While the two have become superstars in the United States, they are viewed with suspicion by large segments of the British public, partly fueled by an unrelentingly negative campaign by the country’s right-leaning tabloid newspapers.
It was those same newspapers that Harry said prompted the couple to give up their duties as front-line royals and move to the United States.
The opening sequence flashes white text on a black screen.
“This is a firsthand account of Harry & Meghan’s story, told with never before seen personal archive. All interviews were completed by August 2022,” it reads. “Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within this series.”
The first episode begins with the love story of Harry and Meghan.
“Meghan and I met over Instagram,” Harry says, revealing that he was scrolling through his feed when he saw a Snapchat picture of Meghan, with a filter showing dog ears and snout.
“Who is that?” Harry said when talking about the image.
She said he was late for the first date, but was forgiven after she noticed he was sweaty and had been rushing to get there.
“He was so fun, refreshingly fun. We were childlike together,” Meghan recalled.
In their 2017 interview with the BBC, Harry originally said they met on a blind date but in the new series it appears that a degree of social media research was involved before they actually met face to face.
“I was like, who was that?” Harry said, recounting the story as he sat next to Meghan.
Then a mutual friend sent Meghan an email — an email pops up on the screen — saying that she knew Meghan was single and her friend, “Prince Haz” had asked about her and was dying to meet. Once Meghan determined who “Prince Haz” was, she asked her friend if she could see his Instagram feed.
“I asked if I could see his feed. … People say, ‘did you Google him? No. But that’s your homework, let me see what they are about in their feed … that to me was the best barometer.
“I went through and it was just beautiful photography and all these environmental shots, and this time he was spending in Africa.”
And so they got each other’s numbers and went on their first date in the summer of 2016 when Meghan was in London for Wimbledon.
The second episode moves into darker territory and focuses on what they saw as harassment by the media. It opens with Harry and Meghan being driven to an event in New York City in 2021 that suggests they were being stalked by paparazzi.
Harry appeared nervous and kept swiveling in his seat, looking behind for chase vehicles. His mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel while being pursued by the “paps” as Meghan called them.
Meghan says most people didn’t treat her as a black woman until she arrived in Britain. Harry said that within days of the couple’s relationship being revealed, the Daily Mail ran its notorious headline: “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton,” a reference to her Los Angeles roots. Meghan notes she didn’t live in Compton.
This is a developing story.
