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Home / Lifestyle

Harry & Meghan: Five things we learned from the first episode

Bethany Reitsma
By Bethany Reitsma
Senior lifestyle Writer·NZ Herald·
8 Dec, 2022 09:25 AM4 mins to read

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Harry and Meghan reveal the truth about their love story in the first episode of new series. Photo / Netflix
Harry and Meghan reveal the truth about their love story in the first episode of new series. Photo / Netflix

Harry and Meghan reveal the truth about their love story in the first episode of new series. Photo / Netflix

REVIEW:

The first three episodes of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s long-awaited Netflix series are finally here.

It comes exactly three months after the Queen’s death, following the release of the fifth season of Netflix’s The Crown, which caused an uproar with its portrayal of the breakdown of the now-King’s marriage to Princess Diana. For the royal family, the timing of this new docuseries couldn’t be worse.

Billed as a behind-the-scenes look at their “fairytale” love story, the trailers released earlier this week also promised us a reckoning: with the monarchy, the media, and Prince Harry’s fears that “history will repeat itself”.

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So, what did we learn from the dramatic first episode?

They met on Instagram

Harry tells the Kardashian-style confession cam that “This is a great love story and the craziest thing is I think this love story is only just getting started.”

Just like that, we’ve gone from a documentary-style intro to a Netflix romcom.

“Along came H,” Meghan recalls - somewhat gratingly, they call each other “M” and “H” throughout.

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It turns out they first met on Instagram, like true geriatric millennials - Harry saw a video of Meghan with the dog Snapchat filter and apparently it was love at first sight.

He was late to their first date after getting stuck in traffic, she was late to their second, cheesy text messages pop up on the screen. It’s sweet and their chemistry is clear on the screen, but it’s a little yawn-inducing. But maybe that’s the point they’re trying to get across: they’re just a normal couple with a normal love story.

Harry and Meghan first selfie - 2016#HarryandMeghanonNetflix pic.twitter.com/R4xVALghQ5

— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) December 8, 2022

After two dates, they flew to Botswana together

The pair reveal that after seeing each other just twice, they flew to Botswana for a conservation trip together in August 2016.

And then we get the story of their first kiss, which is adorably awkward.

“Do we kiss, do we not - and then he handed me a chicken sandwich,” Meghan laughs. Hallmark, eat your heart out.

Their first kiss was in a bumpy Land Cruiser ride. And sleeping in a tent together under the stars while an elephant munched leaves above them “felt so right and so normal”, Meghan gushes.

“He said, ‘Promise I’ll keep you safe’. And I believed him.”

Who was late for their first date? Harry & Meghan. Volume I: Now Streaming. pic.twitter.com/SEv8AqGZhR

— Netflix (@netflix) December 8, 2022

Harry speaks on Diana’s Panorama interview for the first time

It’s no surprise that during this doco, Harry speaks about his mum Princess Diana.

“When my mum died we had two hats to wear ... two grieving sons ... and the royal show no emotion, get out of there, shake the hands hat,” he tells the camera.

“I always remember her laugh, her cheeky laugh. Her saying to me ‘if you get in trouble just don’t get caught’.”

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And perhaps for the first time, Harry even speaks about her controversial Panorama interview in 1995 with Martin Bashir.

“I think we all now know she was deceived into giving the interview. But we also know she spoke the truth about her experience,” he says.

Diana, he says, made her decisions from the heart. “And I am my mother’s son.”

Comparisons between Diana and Meghan

Harry doesn’t just compare himself to Diana, but Meghan too - and that comes as no surprise, as he reflects on growing up around constant press attention and worries about “history repeating itself”.

“The majority of my memories are being swarmed by paparazzi,” he says.

“You could always see it on my mum’s face. I guess those were the moments where I thought wait, who am I? What am I? What am I part of?”

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As we see a clip of Meghan showing Archie a photo of his “grandma” Diana, we hear Harry speaking of the “pain and suffering of women who marry into these institutions”.

The comparison couldn’t be clearer.

They partied with Eugenie and Jack the night before their relationship hit tabloids

The pair look back at the first few anonymous months of their relationship and recall the final night before the story was finally scooped by the tabloids.

They decided to make the most of it.

“We went to this Halloween party where we could get entirely dressed up and nobody will know,” Meghan recalled. They even partied into the night with Harry’s cousin Eugenie and her now-husband, Jack Brooksbank.

The next morning, the story broke - and everything changed.

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  • The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan are available to stream on Netflix now







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