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Harry and Meghan take their revenge the best way they know – with a blockbuster series

Harry and meghan - Netflix
Harry and meghan - Netflix

The glossy Netflix trailer opens with the question: “Why did you want to make this documentary?”

Yet as Harry and Meghan prepare to once again unleash their “truth” on an unsuspecting audience, it appears unlikely we will ever get the real answer.

For as the couple fawn all over each other in a series of Vogueish black and white photographs, there remains an undeniable truth at the heart of the "Megxit" project that the oversharing Sussexes appear reluctant to own up to.

Far from simply being about setting the record straight, what this slick one-minute film finally confirms is that this cash cow of a documentary (like the rumoured £35 million Harry received for his autobiography Spare) appears to not only be motivated by money - but also revenge.

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Otherwise, why on earth would a pair so fiercely protective of their privacy give the online streaming giant behind The Crown (of all shows), seemingly unfettered access not only to their lives but also their family photo album?

Meghan asks “when the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear the story from us?”. Well, it certainly makes more spondoolicks.

From Harry serenading Meghan with a guitar in the style of Montecito’s own Ed Sheeran (yet, curiously, not playing a discernible chord), to the couple smooching in a passport photo booth - the trailer is designed to convey the message that, at its heart, this is a love story.

harry and meghan - netflix
harry and meghan - netflix

“I had to do everything I could to protect my family,” insists Harry, dressed like LA’s answer to the Milk Tray man, having thankfully ditched the flat cap from a previous image. (When he said he wore “many hats”, who knew one was borrowed from the wardrobe of Peaky Blinders?) It was like Guy Richie marrying Madonna all over again (except the divorce bit, natch).

Like failing to name the royal “racist” on Oprah, the Prince’s refusal to say from whom or what exactly he was protecting his family – from their multi-million pound mansion in the middle of Windsor Great Park  –  is designed to keep the audience guessing.

Dramatic imagery of newspapers aggressively rolling off the presses - and an ominous picture of a stony-faced Kate (taken a year before Megxit even happened) provide the not-so-subtle clues. It is noteworthy that the only image used of their nearest and dearest couldn’t present the usually smiley Princess of Wales in a more unattractive light. (It was Miss Middleton, in the Throne Room, with the far superior tiara).

Kate and William - Netflix
Kate and William - Netflix
kate and meghan - Richard Pohle
kate and meghan - Richard Pohle

Naturally, the former American actress hogs most of the limelight. We are treated to pregnant Meghan, dog-loving Meghan, mourning Meghan, back-of-a-Land Rover Meghan and on several occasions, what appears to be lachrymose Meghan. (Well Kate did make her cry after that bridesmaids dress fitting, right?).

If the paparazzi had even dreamed of publishing such intimate images, they’d have ended up in court. But when the Sussexes do it, they end up on primetime. There's a huge price to pay for invading your own privacy, and Netflix appear to have agreed to it.

As is ever the case with Harry and Meghan, a couple always in a hurry, timing is everything. It cannot have been coincidence that this trailer has been released at the end of a period of sustained self-promotion, involving handbag giveaways and women’s empowerment prizes in the very week William and Kate are taking on the US in Boston.

The last time the Waleses were on tour, in Pakistan in 2019, Meghan gave ITV’s Tom Bradby her lip-quivering “no one’s asked me if I’m okay” interview. This latest attempt at upstaging appears to take sibling rivalry to a Kardashianesque new level.

As with The Crown versus the actual Crown, it will now be for viewers to decide if they subscribe to reality TV royals, or real ones.