Secrets Of The Royal - The Markles vs. The Monarchy - British Royal Documentary

on the 15th of february 2021 harry and megan dropped a bombshell prince harry and megan will give their first interview to megan's friend oprah winfrey the six million dollar question though is just how far megan is going to go i don't know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent i expect this interview not only to reverberate through the united states and england but to rock the establishment at its very core with the queen also set to address the nation are both sides now engaged in a war of words if they keep popping up and making public pronouncements of course they're going to be in the media glare the relationship between the markles and the windsors seemed like a fairy tale with the interview and now allegations of bullying by megan inside the palace which she strongly denies it appears to be over outsiders have struggled to do well when they enter the royal family you ever have disagreements about things oh yes tonight the inside story of when hollywood glamour and ambition took on the establishment [Music] megan wanted to have a celebrity boyfriend and she definitely got that with prince harry forget the red carpets in hollywood this was something else for me it's a an added member of the family how did a marriage made in heaven descend into a public slang match i think megan's hollywood background would have hit the royal family like a hurricane harry felt he was freeing himself but probably felt like an act of vandalism against the monarchy stripped of their titles and patronages the sussexes are isolated from what everything the royal family means and that puts the royal family at peril exiled from royal life the queen's statement's a clean cut you're out in other words you're fired we miss harry madden with just over a day until harry and megan's groundbreaking interview with oprah is this the final chapter in their battle with the monarchy i'm just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we had each other megan and harry they could have resolved so many issues but they're stubborn and is this the moment that megan and harry finally reject royal service in favor of celebrity there is no relationship between the markles and the royal family it had the potential to be so much better than in fact it turned out to be i did not have any understanding of just what it would be like [Music] harry and megan are one of the most talked about couples on the planet they've settled into their new lives away from the royal family having swapped the regal backdrop of windsor for the luxurious hollywood hills in a move that echoes edward viii's infamous abdication quite a lot of us thought back to the abdication crisis in the 1930s when wallis simpson a twice divorced woman fell in love with um a king and that king edward viii had to give up his throne in order to marry the woman he loved harry and megham had to divorce themselves from the royal family just as wallace and edward had to divorce themselves from the monarchy in order to continue their relationship now with the tell-all oprah winfrey interview are harry and megan distancing themselves from and even setting themselves against the windsors it strikes me that they feel that they can continue to control media coverage of them control the way their image is portrayed yeah we'd all like to do that with the very public and unexpected announcement of their second child what will the future hold for harry and megan and the monarchy the sad and harsh reality of this scenario is that by abdicating from the royal family completely that the queen and prince philip may actually never see the second child and one can only think how devastating and broken the queen must feel about that [Music] in december 2017 meghan markle made history as she became the first royal fiancee to spend christmas with the queen talk about a baptism of fire here was a rare exception being made kate middleton was not invited as william's girlfriend to spend christmas at sand room with the royals but here was megan doing just that the queen is very strict when it comes to family and so to be invited was quite a significant thing i'm sure uh meghan markle was absolutely terrified although she had only met harry the year before megan was being fast-tracked into royal life this extraordinary special treatment could have possibly annoyed other members of the family perhaps andrew and sarah because sarah ferguson had famously been not invited to spend christmas there when her daughters and ex-husband were there maybe a few people might have felt that their noses were put out of joint because they've had to work so hard with the protocol and the rules and the regulations and here enters megan and is straight into sandringham i think it would have been a very diplomatic line that she would have had to walk despite the huge pressures of a first christmas with the in-laws being face to face with senior royals was a perfect opportunity to charm the firm i'm sure it was been pretty daunting actually for megan to rock up at sandringham for christmas with the queen would you give the queen you know what you give your perspective father-in-law you know charles i mean it must be brightly difficult the royal family had this tradition of not giving each other expensive gifts in fact the cheaper the gift the better it is harry once gave his grandmother you know a pair of rubber gloves for for doing the dishes i mean really quite bizarre presents megan would have found that as extraordinary as a certain donna spencer did at her first christmas by buying lavish gifts for her in-laws she never made that mistake again megan played a blinder on that first christmas she got a toy a singing hamster for the queen and apparently she loved it and so did the corgis despite winning over the queen megan's first royal christmas wasn't completely free from controversy after the festivities a remark from prince harry on live radio was said to cause tensions between megan and her own family i think we've got one of the biggest families that i know of and every family is complex as well so no like she she's she's done an absolutely amazing job just you know getting in there and it's you know it's it's it's a family that i suppose she's never had harry was guest editing the today program on radio 4 shortly afterwards and he said they'd had a lot of fun at christmas and then he made a rather um unfortunate remark he said um i suppose it's the family she never had meaning megan well that went down like a lead balloon with the markle family obviously and it's a remark they've never forgotten the family megan was joining was a far cry from the world in which she grew up it was against the golden backdrop of hollywood that megan's parents doria ragland and thomas markle first met thomas went into the entertainment industry and became a lighting director and it was when he was doing that job on the show general hospital a big show um that he met doria who was training at that time as a makeup artist um she was 12 years younger than him but they fell in love and got married and uh megan came along a couple of years later [Music] thomas had been married before so and he had two children much older than megan from his first marriage thomas jr and samantha her two half siblings they weren't close to her she was not close to them despite her parents divorcing when she was young megan enjoyed a supportive upbringing with both doria and thomas evident in intimate home videos that have been shared online you can see and hear her energy and it all feels like these are the positive highlights of somebody's childhood growing up all right am i there i wonder okay see you later bye-bye home footage of megan driving in los angeles also gives an insight into the early and possibly fractured relationship with her father we're about four minutes from my dad's house from my dad's house you can see the hollywood sign but we are gonna go there because my dad and i are along the rest of church she says we're not going there because my dad and i aren't getting along at the moment this also gives a hint at a real relationship and it might show the reality of some of their relationship that perhaps it wasn't always great despite potential frictions thomas continued to be a strong presence in megan's life as she immersed herself in hollywood she hung around the studios where her father was the lighting director that must be really exciting and she certainly got the bug her first big break came with suits when she got um the the plum rule of rachel that everybody fell in love with and rachel's character was very sexy she was savvy she was ambitious it's actually not dissimilar to meghan markle herself whilst megan was being thrust into the limelight prince harry a young officer in the british army was trying to escape it what do you think the public perception of harry is um i don't know it fluctuates it depends on what the media want to write i suppose but the two very different things what the public think and what the media think the british public have always had a huge amount of affection for prince harry but certainly the press have had quite a love-hate relationship with him he was seen as a bit directionless he was seen as a bit of a party boy he liked having a good time [Music] despite being labeled a party prince as he entered his thirties harry proved that he still had an important role to play within his family he created some wonderful initiatives the invictus games which was really his baby he also worked on heads together you know taking away some of the stigma surrounding mental health and mental health issues being very open and honest about his own struggles which was incredibly brave and harry was at that time arguably the most popular royal in 2016 megan touched down in london the last thing she would have expected was a blind date with the fifth in line to the throne it's a lot easier if you have a boyfriend that understands the press and understands fame and she definitely got that with prince harry you could be a more famous man in all the world than prince harry [Music] announce the engagement of prince harry and meghan markle god save the queen at the end of november 2017 news of harry and megan's engagement emerged from the palace congratulations from all of us how are you both feeling um there was immediate analysis and commentary about the fact that the royal family was going to welcome in a woman of mixed heritage an american woman and a woman who was divorced two completely different families were to be joined together but behind the scenes tensions had already emerged in my opinion the engagement interview was when things really started to sour you met each other's families i imagine yes his family has been so welcoming and megan your parents do you think you know well very happy for you obviously do you think they have worried at all about the scale of what you're getting into well i'm sure at the onset both my parents and my close friends were concerned i did not have any understanding of just what it would be like [Music] the year before their engagement announcement megan had landed in the uk to promote her latest season of suits lizzie cundy spent time with megan as she settled into london life megan and harry was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend they immediately clicked harry actually said it was like love at first sight she was so open and he thought she was so sweet and they just got on like a house on fire oh yay thank you for watching hi there hi i'm jerrod very few people knew the couple were dating but megan let her mother doria in on the secret any young man wants to make a very good impression and i don't think harry was any different so when they met in la in a rather luxurious mansion he was a bag of nerves apparently she rather less so she said that the meeting um was a little bit surreal actually i suppose it would be hey mum here's a prince but he went very well and and harry has become extremely fond of doria she's been a close part of their lives pretty much ever since but harry and megan didn't meet with her father thomas this is one of the great what ifs of the whole saga why didn't harry go to mexico to meet him why didn't megan take him why didn't harry insist before it all blew up i mean the whole thing was so avoidable and i think harry does have to to take some responsibility for that thomas was simply not part of these early meetings she seemed as she got closer and closer to harry and her royal life to be less and less inclined to rekindle her relationship with the markle side of her family for a few months harry and megan were able to keep their relationship from the outside world but eventually their secret got out there were many that knew only a very few friends then suddenly it got leaked to the press that harry had a new girlfriend if you haven't read any of that coverage she's meghan markle a 35 year old film and tv actress from california the world press knew about it and harry knew more than anyone things were going to change whilst terry was used to intense media pressure nothing could prepare megan and her family for the attention that followed after the relationship became public there was a huge amount of interest in megan some of it was extremely negative there were things like that that i think put a really bad taste in harry and megan's mouth in terms of the underlying and even blazing blatant racism with the glare of the world's media now upon both the markles and the monarchy questions were quickly asked as to how the relationship had reached the press when in a relationship or dating with a member of the royal family from the palace it's not an easy thing to keep secret prince harry's got his close protection and they're very discreet but at the same time there's other people who quite enjoy can i say um a gossip in the case of the leak about megan and harry's relationship which harry was said to be incandescent and furious about was rumored to have come from someone in prince andrews camp i have no idea if that's the case but what i can say is that there are so many leaks in the family there were rumors about harry's new girl and he was madly in love and those got out and uh and i don't think harry was quite prepared for all of that when it happened the wave of intense media retention led harry to take a public stand against the press an explosive public statement from harry was the first indication that the press were now on notice he requested the media pause and reflect before any further damage is done the one thing the royals are meant to do is make sure that everyone is on the same page and the fact is that the prince of wales was abroad on an official tour charles himself was only given a matter of moments to scan his son's statement and there was a feeling that that harry had been thoughtless and that he should have consulted his father he should have consulted his brother more um and they could have been a more measured response [Applause] with harry and megan's relationship now public the media interest was out of their control but megan would need to put all that to one side as she focused on important meetings behind palace walls meeting your in-laws is always a bit of an ordeal isn't it and uh meeting your in-laws when one is going to be a future king meeting prince charles must have been quite tough for megan or a little bit daunting but she is a strong woman she probably marched in there and just got on famously because she's a woman with lots of opinions lots of views um and a confident woman and that's those are kind of attributes that charles likes charles famously adored megan that first meeting went extraordinarily well she was welcomed as a daughter even more so than kate middleton was at the very beginning as well as charming prince charles megan also had a very successful first meeting with the queen the meeting went extremely well it actually ran over which is an extraordinary thing for the um way the queen keeps her schedule megan was warmly welcomed you know here she is articulate bright intelligent well-spoken beautiful elegant what's not to like despite charming harry's family did megan soon start to resent aspects of royal protocol the market way it seemed was not the winds away megan's first real reality check with how royal protocol works was when she was wearing a necklace with h m on it and then told to remove it by senior courtiers because it might encourage the press to be told what to do it must have been quite a shock anyone would kind of think hang on someone telling me what to wear and which jewelry to wear excuse me was it an early sign megan wasn't prepared to toe the royal line she likes to have the freedom to do what she wants and when she wants she wouldn't want to be told you know what to wear at any occasion you could look at this this instance and say was that the beginning of megan saying i'm not going to have people at this um controlling me [Music] despite a whirlwind introduction to royal life megan stood firm and as the final preparations for the royal wedding were put in place megan's mother doria was introduced to the establishment's key players she was given vip treatment i suppose perhaps it was her first taste of being associated with royalty you know being whisked through security at heathrow airport she was taken first to clarence house to meet charles and camilla and i think that went very well indeed meeting all the royals kate william charles must have felt like royal speed dating i've got to get to know everybody i've got to form these connections really quickly even the rather wonderfully confident doria found you know fairly awesome actually meeting the queen harry again had prepared his mother-in-law to be by saying you know she's my grand she's my grand try and think of her that way i don't think many people think about the queen that way while doria was winning over the windsors another member of the markle family was conspicuous in their absence it had been planned that thomas markle would have flown over and that he was going to walk megan down the aisle as father of the bride however it came to light that thomas markle had worked with a paparazzi photographer to stage photographs of him ahead of the wedding he was living in mexico surrounded by paparazzi he tried to set up this deal with a photographer in the belief that they would then go away well i'm afraid that just shows his naivety he found himself profoundly embarrassed he thought he'd embarrassed the royal family that he'd let down his beloved daughter who he used to call princess what we've since learned according to members of the family is that there was zero support from buckingham palace or harry and megan in order to support thomas the stress of dealing with the press and the build-up to the big day took its toll on thomas just days before the wedding he had a heart attack and had to go to hospital he had to have stents put in by the time he emerged he declared that he was not able to fly because of these procedures and he pulled out of the wedding and this was this was a huge drama on the eve of a wedding i mean it's stressful enough marrying into the royal family but to do it with all this scrutiny and this media frenzy and this scandal around your family you know the stress must have been unbearable despite the frenzied buildup harry and megan's big day was finally upon them but with her father unable to give her away megan was left with a huge dilemma and finding a solution she broke with tradition leaning on harry's father prince charles i thought it was the perfect embodiment actually of the modern woman that she started out on her own walked halfway down on her own and then charles joined her it looked right it sort of gave us an idea of of what megan was going to be like a sort of declaration of independence if you like on her part i don't need anyone to give me away i'm i'm i'm a free person was megan's independence also evident from the wedding's exclusive a-list guests we saw idris elba and george clooney and oprah you know walking in there was this kind of like whoa whoa whoa i didn't know megan knew all these people it was a star spotting day and she looked great the bride looked fantastic it was a wonderful day i think everyone just thoroughly enjoyed it and you just felt a sense of true welcome of this young bride into the royal fold to the eyes of the world harry and megan's wedding had the flavor of a fairy tale megan wanted it to be right she wanted to be perfect but she wanted it be done her way not the royal way or how the other royals had done it forget the red carpets in hollywood this was something else [Music] but even as the signatures on the wedding license were still drying the markle's wider family were beginning to make themselves heard everything seemed so i know magical hunky-dory after the wedding then it all got a bit soured a bit tarnished by megan's family piping up again and again the honeymoon for the marcos and the monarchy would soon come to an abrupt end she was an adult she had her own ideas and she was going to do it her way in the past for royals maori royals they all the the organizations the firms all work together to make sure there's no issues where they can't have that control when you're marrying it into can i say normal families just days after their wedding the new duke and duchess of sussex was seen at their first official engagement a garden party at buckingham palace this one actually was a little bit special because uh the theme uh was prince charles's 70th birthday and that must have been extraordinary for megan from the first instance the queen had implored upon the windsor family to embrace megan not only because she was a person of color and someone from an international country but that she had this charm about her almost this sassiness everything seems so i know magical hunky-dory after the wedding we've got this wonderful new mixed heritage modern woman as part of the royal family such a symbol of the monarchy moving with the times and then it all got a bit soured a bit tarnished by megan's family piping up again and again it's so good to have a role model for someone to look up to but oftentimes when it's someone who looks like you or comes from where you come from it's easier to connect and see it in a different way megan was used to cameras and publicity but really nothing can prepare someone for entering the most famous family in the world and i think even she she admits she was taken aback by as megan was starting her new life her father felt he was no longer part of it it was extraordinary that megan's dad did like a press tour in the days after the wedding putting forward his side of things it can't have been very easy for megan to watch her dad on television publicly disputing her side of the story or her version of events well i'm very disappointed by it millions watched as he gave an interview to good morning britain saying he hadn't heard from his daughter since before the wedding i'm not sure why it's happening and i'm waiting i'm reaching out i've been trying to reach out uh for several weeks every every day i try to text her it demonstrated that here was a man who was gonna you know shoot from the lip if you like and he wasn't afraid to say what he wanted i love you very much you're my daughter and i'd really like to hear from you um whatever differences or problems we have that we should be able to work them out we're family if you think about a father-daughter dynamic and this is a this is an intimate family space so there are now three of them it's megan it's thomas and it's the media i do have sympathy for thomas markle this was a guy who had never been a celebrity he had never courted uh fame and being a celebrity who was thrust into a national spotlight with zero support in the past when royals marry royals they all the the organizations the firms all work together to make sure there's no issues where they can't have that control when you're marrying it into can i say normal families seemingly left to cope on his own thomas continued to speak out in the press megan took full control herself because it was her dad and the palace didn't feel that they could step in and insist on how she handled things with her father she was an adult she had her own ideas and she was going to do it her way if that's the case it was a gross miscalculation and a huge mistake where was any help from harry or anybody in the royal household to to give him some guidance was he even offered it did he turn it down we don't know as her deteriorating relationship with her father continued to play out in the press megan became center stage in the royal family once you're in the family firm you are uh put to work and i covered their their first big tour in the autumn which was australia new zealand uh fiji and tonga it was relentless but you know they were the most famous couple in the world and the world wanted to see them i think for megan it may be a bit of a shock because these tours are quite full-on you know the the long days the long hours uh lots to do but it was a great introduction for her into the world of of royalty british royalty and how to do things then a surprise announcement by the couple wrong-footed the royal press pack signaling that from now on they were determined to do things their way the palace press officials were there going through the itinerary and at the end of that the british royal correspondents were called into a corner and we were told oh and by the way she's pregnant it's like what [Music] it was massive news and strange timing but i think harriet megan made that announcement because who knows in those early stages of pregnancy she might have suddenly felt that that tour was going to be a bit hardcore and she'd need time off [Music] as megan and harry prepared to start a family of their own wider members of the markle family began selling stories to the tabloid press megan's half siblings thomas jr and samantha just seemed incapable of keeping quiet at this point they every every other week it seemed they came out with some more very cruel criticism of their half-sister the fact that none of them had been invited to the wedding clearly wrangled hugely you know megan's answer to that was that they played very little part in her life in a remarkable interview for itv samantha criticized her stepsister the smiling and the waving and you know the contrived british accent uh you know it it all it was all seemingly great and wonderful then but when the public began to criticize uh some of the expenditures and the behaviors and protocol that had been broken the tune changed the queen and and members of her family must have been very disappointed is probably the word that megan's family had chosen to speak out in the way they did so was megan's key ally in the windsor camp also now under pressure charles has tried to be a uh support a listening ear um to give guidance uh to help the couple but from the very beginning harry and megan have done things their way [Music] the couple themselves were under increasing pressure in the media now the 2.4 million pound renovations to frogmore cottage came to the fall harry and megan took any kind of criticism very personally and none more so than the debate over the renovations to frogmore cottage [Music] frogmore cottage is not a cottage it's quite a few different buildings that they've knocked through spent a lot of taxpayers money on renovating harry took grave exception uh to this idea that they were uh lavishing public money on something which was unnecessary and it it did feed into the narrative as far as he was concerned that the press was somehow being highly critical of every motive and everything they did megan's mother doria could only watch on as her daughter struggled with the criticism and harsh media spotlight there's no doubt in my mind from what we can see that megan has a really close relationship with her mother somebody who would always you know have her back speak truth to her and you know help her make the kind of choices that she needs to make it must be difficult for any mother to see a daughter being splashed over the papers for things that she might not want to be in the papers but ultimately you can't control the press it's a beast of its own but on the 6th of may 2019 megan and harry were able to share some happy news megan gave birth to a baby boy archie harrison mountbatten windsor and secured the couple's direct line to the throne mother and baby are doing incredibly well it's been the most amazing experience i can possibly imagine [Music] archie would be part of the bloodlines of a storied family with hundreds of years of history behind it harry and megan released a touching family photograph to mark archie's monumental first meeting with the monarch there is doria a black woman there is megan a biracial woman in that picture there's so much hope and it does not look like the stuffy royal family that we all know the birth of archie was quite a moment for the marco family certainly but for dorian that must really have resonated with a she was over here so she was very much part of this this new little family after the birth megan decided to keep her mother close by doria stayed on with megan and harry at frogmore cottage and the royals began to visit the new arrival william and kate went on their own without their children to visit the baby people saw that as a snap i don't think that was fair enough they didn't want three children running around the place he would have turned up given his brother a hug and they would have congratulated them charles took 10 days before he visited archie camilla could have been in tow he perhaps thought he was being respectful but when her mother returned to los angeles did megan feel alone doria was very supportive but of course she had to go home so i think doria's absence would have hit megan very hard in public the sussexes appeared to be content with royal life but behind the scenes cracks were beginning to appear i think she did feel very misunderstood and she felt trapped and so she decided to do something about it and i think that she and harry i think she kind of she and harry kind of fed off each other actually resulting in a bombshell which would rock the monarchy they wanted an exit strategy from the royal family with the birth of archie in may 2019 megan and harry seem to have cemented their place at the very heart of the royal family despite ongoing battles between megan her family and the press for now their popularity with the public remained undimmed i think the queen had um high hopes for them being you know great brand ambassadors for the royal family harry and megan made it clear they wanted to be different kind of royals they wanted to engage more uh they clearly wanted to have uh close links with with young people i think the queen sees on that with alacrity [Applause] harry and megan were enormously popular and i think everyone thought this was the cementing of the future of the monarchy there was going to be these two young couples william and catherine harry and megan taking it [Music] forward in september 2019 the new family embarked on a tour of southern africa on the surface they seemed happier than ever you've given us so much inspiration so much hope and above all you have given us joy thank you [Applause] but in reality they felt under pressure in a revealing interview for an itv documentary megan dropped a bombshell yeah well i guess and also thank you for asking because not many people have asked if i'm okay but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes remember at this point she's had an absolute beating from the press on a sort of daily basis she's had this horrible fallout with her father she's also a new mother and as well and you can just see the sort of weight on her shoulders her mother would have been heartbroken that her daughter was experiencing all of this the interview seemed to mark a sea change in the once happy relationship between harry meghan and the rest of the royal family megan seemed intent on sort of ripping up the royal guidebook if you like and doing things her own way over time that turned into a stance a stance against what's perceived to be royal norms not speaking out not seeking publicity not challenging the press and as much as the queen tried her hardest to ingratiate megan who she liked into the family it was like beating her head against the wall one of the rules of being a member of the royal family is you never complain about anything so i think that um they would have been furious and the sad thing is i think you know she was just being honest about how she felt but that interview probably made things about 100 times worse in terms of already frosty relations for william charles the queen duty and public service and loyalty to the institution always comes first being selfless is the creed by which the queen charles and william live by harry then opened up on the relationship with his brother william he revealed his true feelings to journalist tom bradbee never to be you know stuff um stuff happens but look we're we're brothers we're we'll always be brothers and we're certainly on different paths at the moment but i will always be there for him and as i know he'll always be there for me harry's revelation further fueled the rumors there had been a breakdown in relations between the two couples was it now harry and megan versus the monarchy i think it stemmed from william giving what he believed to be good brotherly advice to harry make sure about your feelings about this girl and from what we gather it was those words this girl particularly that riled uh harry we the the media went a bit to town on that fab four but that wasn't to be it's really sad because when i was working for them prince william and prince harry they were closed for the queen and prince charles this fall it would have been disappointing [Music] harry and megan were now fighting battles on multiple fronts as the negative headlines continued to engulf them they became increasingly frustrated with palace protocol i think someone like megan who's always been very outspoken would have struggled very much with not being able to comment and put out her version of events this is not what happens in hollywood megan couldn't do that as a member of the royal family and that would have been maddening for her harry and megan's ongoing battle with the media came to a head in february 2019 when excerpts of a private letter sent from megan to her father were published in the british press this letter was such a watershed moment and i think this was the point at which you know this was the straw that broke the camel's back and they announced that they were going to fight back and that they were taking legal action against associated newspapers [Applause] [Music] megan believes that her privacy has been invaded that she has the copyright over those letters and thomas markle believes the opposite and remember he hasn't even met prince harry at this point so there was a possibility that had this gone to court the first time he would have met his son-in-law would have been in a courtroom the whole thing was an absolute nightmare it was very very high stakes a recent ruling in the case went in megan's favor but there's still a possibility they could end up in court there is one residual issue over copyright and i think that certainly um the the mail on sunday and associated newspapers will be pushing hard to try and get that to court in the wake of their legal action against a section of the british press harry and megan announced they were taking a six-week break from royal duties and heading to canada to spend christmas with doria what you do sometimes psychologically for yourself is you remove yourself from a situation that you find difficult and painful and put yourself in a space that you feel might be more nurturing and safe and secure christmas is a very very important part in the queen's calendar she likes to draw her family around her she and prince philip were getting older they knew that there wouldn't be too many more christmases and they must have been disappointed christmas at sandringham is quite a formal affair so it must have been great for harry and megan to have the informality of a christmas in canada doria is could not be further away from the stuffiness of the senior members of the royal family although the festivities may have been relaxed were decisions about the growing divide between harry megan and the monarchy being considered in canada i suspect that megan uses her mother a great deal as a source of wisdom and advice i'd be astonished if during that time both she and harry no doubt hadn't spoken about the fact that they actually wanted to step back as senior royals they wanted an exit strategy from the royal family doria and megan are extremely close she missed her mum and she wanted doria to be very much part of the of the family unit [Music] when harry and megan returned to britain in january 2020 they made a shock announcement in a statement released in the last few minutes they say they intend to step back senior members of the royal family and work to become financially independent the royal firm had been here before it was an electric moment in royal history diana had essentially left the royal family and before her fergie edward viii left the royal family he abdicated leaving the royal family is is possible but it's messy initially it was a sort of a geographical split they would be moving to canada they would come to britain to do engagements when it suited them the tabloids dubbed their decision as mexic and it sent shockwaves through the royal family i actually spoke to some colleagues from their household and we were all in absolute disbelief that this had actually happened harry i'm sure you know he felt you know he was freeing himself but for his father and brother and grandmother it probably felt like an act of vandalism against the monarchy they would have been both furious but equally heartbroken as well away from the royal family megan's support of mother doria treated the announcement with the utmost discretion i think doria has acted in the most regal way in all of this because the royal way is to uh don't complain and don't explain and that's exactly what doria did however the wider members of the markle family again talk to the press thomas markle saying oh she she dumped her own family now she's going to dump the royal family they suggested that this was always megan's intention from the off and samantha is an arch critic of everything she does she thinks her sisters are phony she thinks she's insincere in the windsor household the queen called an emergency meeting at sandringham prince william was center stage it was an extraordinarily awkward uh family meeting and uh there were reports that william was actually less inclined to negotiate sure it must have been quite tricky it's the first time the two brothers had been together in the same room for quite some time the queen and and certainly prince william's view was that the royal family doesn't work like that as an institution you've got to be around for the whole gig you can't just pick and choose the queen issued a statement that outlined a transition period to allow harry and megan to step back from their roles as senior members of the royal family the queen's statement was was obviously very much from her heart but at the same time it it was very uh clean cut you know this this is how it is you're out it's as simple as that [Music] preparations for their new life could begin but what would become of the broken union between harry meghan and the monarchy megan and harry seem to live by the beach you know do yoga is a very different life to the windsors and i don't think harry will ever be able to go back to that life and how would life stateside affect the dynamic between the two families in january 2020 harry megan and archie left behind their royal life and home at frogmore cottage for a new life abroad for prince harry it was a big decision because he's leaving his friends his family he felt he had to get his family out of britain he felt so angry and hurt about the press and about the institution of the monarchy [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] after a brief stay in canada megan and harry settled in santa barbara in california a familiar glitzy surrounding for megan megan and harry live in montecito which is a very posh fancy enclave i happen to live there for four years it's very private we know that oprah is a neighbor katy perry and orlando bloom they all live nearby montecito residents are very protective of their own they won't talk about harry and megan much to the press and i should know because i've tried she wanted to be around the place she knew megan didn't know hardly anyone here in the uk and it can be a very lonely place in the palace she didn't want that life she wanted to be free so i do feel megan had that influence over harry to say look i'm not happy with this and i'm going to the states that's what megan wanted and that's what megan got they reportedly bought their 9 bed 16 bath mansion for 11.2 million pounds they've seamlessly slipped into the californian lifestyle a million miles away from the windsor's world their friends are not going to be members of the aristocracy with wonderful estates in in scotland to shoot grouse on but hollywood and and a celebrity culture oprah winfrey is a friend of of megan and megan's mother they're friends with the clooneys and they're making connections all over tinseltown harry and megan have been spotted at the beach cycling with archie in tow they have a wonderful lifestyle in california in the sunshine and i can't imagine megan ever wishes to be back in rainey windsor but you do wonder sometimes what harry thinks of all of this and is he in fact missing his old life megan and harry seem to live by the beach you know do yoga it's a very different life to the windsors what tore harry from the british people was meghan markle and the decision to move to los angeles megan never lost that desire to be a star and returning to la and hollywood was what she wanted [Music] the move has only deepened the divide between harry and megan and the monarchy megan's mother doria is now just a 90-minute drive away a stark contrast to over 5000 miles from the windsors harry loves charles you know they clearly have a strong bond and now they are literally not as close as they used to be i think they are staying in touch over skype and zoom but it's not the same is it i'm sure it pains charles that he will not have an active role in the upbringing of archie harry seems to have an absolutely brilliant relationship with doria there's no doubt that megan and doria are closer geographically physically and perhaps emotionally as well than they ever have been doria apparently enjoys feeding we archie organic food and she's also a trained yoga instructor as well so i have these visions of them doing baby yoga together so i think he's definitely a very cool hippie californian baby but could harry and megan's plan to build their brand and become financially independent from the windsors push the families even further apart they recently released a promotional video for their podcast with spotify which reportedly looks set to bring them in around 30 million pounds we create an actual audio to make sure that we can elevate voices that maybe aren't being heard you hear people's stories and the biggest part of this is trying to create this community of where you can share their biggest and perhaps most lucrative signing is with netflix rumored to be worth over a hundred million pounds but will the inevitable publicity from their deals be seen as a step too far by the firm effectively the money that they are being paid is because of their platform as royalty as members of the royal family and that's quite tricky people always want the most compulsive viewing and the things that are going to come on the most column inches and and effectively that then translates into dollars are those personal and intimate revelations so i think that will be a very tricky tightrope for the couple to walk they've created a new standard and that is one to exploit themselves for profit megan is creating a new form of celebrity for herself by securing deals with media conglomerates in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars sets her on a path to unparalleled stardom let's not be surprised if you see her return to acting this here right there is the house from the fresh prince of bel-air however in february 2021 it was harry not megan who took center stage on cbs in america how's your tour of la going has i didn't know where you were calling your house now it's 17 minutes skits with james corden it is really fun it is very show busy it is very celebrity an unprecedented move he gave a candid tv interview to his long-term friend james corden interesting my my grandmother asked asked us what art she wanted for christmas and meg said a waffle maker she sent us a waffle maker i think it's quite tricky for harry because we know that one of the things that he found very uncomfortable was the press coverage he is then talking about his personal life he's talking about his grandparents and that is going to be written all around the world it's going to be turned into more click babe by choosing to do these interviews it frankly just encourages more of that stuff to be written harry in a bombshell move also spoke openly about his move away from the royal family it was it was stepping back rather than stepping down right um you know it was a really difficult environment as i think a lot of people saw we all know what the british press can be like and it was destroying my mental health the actions of harry and megan in the united states goes against the very grain of the royal rule book at the very core of this brand building exercise is not harry it's megan there is a delicious irony where they live in los angeles the heart of the paparazzi at the same time in london they're fighting these legal arguments and that must not be lost on the royal family itself it's almost cringeworthy to an extent as they embark on this brand building exercise we're only going to see earthquake after earthquake shattering buckingham palace they know what makes money they know what makes people tick particularly meghan markle does i mean let's hope they don't get like the kardashians that's my only worry i think that there were people who truly wish them well but of course there were also people who wanted to poke you know holes into their love affair and bring out as much dirt as they could i think they found a way to say you know what enough is enough we refuse to be pillars of abuse then on the 14th of february 2021 they made another surprise announcement there's a new baby on the way but i think that is going to in some respects draw them further apart and in the days that followed a war of words erupted between harry and meghan and the monarchy taking part in such a high profile interview with somebody like oprah winfrey improved relations with the royal family at all the queen had no choice but to strip them of the time [Music] on valentine's day 2021 megan and harry announced their second pregnancy to the world it was clear yet again they were doing things their way there's a new baby on the way which is amazing news but i think that is going to in some respects draw them further apart they're going to spend most their time in the us and they want to make their life there the chances of the newborn reaching england in the foreseeable future is next to zero and one must sympathise with the queen that's disheartening and heartbreaking increasingly one wonders how much influence the royal family will even have the royals are going to become distant relatives i suspect [Applause] a year on from the bombshell announcement that harry and megan would be moving away from the royal family they made it clear they would be staying in california harry and megan's exit from the royal family ended today as it began with considerable acrimony buckingham palace confirmed that the couple would be stripped of all their honorary titles and royal patronages including harry's military titles and megan's role as vice president of the queen's commonwealth trust i think harry wanted it both ways he wanted to be able to live a life free of responsibility but still make change and the reality was the sussexes in another country are isolated from what everything the royal family means and that puts the royal family at peril so the queen had no choice but to strip them of the titles within minutes of the buckingham palace announcement harry and megan responded stating that they remained committed to their duty and service their quick fire response was reportedly deemed disrespectful by palace officials i think charles and william and certainly the courts of the palace felt that megan and harry's push back was disrespectful it was petulant it was resentful and as one said to me you don't disrespect your granny just days earlier harry and megan had shot an intimate tell-all television interview with their friend and broadcast legend oprah winfrey then in the days building up to the broadcast newspapers claimed that megan now faced a serious bullying complaint against her whilst at kensington palace her spokesperson said that she was saddened by the reports relations appear to have finally hit rock bottom the six million dollar question though is just how far megan is going to go the full truth as she sees it would be highly explosive but it would certainly burn all bridges with the institution she is left behind whilst the news reportedly came as a surprise to the royal family excerpts from the groundbreaking interview were later teased in the media i'm just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we have each other questions will be asked that will be uncomfortable for the royal family not for megan she's open she's honest and she doesn't care about that impact the interview scheduled broadcast date has caused another row with 99 year old prince philip ill in hospital the timing has been criticized by the media including piers morgan on good morning britain and i'm sorry i think we're entitled to say this is incredibly distasteful to be doing this kind of confessional in which they're bound to be critical about the royal family and the monarchy at a time when his grandfather is in hospital and clearly quite seriously ill he wouldn't be in there for two weeks it does smack of hypocrisy taking part in an interview such a high profile view but improve relations with the royal family at all [Music] in the days leading up to the broadcast new revelations from the interview exposed the increasingly bitter war between megan and the monarchy how do you feel about the palace hearing you speak your truth today i don't know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us it's almost like prince harry is driving a wedge with a sledgehammer through his relationship with prince william william as a staunch advocate of everything that the royal family means is obviously going to be dragged into this i expect this interview not only to reverberate through the united states and england but to rock the establishment at its very core [Applause] [Music] could harry and megan's fall out with the monarchy leave its mark for decades to come it's like a war i don't believe harry would be outside the royal family except for marrying meghan markle they've lost a critical component of what the royal family represented the british people had an affinity with harry now to divorce himself from that family really is an abandonment of what he was born into what began as a breath of fresh air cascaded into a series of family conflicts controversies and trouble for harry and megan and the monarchy these are family stories that are complicated run deep if people feel very hurt and betrayed and they feel that this relationship is broken beyond repair then that might be the reality harry and william you know they've reached a bad place in their relationship and one can only hope that they build bridges going forward because the only losers in all this will be them megan and harry could have resolved so many issues but they're stubborn and it's very hard to see how there can be any long-term relationship with megan and the marcos going forward i think that in the initial stage there was a fairy tale about this but that fairy tale was quickly shattered i think it's a real lost opportunity for the royal family that they couldn't make it work that that that megan couldn't become an integral part of the future of the monarchy the monarchy could be seen to be so much more inclusive modern moving with the times evolving i think it is uh extremely sad she was ready to do what it takes to be a you know to be to be a wife for harry and to be a member of the royal family that um that the country can be proud of but i personally don't think that wanting to be a member of the family should cost you your independence or independent thoughts megan's hollywood background megan's expectations as a celebrity would have hit the royal family like a hurricane and now look where we are it had the potential to be so much better than in fact it turned out to be you

Channel: British Documentary

Views: 1,400,848

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Id: hSCjek2tTZw

Length: 68min 26sec (4106 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021