The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have directly accused royal households of planting negative stories to deflect attention from less favourable coverage of other royals, as revealed in the latest trailer for their Netflix documentary. Jenny Afia, the Duchess's lawyer, claims to have seen evidence of 'negative briefing from the palace against Harry and Meghan to suit other people’s agendas.'
In the teaser, released ahead of the final three episodes on Thursday, Meghan Markle says: 'You would just see it play out, like a story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they’d go, “We’ve got to make that go away.”' She adds that media coverage must be filled with stories about the royals, implying a deliberate strategy.
Lucy Fraser, a friend of the Duchess, states: 'Meg became this scapegoat for the palace. And so they would feed stories on her whether they were true or not to avoid other less favourable stories being printed.' Afia describes a 'barrage of negative articles about the breakdown of the relationship with her father' as 'the final straw in a campaign of negative, nasty coverage about her.'
The trailer includes footage of newspaper front pages with headlines such as 'Meghan made Kate cry' and 'Heir heads,' referencing disputes over flower girl dresses and private jet use. In her Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan asserted that Kate, now Princess of Wales, actually made her cry, and that palace officials knew the truth but did not correct it.
Prince Harry is heard in a previous trailer saying: 'They were happy to lie to protect my brother,' and referring to 'institutional gaslighting.' The couple's earlier episodes blamed the media for 'destroying' them and criticised the royal family for failing to protect Meghan from racially charged reporting. Thursday's episodes are expected to detail the family drama surrounding their departure from the UK.
