Meghan and Harry "never wanted" to star in a Netflix doc, royal expert says

They wanted to emulate the Obamas, apparently

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visit South Melbourne Beach on October 18, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on their official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand
(Image credit: Photo by Samir Hussein / Getty)

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle planned their royal exit, filming a docuseries about their lives was never on the agenda, a royal columnist has claimed.

Still, Harry & Meghan, directed by Liz Garbus, is set for its Netflix release on 8 December, and a new trailer was unveiled on Thursday.

"The thing to remember is that Harry and Meghan never really wanted to do this project," Richard Eden, the Daily Mail's Diary Editor said (via Express).

"When they signed up for Netflix, it was to make a programme. They had this vision of sort of being like Barack and Michelle Obama and making very worthy documentaries.

"That's already gone by the by. Harry's made a programme about his Invictus Project for injured servicemen. We don't have a broadcast yet planned for that.

"And Meghan's big project, which was a children's animated programme called Pearl, that's been candled together."

The projects Richard is referring to here are Prince Harry's documentary, Heart of Invictuswhich will tell the stories of the injured servicemen and woman who compete in Harry's Invictus Games—and Meghan Markle's Pearlan animated series which saw a 12-year-old girl find inspiration from influential women through history. The former still doesn't have a release date and the latter, as Richard said, was officially cancelled earlier this year.

"So, the first thing we're seeing is a reality show, a docuseries about them," the editor added.

"This has not been made by Archewell. This is very much a Netflix project.

"For everyone, you can imagine Harry and Meghan being nervous about the reaction."

Royal insiders have expressed concern over this docuseries, since we don't know how much the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will choose to reveal.

Interestingly, the duchess somewhat distanced herself from the project during an interview with Variety, in which she said: "It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story—a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired — even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it. But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens."

Iris Goldsztajn
Freelance News Writer

Iris Goldsztajn is a freelance news writer for Marie Claire UK. She covers celebrity and royal news, and has previously written for titles including Marie Claire US, InStlyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red.

Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, she is especially interested in debunking diet culture and de-stigmatising mental health struggles.