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I WATCHED ‘HARRY & MEGHAN’ AND IT ISN’T AN UNNECESSARY RANT

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Delhi North chapter.

Although the saying goes, “Whatever happens in the royal family, stays in the royal family,” (un) fortunately, it’s not true anymore. The end of 2022 gave us plenty of fresh content to take with us in the new year. Out of all the amazing content, one of them was the docu-series Harry & Meghan, which was the most-watched subscription TV show of the launch year and the fifth most enjoyed program in Britain. This series is based on the lives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex of the Royal Family of England, both individually and as a married ‘ex-royal’ couple.

Clubbed together in eight episodes on the OTT platform, Netflix, the web series has very beautifully woven the mushy romance between the Royal Prince and a Hollywood actress along with elaborate events and consequences which led to their decision to be ‘financially independent’ from the royal family.

Upon release, the docu-series received mixed reviews, with many people saying that the series is an ‘unnecessary rant’ by the royal couple. But I believe that this Netflix original did break the concrete walls of secrecy that the royal family had maintained for decades. This breakage was needed because, as laymen, we have always known only what the Royal Family wants us to know. The information has always been polished, well-crafted, and presented in a way the royal public affairs authority deemed fit. 

Both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have outwardly gone on about the internal politics that happen within the family and how the royal family is maintaining a very professional relationship with the UK media, especially the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

This web series, directed by Liz Garbus and Erica Sashin gives us an insight into how both the media and the family are dependent on each other. The former needs the royal family to sell their headlines while the latter needs the media to stay up to date with the world of UK citizens. It also depicts the hard reality of not everyone liking the constant media attention and being told to follow strict rules and codes of conduct in public. For instance, as stated by Prince Harry in the docu-series, when his mother, Princess Diana died in a car crash, it was a very emotional moment for both him and his brother, but even in that situation, the higher-ups in the royal family expected the little boys to smile and greet the common citizens of the UK.

All the contents of the series are first-hand information given by both Harry and Meghan, which makes it more interesting to hear because you hardly hear any royal family members being this frank in the public sphere. More than anything, this bold decision taken by the couple helps us know Meghan Markle’s side of the story better because, till then, we only heard and believed what the tabloids and other royal family press releases wanted us to believe, which put the entire ‘royal exit’ blame on Meghan. As a whole, even though the docu-series had to face a lot of backlash from royal family loyalists, for me, this series established one fact: no rule or protocol is ever greater than the TRUTH.

Ritika Das is a Chapter Member at the Her Campus North Delhi Chapter and a part of the Content Writing team for it's website. While she has explored different genres of topics but the most comfortable ones have always been entertainment, books and sports. Beyond Her Campus, she is a third year Political Science student of Indraprastha College For Women. She was the ex-sub editor of the English Editorial society of her college. She has also successfully published various articles in many regional and national newspapers and also in some of college magazines across du circuit. Her love for films and literary works justify the fact that she has done a two years minor course on Multimedia and Mass communication. In her leisure time, Ritika loves to get hold of the latest web series/films and also has an affiliation towards art and craft. She considers herself as one of the biggest cricket fan and and a true lover of Hindi old songs.