it struck more of cock-up rather than conspiracy.
00:54:37You can be born into the royal family, or you can marry into it,
00:54:40but as Harry and Meghan have just found out,
00:54:42that doesn't mean you can keep the word royal if you leave.
00:54:45Having slammed the royal family for years now,
00:54:48she really wants to use the title Sussex,
00:54:50and in fact she wants to use the name Sussex Royal on her branding,
00:54:54and was told she wasn't allowed to.
00:54:56So it feels a little bit hypocritical to then rely on that royal fame
00:55:01to sell products or maintain notoriety.
00:55:04The couple's current use of the word royal is extensive.
00:55:07Their new website will have to be rebranded from sussexroyal.com.
00:55:11The use of a crown in their official logo may also need to be revised.
00:55:16The Sussex title was bestowed on Harry on his marriage by the Queen.
00:55:22Then they abused this title which was bestowed upon them by the monarch
00:55:27for commercial reasons.
00:55:29They are still the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
00:55:32Those titles were given to them, and those are the titles that they use.
00:55:35They have to earn money.
00:55:36We know that they have got an expensive security bill
00:55:39and big house to pay for over in California.
00:55:42So, you know, how do people expect them not to sort of be using that?
00:55:50I don't think there's any genuine reason that they should be prohibited
00:55:53or discouraged from using their background or their status to make money.
00:55:57I think that's what any influencer, blogger, famous person, celebrity does.
00:56:02But a lot of them are much better at not showing the strings,
00:56:05and they hide the working so much more elegantly.
00:56:09Whereas with Meghan and Harry, you can feel the effort.
00:56:12And I think that's something that people respond to negatively with them across the board.
00:56:15What is the authentic Meghan? What is the authentic Harry?
00:56:20It's the relationship with the royals.
00:56:22So they are in a difficult position of navigating their way through that,
00:56:27trying to make money in an area where the way you do it is, you know,
00:56:31to be a Kardashian, to tell us lots of things about your life.
00:56:34And yet they're royal, they're not supposed to do that,
00:56:36so they're going to get criticised.
00:56:38Unfortunately, they have kind of painted themselves into a corner now
00:56:41where if there is no more acrimony with the royal family,
00:56:45there are no more stories.
00:56:46And the only thing that Harry and Meghan, unfortunately, can get any traction for
00:56:50is discomfort and discord and disharmony with the royal family.
00:56:58The rancour with the royal family was in the spotlight once again
00:57:01in the early summer of 2025 when, after four years of legal wrangling,
00:57:06Harry finally lost his battle for enhanced security in the UK.
00:57:11I've been treated very, very, very differently to everybody else that exists.
00:57:17All examples that exist, past, present, I've been singled out.
00:57:23If we were living in the land of milk and honey,
00:57:25I would have absolutely no problem with Harry having police protection.
00:57:29But I think the difficult thing for me
00:57:32is that we do live in an era of limited public resource, unfortunately.
00:57:38A lot of people see as Harry's moaning again.
00:57:42Look, you want to be out of this institution, you're out.
00:57:45You can't be half in an act.
00:57:47There were elements within what he positioned which were very strong.
00:57:51The world is a very dangerous place at the moment,
00:57:54and he is a target.
00:57:56But if you're not buying into it,
00:57:57he's being perceived as spoilt and ungrateful
00:58:00and you made your bed, get on the light, mate.
00:58:03We can't afford you.
00:58:05He's losing the battle.
00:58:08In a raw interview after the court ruling,
00:58:13Harry talked about how much he wanted to reconcile with his family.
00:58:17I would love reconciliation with my family.
00:58:20I've always, I've, you know,
00:58:22there's no point in continuing to fight anymore.
00:58:25As I said, life is precious.
00:58:27You can't say you want a reconciliation with your family,
00:58:30and then in the next breath criticise them.
00:58:34Is it a win for them?
00:58:37Is it a win that, you know, that I don't get the protection?
00:58:41It's hypocrisy and a complete lack of self-awareness and stupidity.
00:58:46Family fallouts and family dramas, and this is a family drama on an epic scale,
00:58:54are always messy.
00:58:55There's never black and white.
00:58:57There's never somebody completely in the right,
00:58:59somebody completely in the wrong.
00:59:01And yes, he probably is a bit of a hypocrite, for sure, but it's played out on this world stage.
00:59:08But within that, there is a whole industry that makes money out of commenting and pointing out those differences and spinning those stories.
00:59:17So those hypocrisies get amplified a thousand times.
00:59:22Harry's publicly stated desire to have conversations with his family is not so much hypocritical as naively, wildly optimistic.
00:59:31Why on earth would they want to have a conversation with him?
00:59:35The royal policy is to never explain, never complain.
00:59:38So the likelihood of us hearing anything specific from them is vanishingly unlikely.
00:59:44He was painting himself as something of a victim.
00:59:47And yet, actually, if you look at the evidence, the other members of the royal family will be feeling like victims.
00:59:53They were the ones that actually had the mud slung at them.
00:59:58So it's easy to see why people would think, hang on a minute, Harry.
01:00:03You're the one that's got blood on your hands in this relationship,
01:00:07and yet you're expecting them to be the ones to reach out to you.
01:00:11Why would they do that?
01:00:13Coming up, will Harry and Meghan always be labelled hypocrites, or is there a way back?
01:00:19It was absolutely disastrous and very stupid and, I have to say, very vulgar of her to do it.
01:00:25Since Harry and Meghan left their roles as working royals in 2020, they've been trying to define their place in the world.
01:00:41Their branch edge is pure chaos.
01:00:45So there's loads of sort of, you know, let's throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.
01:00:50And, of course, when it doesn't stick, it becomes a story, and that story then erodes their true purpose.
01:00:56And that's the unfortunate thing.
01:00:59They are not sending a clear message of what they're trying to do or what they want to do.
01:01:05When it comes to the press and their privacy and then them sort of literally letting it all hang out when it comes to them telling their side of the story, it is really hypocritical.
01:01:17There's no getting around that.
01:01:19Recently, Harry and Meghan have taken to using online platforms more often as part of their communication strategy.
01:01:27One of the things that Harry and Meghan have done is social media, which is really unheard of for the Royal Family.
01:01:33They have their official social media account.
01:01:35Recently, Meghan has shared this video of her dancing with Harry just before Lily was born.
01:01:43In 2025, four years after it was originally filmed, Harry and Meghan published a video online based on a TikTok dance craze.
01:01:52She was about to give birth to Lilibet, but the baby wasn't coming.
01:01:58She said she tried spicy food, she tried walking, she tried everything.
01:02:02And she said to Harry, let's try dancing.
01:02:05So she did this twerking dance in the hospital room.
01:02:10And Harry obviously had his telephone recording it.
01:02:13And it's really, really undignified and really embarrassing.
01:02:18This is the most intimate thing I've ever seen from any Royal ever.
01:02:30It's completely invading their own privacy.
01:02:32It's the birthing center of their own private suite in a private hospital.
01:02:36So they've really muddied the waters by doing that.
01:02:40You would never see, for example, a video of William and Catherine in the birthing suite about to give birth.
01:02:46I think it was absolutely disastrous and very stupid and, I have to say, very vulgar of her to do it.
01:02:55By releasing videos like that, not only are they breaking their own privacy, but they're losing control of the narrative.
01:03:01It was too intimate to be shared if you've spent the last five years complaining about your privacy.
01:03:06They want to say, hey, can you, you know, respect our privacy?
01:03:11And the problem with that is that, you know, it just doesn't fly with the public.
01:03:15You can't be complaining about this stuff and then going off and doing it yourself.
01:03:19Look, again, she hasn't done anything wrong. This is who she is.
01:03:23And I think a lot of black women will identify with her.
01:03:26She's just dancing. She's just having a bit of fun.
01:03:28Why are people getting so angry about it?
01:03:31So are Harry and Meghan royal hypocrites?
01:03:36I just think Harry and Meghan are the dictionary definition of hypocrites.
01:03:41I think that they have exhibited some absolutely breathtaking examples of hypocrisy which are rooted in,
01:03:47especially in Harry's case, an inability to actually grasp other people's emotions and perspectives.
01:03:53You know, Harry can understand his worldview and he can understand Meghan's worldview and that is it.
01:03:57You know, he can't see the world through other people's eyes. He's just not capable of it.
01:04:01They've made many mistakes.
01:04:03What's harder to work out is whether those mistakes have been genuine mistakes or whether they've been malicious.
01:04:11Of course, people can be hypocritical without intending to be hypocrites.
01:04:16Either way, it doesn't look good to be a hypocrite.
01:04:22Humans are hypocritical. We're complicated, changeable beasts.
01:04:26So, yes, of course they say stuff which then doesn't ring true to an action that they do, however many years later.
01:04:33And if anybody had a microscope on their life as much as Harry and Meghan do,
01:04:38then I think we'd all be accused of being hypocrites.
01:04:42They have been pitched as disruptors, these hypocrites, this wicked woman at the centre of this poor deluded prince.
01:04:52You know, they've got to change that narrative.
01:04:55It's very easy to point fingers, you know, just because they're doing things differently, but why do they have to be stifled by the royal institution all the time?
01:05:02This is their freedom. Why can't they do what they want? They're doing exactly what they want, but we're still having a go at them.
01:05:08And that really, to me, is quite sad.
01:05:10It seems as if Harry and Meghan are going to spend a lot of time and energy firefighting allegations of hypocrisy for the foreseeable future.
01:05:19Harry and Meghan are in between a rock and a hard place. They actually can't do anything right.
01:05:23They have tried to reclaim their narrative and say, this is the truth. And we still say, no, that's not the truth.
01:05:29They have tried to leave the royal family, but we still say, no, you haven't really left the royal family.
01:05:34And the more that they sort of stamp their feet and try and change it, the more resistance that they're met with.
01:05:42The one thing that's really important to understand about Prince Harry is that he wants to be able to do whatever he wants 100% of the time.
01:05:48So he doesn't have a problem with any of these hypocrisies because he's not looking at the big picture of everything he's ever said and everything he's ever going to say.
01:05:55He's just expressing what he feels in the moment.
01:05:58I think we're all hypocrites. I think Harry and Meghan are probably bang in the middle of the scale of hypocrisy.
01:06:05I think they are worse than some people, better than others, but everything they do is a matter of public record.
01:06:11And so I'm not sure that they're much more hypocritical than your average person, but they are much, much more documented.
01:06:17I don't think that Harry and Meghan will be able to shake the accusation of hypocrisy.
01:06:22There have been too many examples where they have belittled their own arguments or they've seemed to face two ways.
01:06:31And in the public and the press's mind, they just are hypocrites.
01:06:37And I think it's going to be very hard, if not impossible, to unstick that reputation.
01:06:46And that's what we can do.
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