Harry and Meghan - as it happened: Duke of Sussex reveals he has internally ‘blocked out’ early memories of Diana

Reactions to Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ Netflix docuseries pour in as couple speak out on first dates, marriage, press intrusion and Meghan’s experiences of racism

Key moments from Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have received mixed reactions over their new Netflix documentary series, Harry and Meghan, which dropped on Thursday (8 December).

Parts of the much-hyped programme, which has been split into “Volume I” and “Volume II”, were described as “moving”, but the first three episodes did not deliver any new explosive allegations against the royal family - who will no doubt be relieved by the lack of revelations.

The Independent’s Arts Editor Jessie Thompson wrote in her review of the series: “There are no major revelations here, nothing so incendiary that it will cancel King Charles’s coronation next year; in fact, certain quotes are becoming a bit pat.”

Meanwhile, the Sussexes’ staunchest critics wasted no time in excoriating the couple for some of the claims made in the show. Piers Morgan accused Harry and Meghan of trying to “brand Britain as a racist country”, while the BBC’s veteran royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell dismissed Meghan’s claims that the media wanted to “destroy” her as “absurd”.

Meanwhile, neither Palace officials nor members of the royal family were approached for comment over the content of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new Netflix docuseries, it has been alleged.

It was suggested that representatives for Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, as well as the royals themselves, were not offered the opportunity to reply to the accusations lodged by the couple during the first three episodes of their highly anticipated series.

The second part of Harry and Meghan’s docuseries will begin streaming on 15 December.

Key Points

• Harry says he has internally blocked out early memories of Diana
• Palace officials ‘weren’t contacted for comment’ over new Netflix series
• MP planning legislation to strip Harry and Meghan of royal titles
• Meghan Markle says her race was only ever ‘made an issue’ when she came to UK
• Prince Harry attacks ‘huge level of unconscious bias’ in the royal family
• Meghan discovered her father was not attending her wedding ‘through tabloid’

[8 December 2022 17:35 · Oliver O'Connell]

Royals dismissed concerns about press coverage of Meghan as ‘rite of passage'

“As far as the family was concerned, everything she was being put through they’d been put through as well, so it was almost like a rite of passage,” Prince Harry recalls in the docuseries. “Some of the members of the family were like, ‘My wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated differently?’ And I said, ‘The difference here is the race element.’”

Ellie Harrison reports on Meghan’s experience of race in the UK.