CNN
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The final three episodes of the Netflix documentary series The Duke and Duchess of Sussex aired on Thursday.
The first three episodes, which aired last week, focused on the early days of the couple’s relationship, the relentless media attention they faced and what Harry described as an “unconscious prejudice” within the royal family.
These final episodes see Harry’s details clash with his relatives, the couple in California over the last few years and the damage to their new life.
Buckingham Palace insisted on Thursday that it would not comment on the documentary, and that royal engagements are continuing.
Here are 11 things we learned from the show’s second episode:
The Duchess spoke of her first royal engagement to Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, shortly after the couple married.
“It was great,” she said of how the Queen draped a blanket over both of their knees during the car journey.
After being so close to her grandmother, Meghan relished in her grandmotherly figure.
“I treated her like my husband’s grandmother,” she said. “We laughed.”
The couple said their popularity with the public had caused problems within the royal family, with their trip to Australia described as a turning point in the documentary.
Harry said Meghan’s popularity had caused problems in the palace in particular, citing similarities to his mother Diana, who married into the royal family and was beloved by the public.
“The problem is when someone who gets married, who is supposed to be a supporter, then steals the limelight or does better than someone who was born to do it. It upsets people. That balance. “Changes,” Harry said.
The couple noted how media coverage began to turn negative, with Meghan increasingly associated with racist tropes such as drugs, crime or terrorism.
Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland recalled how her daughter told her she had considered taking her own life after being repeatedly “picked on by these foxes” in the media.
“That he would actually think he didn’t want to be here … that’s not easy for a mom to hear,” Ragland said.
Harry said he “never thought it would get to this point” and the fact it left him feeling “angry and embarrassed”.
Meghan said she wanted to get help but was prevented from doing so amid concerns it could affect the agency’s image.
The Duchess later discussed her struggle in an official royal documentary, thanking a reporter who asked her how she was feeling. “Not many people asked if I was OK,” she said.
The couple recalled how their desire to maintain some privacy surrounding the birth of their first child led to considerable backlash.
“The amount of abuse we were getting … not wanting to serve our child on a silver platter was unbelievable,” Harry said. Harry said.
A story emerged that the couple were selfish for not doing a traditional photo call shortly after the birth of the royal baby, and Harry remembers seeing a post on social media of a chimpanzee walking alongside a couple’s caption. Has: “Royal baby leaves hospital.”
The Duchess said she did everything she could to make the royal family “proud”, but at one point the “bubble burst” and negative media coverage flooded in.
“I realized I wasn’t just being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,” she said.
Harry said he believes the press knows the palace is not protecting Meghan, and once that happens “the floodgates open.”
With a primary focus on Meghan, the documentary explores how a hate campaign against the couple was created on social media.
“We have to accept the seriousness of what happened to her and what…happened to us, and what happened to her,” Harry said.
Meghan notes how the family’s security team has a protocol for when a tweet like “Meghan just needs to die” is seen online.
“This is what’s really happening in the world because of people’s hatred. And I’m a mother,” she said. “This is my real life.”
“And that’s the part when you look at it and go, ‘You’re making people want to kill me,'” added the Duchess. “It’s not just a table. It’s not just some story. You’re scaring me. Okay?”
Harry recalled how he traveled to Sandringham, the royal residence, for a meeting to discuss the couple’s future roles in the family.
“It was scary that my brother was yelling and saying things at me and my dad that weren’t true, and my grandmother was sitting there quietly taking it all in,” Harry said.
And the relationship between the two brothers worsened.
“The saddest part of it was what happened between me and my brother now that he’s on the administration side,” Harry said.
Harry spoke about a joint statement in January 2020, in which the brothers denied a newspaper story that claimed it was caused by William’s “bullying behavior” within the royal family.
In this Netflix episode, Harry claims he was unaware of the statement. “Nobody asked me for permission to use my name like that,” he said.
“They were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they never wanted to tell the truth to protect us,” he added.
Harry accused the media of putting undue pressure on his wife.
Meghan recalled how she suffered a miscarriage in July 2020 after moving to Santa Barbara, California, and noted how the UK newspaper Mail on Sunday published a personal letter to her father.
“I was pregnant. I didn’t really sleep the first morning we woke up in our new house when I miscarried,” Meghan said.
“I believe my wife had a miscarriage because of doing the mail,” Harry added. “I saw the whole thing.”
“Now, do we absolutely know that miscarriages are caused, caused by this? Of course we don’t. But considering the stress it causes due to lack of sleep and pregnancy time, I can say “From what I saw, the abortion was caused by what they were trying to do,” she added.
CNN contacted the Mail on Sunday and its publisher, Associated Newspapers Ltd., for comment.
Harry said it took reporters six weeks to find out the couple had moved into director and screenwriter Tyler Perry’s home in Hollywood, before releasing the location of their new home.
He also mentioned the measures taken to prevent paparazzi from taking pictures of the couple.
“These big poles are basically a fence to keep the paparazzi from taking pictures from three, four hundred meters away,” Harry said. “And as funny as it is and as absurd as it is, you have to laugh about it, because it’s crazy.”
Perry then claims that fences around the property would be cut, people would come in and there were “helicopters 24/7”.
Harry talks about going home for his grandfather Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021.
While Harry says that neither he nor the rest of the family want to talk about the situation surrounding Harry and Meghan, he has spoken to his father and brother. He said Prince William and King Charles were “focused on the same misinterpretation of the whole situation.”
“I have to make peace with the fact that we may never have a true reckoning or a true apology,” Harry said.
Harry reminds the audience that Archie spent the first five months of his life in England before the family moved to California, and daughter Lilibeth was born in the United States.
“It’s his house, it’s Lily’s house, and it’s our house,” Harry said, adding that life is very different for the family in the United States. “I get to do things with my kids that I would never be able to do in England.”
In pictures: Harry and Meghan’s royal romance
