Prince William is taking ‘Harry & Meghan’ doc ‘very personally’: royal expert
Prince William is taking “Megflix” personally.
William is “incredibly upset and betrayed” by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan,” according to a royal expert.
The final three episodes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix series dropped yesterday, with a load of bombshell claims against William — including that he screamed at Harry for quitting his royal duties; bullied the couple out of the royal family; conspired with Markle’s Associated Newspapers lawsuit; sent a seemingly shocking text to Harry after the Oprah Winfrey interview; and broke a pact to never trade negative press stories with his brother.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl told “Entertainment Tonight” that the accusations might mean there’s not a good chance of reconciliation between Harry, 38, and William, 40.
“Well, I think that given the allegations that Harry has made in the latest three episodes of this docuseries are so personal towards his brother, I think it really does set back any chance of [healing] a rift for the foreseeable future,” Nicholl said.
“Even if William hasn’t watched this docuseries, and it’s my understanding that he hasn’t, he will be very aware of the headlines. He will be very aware of the damage inflicted on his reputation, and I think it also goes a long way in explaining why the brothers are not on talking terms,” she continued.
A royal source told Page Six that William and Princess Kate, 40, have not watched “Harry & Meghan.”
Nicholl shared that the Prince of Wales feels “very badly betrayed” by his brother and is “incredibly upset” and “will be taking this very personally.” She also said William has concerns that any private conversations the two of them might have shared could end up in Harry’s upcoming memoir, “Spare” — coming out Jan. 10.
“I mean this is a couple who are never far away from their iPhone, from their cameras, who have really chronicled their lives for the last two years — I think there is just a great sense of mistrust within the family,” Nicholl explained. “They just simply feel that any reconciliation … is not in the cards because they can’t trust that it’s not gonna end up in a TV show or in a book.”
“I think that tempers are flaring, tempers are high. There’s a lot of tension, there’s a lot of upset, there’s a lot of anger and resentment, and any reconciliation is really quite far down the line,” the royal expert added.
Nicholl believes that Harry will eventually regret putting out the docuseries because “any chance of a reconciliation with his family [is] almost impossible, certainly at any point in the near future.”
Prince Harry alleged in the docuseries that his brother screamed at him during a family meeting where he and Markle, 41, proposed a “half in, half out” arrangement, under which they would have their own jobs but still do some work in support of Queen Elizabeth.
“It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father saying things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in,” he said.
Nicholl said she wasn’t that surprised to hear that William “screamed” at Harry, as the royal “does have a temper.”
“William can be quite stubborn, but don’t forget that William was understandably very angry about what had happened and how [it] had happened, because Harry and Meghan had essentially made a bombshell statement, the first of what was to be many bombshell statements, with this couple announcing that they would be stepping down as working royals,” she explained. “So yes, he would have been very upset and pretty angry.”
Harry also claimed William “bullied” the couple out of the royal family.
“Once I got in the car, after the meeting, I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and my brother’s name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe it. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang [Meghan] and I told her, and she burst into floods of tears. Because within four hours, they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us,” he continued.
In the final episode of the docuseries, Markle’s lawyer Jenny Afia discussed the Associated Newspaper lawsuit in 2021 and the judge ruling in her favor.
“Then Associated Newspapers predictably appealed. When we were just about to go [to] the court of appeal, a senior member of [William’s] team came forward to give his witness statement, which wasn’t required, and sadly there’s just no way he could have done that without the authority of his bosses,” Afia said about Jason Knauf, a former communications secretary for William.
The Netflix series showed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a friend’s apartment discussing the situation, when they came to the realization that Knauf would’ve had to get William’s permission.
“I know, like, that, like, it’s your brother,” Markle said, agitated. “It’s your brother. I’m not going to say anything about your brother, but it’s so obvious it’s like …”
“It’s even more obvious that they’ll try and cover it up,” Harry added.
The documentary also showed the moment Harry got a text from his brother after their infamous Oprah Winfrey interview.
Markle was reading Queen Elizabeth’s response to the camera when it cut to Harry wordlessly holding out his phone to her.
“What am I looking at? Wow. He just got a text from his brother,” Markle said before hugging Harry, who said: “I wish I knew what to do.”
The docuseries did not say what was in the text message.
Harry alleged that he and his brother also made a pact never to trade negative press stories about each other — a pact that William broke.
“William and I both saw what happened in our dad’s office and we made an agreement that we would never let that happen to our office,” Harry says in the show. “I would far rather get destroyed in the press than play along with this game or business of trading and to see my brother’s office doing the same thing that we promised the two of us would never, ever do. That was heartbreaking.”
On the same day the final three episodes of the docuseries dropped, Prince William seemed to throw shade at Harry and Markle by sharing a quote from the late monarch about “togetherness” at Princess Kate’s carol concert.
During the service, William read a quote from Queen Elizabeth’s 2012 Christmas message, recognizing the “selfless efforts of individuals, families and communities across the UK, and celebrate and showcase the joy that human connection and togetherness can bring.”
All episodes of “Harry & Meghan” are now streaming on Netflix.
