Prince William is the real victim of Harry and Meghan's new Netflix series, writes Daniela Elser. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
Do you ever wonder what Prince William does to let off steam? He does not appear, now he is well and truly entrenched in dad-mode, to booze with his old mates, ride his Ducati motorbike or do any daggy dancing in Swiss nightclubs.
He has not been photographed or spied in the vicinity of an overpriced rum cocktail or demonstrating his disconcerting lack of rhythm in positive eons. (His one hobby slash sign of indulgence these days would appear to be his ever-growing velvet blazer collection.)
But if there was ever a moment that William might want to take up bare-knuckle boxing or get into Mescal or waste large chunks of his Duchy of Cornwall fortune on day-of-the-week smoking jackets, then it would have to be today, as the world recovers from our first taste of Harry & Meghan.
The first three, interminable episodes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s documentary were released by Netflix on Thursday night, constituting hour upon tedious hour of high-sheen, high-gloss propaganda. The Sussexes’ is a Love Story ™ which we are told again and again and again and which they seem to think therefore gives them complete licence to traduce anyone or anything they view as not supportive enough of their (at times sickly) romance.
But today, the day after the night before, something has become clear and that there is something of a forgotten victim in this sorry saga – ol’ William.
After having been, as the elder son, the one who pushed their mother tissues under the bathroom door as she cried inside; after having been the one who tried to support his brother when they were both grief-stricken teenagers; after the two men started a groundbreaking organisation together (the Royal Foundation) and rode across South African and Lesotho on motorbikes for charity, the now Prince of Wales’ suffering generally gets lost when we talk about the Great Megxit Mess and in the face of Sussexes’ prime time keening.
Lucky then that a friend of his and wife Kate, Princess of Wales has just given an astonishingly loose-lipped interview to the Daily Beast, saying “It’s hard to imagine how devastating the last three years have been for William. The brothers were so close, they had such an incredible bond. It’s impossible really to express what a massive, terrible, ongoing headache this has been for William in the past few years.”
This pal then goes on to offer a blistering explanation for who is to blame for this Shakespeare-worthy fraternal tragedy. I’ll give you a hint: She once said that she “lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach or a few avocados”.
“The family blames Meghan for it all, really. They absolutely f****** hate her, basically. It’s a huge disaster,” the friend has told the Beast.
“Growing up, the brothers were so close. Harry would do anything to be with William. They lost their mum, and their dad was really disengaged, so they had this incredible, incredible bond. Everyone knew it.
“And then Meghan came along. Everyone warned him off her but he wouldn’t listen, and she just ripped him away. The bond is gone, completely gone and this film is just the latest betrayal. William really, really, really hates both of them now.
“It’s really toxic and destructive for all of them. At the end of the day, they are a family, and their whole family life has been ruined by Meghan. You can’t imagine how bad it really is.”
Sadly some smashed avo and a few sun salutations aren’t going to fix this mess.
What was interesting watching the grandiously marketed “volume one” of this Netflix “global event” was that William is only given a frugal supporting role in Harry’s ‘truth.’ (We get few references to them as “two grieving sons wanting to cry, grieve, and process that grief because of losing our mom”; saying “the UK literally swept me and William up as their children”; and that after Diana’s death there was “an expectation to see myself and William out and about”.)
There is hardly anything much new in the series, aside from a literal trove of Harry and Meghan’s family snappy snaps being splayed out on screen for our nosy pleasure however the one person Harry took two swipes at with the subtlety of a Panzer division was William.
In the first episode, Harry says: “I think, for so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit in the mould as opposed to somebody who you perhaps are destined to be with.”
Then, come the second, and by which point we the audience are being put through a lengthy crash course in the wily ways of the British press, and the harassment Meghan was subjected to in the early days of their relationship. The duke says: “What people need to understand is as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they’d been put through as well.
“So it was almost like a rite of passage. Some of the members of the family were like, but ‘My wife had to go through that. So why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’ ”
The most glowing and warm comments about family turn out to have nothing to do with a smidgen of Queen Victoria’s DNA in their veins but to the people he met during numerous trips to Africa, saying: “I’ve got a second family out there. A group of friends that literally brought me up.”
Similarly of Lesotho’s Prince Seesio, with whom Harry founded the charity Sentebale, he touchingly says, “it didn’t take very long until we became like brothers”.
Look, the royal family generally seems to be an emotionally frigid bunch but how could this not be hurtful, especially to William?
Rubbing further salt into the brotherly wound is the decision to use footage from Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview, after William issued an unusually forceful statement saying it should never be played again after last year’s Dyson inquiry found that the princess had been duped into taking part.
“We all now know she was deceived into giving that experience but she was speaking her lived experience,” Harry says, seemingly ignoring any concerns about William’s “lived experience”.
On top of all this, yep there is more, the Duke of Sussex repeatedly talks about Diana in what feels like a certain land grab for her legacy.
“My mum made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. And I am my mother’s son,” Harry tells us of falling for inveterate hugger ‘Meg’.
The Sussexes are positioned by ‘Aitch’, as ‘Emm’ calls him, as the rightful, spiritual heirs to the former Princess of Wales’ legacy with the duchess as an all-hugging, royal rebel whose touchy-feely approach upset the constipated Palace. Meghan especially, we are told by Harry, is Diana 2.0 saying: “You know, I didn’t want history to repeat itself.”
We have a week to wait until some of us will be forced to sit through three more episodes of the Harry’n’Meghan show, a chance for us to likely see more of their Montecito mansion and for the couple to proselytise ‘their truth’ while swathed in cashmere and sanctimony.
I’m guessing at least one Netflix subscriber won’t be watching; not when he could be looking for a cerulean Nehru jacket to add to his collection.
The modern marriage has a spare room and we're not afraid to use it.