Queen Elizabeth’s coffin is in the ground, England’s mourning period is over, and the casket spider has returned to its quiet life out of the limelight. The royal media storm that had a chokehold on headlines in September is over—but there’s one couple the monarch continues to haunt from the afterlife. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (aka Harry and Meghan) have found themselves in a bit of a pickle over their upcoming Netflix docuseries, The Sussexes. Following the queen’s death, the two quasi-royals have apparently been scrambling to make revisions to their nearly completed film, asking that the release date be pushed back, according to Page Six. Hmm… Is that a whiff of potential on-camera shit-talking??
After the queen’s passing, Harry made a few changes to his publicity schedule: Not only did he push back the November release of his currently untitled memoir (which he’s been frantically editing for fear of seeming “insensitive” to his late granny), but he and Meghan are also scrambling to make changes to their docuseries, which was initially scheduled to premiere days after The Crown’s fifth season (Nov. 9). Meghan and Harry had already wanted to delay The Sussexes’ release until 2023 before the queen died, but with the stakes higher than ever, their pleas have become more urgent. But Netflix seems intent on a 2022 release—and has locked them in for an early December date—and are a lot more concerned about the fact-checking work cut out for them.
Whether on paper or on screen, the couple can’t seem to get their stories straight. “A lot in the show contradicted what Harry has written, so that was an issue,” a senior Netflix source told Page Six. “Then Harry and Meghan made significant requests [to filmmakers] to walk back content they themselves have provided, for their own project.” The series, which has been filming for the last year under the direction of Liz Garbus, apparently features many comments about the royal family, including Prince William and Kate Middleton, and King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla. I bet you the crown jewels that those quotes are not particularly flattering.
Meghan and Harry want to continue editing the content through the new year, but the streaming platform is insisting on working with what is done now, explaining that technical tasks need weeks to complete. “Netflix needs a couple of months to do all of the formatting and dubbing, subtitling and audio — all of that stuff that enables it to launch on the platform,” a Netflix source told Page Six.
It’s no secret that Meg and Harry haven’t been the royal family’s (or England’s) favorite members. Since the two began dating in 2016, Meghan has experienced a violent onslaught of racist scrutiny from the public (and from within the royal family itself), which only worsened once the two got married. In the couple’s bombshell interview with Oprah last year, the duchess admitted to wanting to end her life over the public’s cruelty.
But whether she and her husband are deserving of sympathy is besides the point here: By the looks of it, the royal celebrities seem to be digging their own graves with this new wave of media catastrophe, potentially adding “liars” to the slew of mean things they’ve been called over the years. We’re all about Harry ~reclaiming his narrative~ but which narrative is it, exactly?