Harry and Meghan are telling their story — again. But what comes next?
First 3 episodes of Netflix docuseries cover familiar issues
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In the trailer that was dropped strategically the other day to drum up interest in the new Netflix docuseries on Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, she posed the question: "Doesn't it make more sense to hear our story from us?"
And in the first three episodes of the series that started streaming early Thursday, Harry was bolstering that same view, saying at one point that the couple, who stepped back from official royal duties in 2020, have "never been allowed to tell our story."
However, half-way through the series — the final three episodes drop next Thursday — there is a sense that this telling of their story is in many ways an effort to continue to shape a well-trodden ground of grievance against the Royal Family and raise repeated concerns about issues such as racism and media intrusion into their lives.
"If there hadn't been the Oprah Winfrey interview, this might have been seen as a more groundbreaking documentary," Carolyn Harris, a Toronto-based royal author and historian, said in an interview.
But there was that Oprah interview a year and a half ago, which among many other revelations included Meghan's declaration that an unnamed senior member of the Royal Family had worries about the colour of the skin of their first child before he was born.
While viewers do get a more intimate portrait of their courtship, no similar bombshells landed in the first three episodes (nor was there any expansion on that specific statement to Oprah).
"I just think it's more of the same. I mean, this time it's delivered in quite a sort of feature-like way. There's no balances at all. It's very glossy. It's very gutteral," British PR expert Mark Borkowski said in an interview.
The series, some marketing experts say, gives Harry and Meghan the chance to shape their own narrative, something that really matters to them.
'Reshaping public perception'
Viewers were taken via video and snapshot from early moments of their childhoods — a piano-playing photo shoot for Harry with brother Prince William and his parents Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, and scenes from Meghan's younger days in California — to their life now in that same state, with their children in Montecito.
(From a Canadian perspective, there is some new detail offered up regarding Meghan's life in Toronto, where she was living in the early days of their relationship.)
Much of the focus of the first three episodes of the series directed by Oscar nominee Liz Garbus is on the media, particularly the British tabloid media, and the actions of the paparazzi — a longtime target of Harry.
"They have been through quite a difficult time with the British media because there have been quite a lot of negative stories," marketing consultant Diana Young told the CBC's Margaret Evans in London.
"This PR strategy that they're using at the moment is really about reshaping the public perception and also resetting how they're viewed by the global public, not just in Britain but in the [United States] and further afield."
"Even when he was talking about his childhood, he didn't talk about all those summers spent at [royal estates or time spent at homes] when he would have been away from the paparazzi," said Harris.
"He was focusing on those outings with his mother where the press was very much present."
'A lot about Diana'
What struck Harris most about the first three episodes, she said, is that "there was very little about Harry's direct relationship with his father and brother."
"There was a lot about Diana, Princess of Wales, just as Meghan spoke about her mom a great deal and her mom appeared as part of the documentary."
The focus on Diana also caught Borkowski's eye.
"What they're doing is trying to position [Meghan] as Diana, which she's not."
Viewers looking for a purely personal narrative of Harry and Meghan's perspective wouldn't have found it here. Instead, there seemed to be an attempt to set some of their experiences against broader issues.
"What we saw was a lot of efforts to intersect their personal narrative with wider political events such as Brexit, opposition to immigration to the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth for instance and other wider themes about race and Britain," said Harris.
"We see, as so often in royal life, the personal and the political intersecting."
Harris said it's clear Harry and Meghan wanted to send a message that all this is about more than them.
"Many times … their critics have accused them of being rather self-indulgent, of constantly focusing on the challenges they're facing rather than the bigger issues happening in the world. And they were making an argument in this documentary that the issues that they're facing very much do intersect with wider issues."
A part of broader debate?
That intersection with wider issues suggests that even if the first half of the docuseries is seen by many as offering little that is really new, it could continue to play into broader discussions unfolding around the future of the British monarchy, particularly as it moves further into the new reign of King Charles.
"I think it's going to contribute to a discussion about diversity within the royal household," said Harris, noting the scrutiny that came last week when a member of the royal household left her role after making what the Palace described as "unacceptable and deeply regrettable" comments about race and nationality to a woman at a reception.
"There was previously press coverage of the backgrounds of the people who work in the royal household and how, for Meghan, she would have met very few people of her own background among those who worked in the royal household. So I think there may well be continued discussion and debate about that," said Harris.
Still, it all leaves a rather large unknown hanging over Harry and Meghan: how many times can you tell what is essentially the same story, no matter how important you feel it is?
"For Harry and Meghan personally, they are currently famous because of the amount of time they've spent talking about their lives and their experiences and the question is going to emerge for the two of them: What happens next? What are they going to do going forward?'" said Harris.
As Borkowski looks ahead, he sees Harry and Meghan having "run out of road," when it comes to telling their story, one that is finding interest in the United States, but could be wearing thinner in the U.K.
"I was talking to a lot of young people here [on Thursday]," said Borkowski. "They're saying they don't really care anymore."
Harry and Meghan have established their Archewell Foundation, which focuses on issues including mental health, racial justice and efforts to combat disinformation and misinformation.
If Harry and Meghan want to make a wider difference in the world, "eventually they're going to have to move away from connecting these wider issues to their own personal experiences and become more widely known for their commitment to various causes," said Harris.
"Right now, when people think of Harry and Meghan, they think about the challenges that they faced as part of the Royal Family."
One last coin to honour Queen Elizabeth
Sometime in the next little while, a $2 coin honouring the life of Queen Elizabeth will start turning up in Canadian cash registers and landing in pockets across the country.
The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled the new toonie this week, three months after Elizabeth's death in September, at the age of 96.
The coins, which will go into circulation later this month, resemble existing toonies and have the familiar polar bear design in the middle, with an image of Elizabeth on the obverse side.
What sets the coins apart, however, is a distinctive outer ring, which is black nickel.
"Like a mourning band, the black outer ring surrounds the polar bear design at the centre of the coin's reverse," the mint said.
Almost five million of the coins are set to go into circulation and will begin appearing gradually as banks restock inventories of toonies.
"Queen Elizabeth II served as Canada's head of state for seven decades and for millions of Canadians, she was the only monarch they had ever known," said Marie Lemay, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. "Our special $2 circulation coin offers Canadians a way to remember her."
The mint hosted public coin exchanges at its boutiques in Ottawa and Winnipeg this week.
"The collector community is very excited," said Steve Woodland, president of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association, a national organization for money collectors.
"I was at the coin exchange at the mint's boutique on Sussex Drive in Ottawa … and people were lined up out the door almost to get a couple of coins in exchange for their own."
Woodland said the new coin marks the end of an era, and a "phenomenal run of coins" with Queen Elizabeth on them.
"Perhaps you've seen some older pieces with George V or George VI, but most people do not know any other monarch than Elizabeth."
Also top of mind for many collectors, however, is curiosity over when King Charles's effigy might start appearing on Canadian coins in circulation.
There's been no indication on that from the mint, but Woodland expects it will happen sometime in 2023.
In the U.K., the first coins bearing Charles's effigy went into circulation this week.
Who will be coming for Christmas?
The Royal Family's traditional festive gathering at Sandringham will return this year, as King Charles spends his first Christmas as monarch there.
For more than 30 years, the royals had come together at the estate in Norfolk, north of London, until the pandemic upended holiday plans. Queen Elizabeth spent her last two Christmases at Windsor Castle, west of London.
Now, however, it's back to Norfolk for Charles, and scrutiny is likely to follow about just who else is there.
"Certainly King Charles III is going to want to emphasize continuity, but there has been such a strong emphasis on streamlining the Royal Family in terms of his public approach to monarchy that we may well see fewer people around the Christmas dinner table," said Harris.
Other factors could be at play, too.
"There have been tensions between King Charles III and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, for instance, regarding the Duke of York's public role, so it will be interesting to see just how many members of the Royal Family are brought together," Harris said.
Other Christmas events on the royal calendar include Camilla, the Queen Consort, inviting several seriously ill children to help decorate the Clarence House Christmas tree, and a carol service hosted by the Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey next Thursday.
Harris said public interest in the royals' Christmas plans arises because it is an event people can relate to, even if on a smaller scale.
It's also something that dates to the time of Queen Victoria in the 19th century. Images in the London Illustrated News showed Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, their children and Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, all gathered around a Christmas tree, a tradition that Prince Albert popularized.
"Many people who had much more modest Christmas celebrations could look to that and think that this was something that was achievable," said Harris.
Royally quotable
"Together, we can achieve a sustainable future for generations to come. Together, we will change the future of our planet."
— Prince William, during a film that was shown at the ceremony in Boston, announcing the latest winners of his Earthshot Prize.
Royal watches and reads
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The Prince and Princess of Wales wrapped up a three-day trip to Boston with the awarding of the Earthshot prizes. Their visit, focused on environmental causes, was mostly well-received, even as controversy swirled around the monarchy as a whole. [CBC]
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The obligation for members of the Quebec Legislature to swear an oath to Canada's monarch may soon be coming to an end, with the Coalition Avenir Québec government tabling a bill that aims to abolish the requirement for elected officials to swear an oath to the King before they can take their seats in the legislature. [CBC]
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Meghan received "disgusting and very real" threats while she was a working royal, the outgoing London Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner has said. [BBC]
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The St. Edward's Crown has been removed from the Tower of London to be resized for King Charles ahead of his coronation in early May. [BBC]
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When a piece of music was premiered in front of a global audience at Queen Elizabeth's funeral, there was one television viewer who, surprisingly, had also never heard it sung before — its composer. [BBC]
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Elizabeth found Prince Andrew's account of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein "intriguing," worried that Harry might be a little "over in love" with Meghan and found some solace in the gritty police drama Line of Duty after the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, according to a new biography by friend to the royals, Gyles Brandreth. He also says Elizabeth accepted her health problems before her death "with all the good grace you'd expect." [The Guardian]
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