Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary features an excerpt from the late Princess Diana’s controversial Panorama interview, despite Prince William’s firm stance that people should never see the interview again.
Netflix released the first part of the six-part documentary, “Harry and Meghan,” last Thursday, and the series chronicles Harry and Meghan’s fallout with the royal family. The couple also talks about their horrible experience with the British tabloid media and the racism Meghan experienced while living in the United Kingdom.
In the first episode, Harry briefly commented on Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir, who used deceitful methods to secure the interview. Investigations into circumstances leading up to the famous interview revealed that the journalist forged bank statements to convince Diana to sit for the interview.
Prince William spoke about the interview after the fraud findings, saying that the clip should be consigned to history and never aired again.
In the documentary, Prince Harry said that even though everyone now knows that Diana was deceived into sitting down with the journalist, she spoke the truth about her experience.
That Netflix included the clip in the documentary was shocking to many royal experts and people close to the family, especially after Prince William’s condemnation of the interview.
In the Panorama interview, Diana spoke candidly about her struggles in the royal family and the cheating scandal between then Prince Charles and Camilla, now the Queen Consort. She said three people were in her marriage, making it a “little crowded.”
Nick Bullen, the co-founder of True Royalty TV and a documentarian who has worked with the royal family for over two decades and with King Charles III for almost ten years, said he was shocked when he saw the clip in the new Netflix trailer. He noted that Prince William would find it hurtful that Harry and Meghan added parts of the interview to their documentary.
Bullen said that he did not think Harry and Meghan were doing the documentary to tell their truth but rather to make money from their story and fund their expensive lifestyle in the United States.
He said that the couple did not acknowledge the privileges they enjoyed as members of the royal family, like flying on private planes, having beautiful homes, a lavish lifestyle, and being able to spend months on end in Africa. They instead focus on the negatives of the institution.
According to Bullen, the other royals recognized that with the privileges comes duty. He said the relationship between the two brothers was at an all-time low, and while the palace courtiers would watch the show and update the royals if the Duke and Duchess said anything too damning, the royals would not watch the series.
Speaking about Princess Diana’s Panorama interview, Prince William said last year that the interview holds no legitimacy and established a false narrative commercialized for over 25 years by the BBC and others.
Although BBC vowed never to air the interview again, Netflix decided to use it anyway, and they recreated a scene of it in the fifth season of their hit show “The Crown,” and now in “Harry and Meghan.”
The two princes have very different views about how the interview should be used, with Harry supporting airing it because it includes Diana’s feelings, which Harry feels are legitimate and her problems with the royal family can be compared to the difficulties his wife Meghan was having while in the UK.
