What we learned from the Harry and Meghan documentary, Part 2

LONDON — The second and final installment of “Harry and Meghan,” Netflix’s highly anticipated documentary series about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was released on Thursday, capping a week in which the couple’s personal lives were once again in the spotlight.

The first three episodes of the series, released last week, explored the beginning of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship, their ongoing battle with the media, her difficult family connections and more. Three more episodes were released on Thursday.

Love them, hate them, or simply can’t live without them, people follow. The first batch of episodes received 81.5 million hours watched, the most of any documentary in its premiere week. Netflix said on Tuesday. The streaming platform added that more than 28 million households watched at least part of the first set of episodes in the first four days of its release.

Episode four begins at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May 2018 and quickly addresses a number of issues, including Meghan’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth II, the barrage of negative headlines she has faced and her mental health challenges.

If you don’t have time to watch, or if you enjoy spoilers, here are the highlights from the latest episodes.

Strained family relationships take center stage.

In the fifth episode, the couple recount a family meeting to discuss their decision to reduce their roles as working members of the royal family. Harry said he had several options but soon realized that no deal would be reached.

“It was terrifying for my brother to yell and yell at me, for my father to say things that simply weren’t true, and for my grandmother to sit there quietly and accept it all,” Harry said.

Harry described that meeting as difficult and said it ended without a solid plan of action.

Acknowledging Prince William’s point, Harry said, “The saddest part of it was this wedge that had grown between my brother and me, so now it’s on the side of the establishment.”

announced the couple In January 2020 they were retracting One of their royal duties has been sending shock waves around the world and drawing headlines that seem to blame Meghan for the split.

Constant and negative tabloid headlines had a huge impact on Meghan.

In the fourth episode, Megan discusses suicidal thoughts, which she blames in part on negative headlines shortly after their marriage and through most of her first pregnancy.

“It would all stop if I wasn’t here, and that was the most terrifying thing about it – it was such clear thinking,” Megan said, remembering her thinking at the time.

Doria Ragland, Megan’s mother, recalled an emotional conversation in which Megan expressed suicidal thoughts. “This is not easy for a mother to hear,” she said, wiping her tears. “And I can’t protect her. H can’t protect her.” (Meghan refers to Harry throughout the series as “H.”)

Harry said he was devastated by the negative press coverage of his wife and said he did not take it well.

“I’ve been trained to worry more about what people will think,” Harry said. “And looking back on it now, I hate myself for it. What she needed from me was so much more than I was ever able to give.”

The couple’s war with the media has reached its climax.

Episode five begins with the couple’s ongoing war with the media and their efforts to avoid the paparazzi while they spend Christmas 2019 away from the royal family.

The headlines about Meghan seemed to continue, pushing the couple to their breaking point. “I realized I wasn’t just being thrown to the wolves,” Megan said. “I was feeding the wolves.”

The couple described developing a plan that they hoped would bring them security and peace of mind. “The toll was palpable, the emotional toll it takes on both of us, especially my wife,” Harry said. “We’ll have to change this for our own good.”

They described their plans to move to New Zealand or South Africa before eventually settling in Canada. They later moved to California.

Harry said his grandmother, the Queen, was aware he and Meghan were having difficulties in their public roles and planned to discuss them in early January 2020 when he returned to Britain for a brief period. However, this plan was thwarted, they said.

“I remember looking at H and going, ‘Oh my God, this is when there’s a direct conflict between a family business and a family because they’re preventing you from seeing the Queen, but what they’re really doing is preventing his grandson from seeing his grandmother,'” Meghan said.

Harry blames Meghan’s miscarriage.

In July 2020, Central A long-running legal battle Against a British tabloid, the Daily Mail, Megan She said she had a miscarriage. The couple discussed the loss in the sixth episode.

“I think my wife had a miscarriage because of what The Mail did,” Harry said. “I watched it all.”

Meghan has alleged the newspaper breached her privacy by publishing details from a private letter she sent to her estranged father in 2018.

“Now, do we absolutely know that a miscarriage results from that? Of course we don’t,” he said, noting that the legal battle led to stress and loss of sleep.

He said, “I can tell, from what I saw, that the abortion was a result of what they were trying to do to her.”

The couple has two children: Archie, born in May 2019, and Lilibet Diana, born in June 2021.

The Daily Mail did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tyler Perry’s friendship was a saving grace.

Filmmaker Tyler Perry appeared in the final episode of the series, recounting how he first reached out to Meghan shortly before the couple’s wedding in 2018. Perry said he sympathized with her struggles.

“This was before the wedding and I sent her a message,” Perry said. “Just praying for her. Just to be able to move through that and hold onto it and tell her that everything in her life has prepared her for this moment, or so I thought.”

Meghan said she was “a wreck” when she later reached out to Perry in early 2020, after she and Harry moved to Canada.

“Sometimes it’s easier to open up to someone who knows nothing at all, and that moment was with me and Tyler,” Megan said. Perry said he could hear the fear in Meghan’s voice and drew parallels to Princess Diana’s struggles with the media.

In March 2020, just before Covid-19 upended lives around the world, Perry helped the couple move into a home he owned in Beverly Hills, California. They were desperate to stay anywhere, Harry said, adding that the new location was “bliss” until the paparazzi found them six weeks later.

The wedding was a family affair, though it was an international event.

The fourth episode began with the revival of the couple Star-studded wedding ceremony in May 2018. Although thousands of people were on the street hoping to catch a glimpse of the couple, and there were probably billions more watching on TV, the couple described it as a family affair, with so many personal touches that seemed to make all the difference.

Harry chose the song (Handel’s “Eternal Source of Divine Light”) That Megan walked down the aisle to. “It was very beautiful,” she said. It is also revealed that Harry’s father Charles, who was Prince of Wales at the time and is now King, helped select the orchestra for the concert.

Because Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, wasn’t at the ceremony, she asked Charles to walk her down the aisle. “Harry’s dad is absolutely charming,” Meghan said. “I said to him like, ‘I lost my dad in this.'” So he, my father-in-law, was really important to me.”

Happy ending?

After going into more detail about their private struggles, Including abortionthe final episode attempts to untangle the delicate threads surrounding Megan’s long-running legal battle against The Mail, which she eventually wins.

The decision came after The Mail’s attempt to force a trial was rejected by the Court of Appeal Her claim that he violated her privacy.

In the final moments of the series, Harry admits that he misses many aspects of his former life and that he lost friends in the process of moving to the United States.

Reflecting on the couple’s experiences, Harry says, “There are times when I’m angry, but I can’t be angry because I really feel like I, and we, are exactly where we’re supposed to be.”