Days after the first trailer of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s highly anticipated Netflix documentary dropped, we finally got a release date — and a second peek into the series.
The six-episode series will be split into two volumes, the first will drop on the streamer on Dec. 8, followed by the second volume, which will land on Dec. 15.
The Liz Garbus-directed project will provide never-before-seen insight at the couple’s personal life, including one-on-one interviews with Harry and Meghan. “It’s really hard to look back on it now and go, ‘What on earth happened?’” says Prince Harry in the full-length trailer. “There’s a hierarchy of the family. There’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories,” he explains. “It’s a dirty game.”
Tracing the Duchess of Sussex’s rise and fall in the eye of the British public’s court of public opinion, footage of the couple being bombarded by cameras is shown alongside Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana making her way through crowds of press and paparazzi. “The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution — it’s this feeding frenzy,” says the Duke of Sussex. “I was terrified. I didn’t want history to repeat itself.” Meghan says, “I realized, ‘They’re never going to protect you.'”
According to Netflix, the six-part documentary series, “explores the span of their relationship, from the early days of the couple’s courtship to the challenges and controversies that prompted them to step back from the royal family.”
Harry & Meghan will include interviews with not only the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but friends and family who have never previously spoken about the couple publicly. Historians and journalists will also be featured, providing insight as to how the media painted and influenced the pair’s relationship with the rest of the British royal family and the Commonwealth at large. “No one knows the full truth,” says Prince Harry. “We know the full truth.”
Speaking with The Cut this summer, Markle confirmed the story will follow, “the piece of my life I haven’t been able to share, that people haven’t been able to see — our love story.”
The Sussexes reportedly replaced the original director, Garrett Bradley over creative differences, and signed on Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Garbus, known for Love, Marilyn (2012) and What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015).
Markle told Variety in October, “It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story – a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired – even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it.” She continued, “But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting out story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex finalized a multimillion-dollar, multi-year deal with Netflix in September 2020 for media comprising of documentary projects, feature films, television series, and programming for children, according to the New York Times. So, it’s safe to say we can expect more Harry & Meghan content coming our way.
While Markle has just wrapped the first season of her podcast Archetypes, Prince Harry is set to release his tell-all memoir Spare in January 2023.
Tune in to watch volume I of Harry & Meghan on Dec. 8, only on Netflix.
