On Thursday, Netflix released the first trailer for its upcoming documentary on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Titled Harry & Meghan, the docuseries will shed light on the highs and lows of the couple’s love story.
The intimate first look at the documentary series, which will premiere in December across six episodes, includes personal footage from the couple’s life together, including at their 2018 wedding reception, on a trip to Africa and while Meghan is pregnant. In addition to moments of joy, they also show the difficulties they faced in the royal spotlight. Meghan is seen wiping away tears in one shot and the couple is shown at the 2019 Commonwealth Day ceremony amid tensions with the royal family and the media.
They also shed light on why they decided to share their story for the first time.
“Why did you want to make this documentary?” the couple is asked in the promo.
“No one sees what’s happening behind closed doors,” Harry says. “I had to do everything I could to protect my family.”
Meghan then says, “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?”
According to Netflix, “the series explores the clandestine days of their early courtship and the challenges that led to them feeling forced to step back from their full-time roles in the institution.
“With commentary from friends and family, most of whom have never spoken publicly before about what they witnessed, and historians who discuss the state of the British Commonwealth today and the royal family’s relationship with the press, the series does more than illuminate one couple’s love story, it paints a picture of our world and how we treat each other.”
The project comes from Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus, whose previous celebrity-focused features include Love, Marilyn, What Happened, Miss Simone? and Becoming Cousteau.
Meghan, 41, and Harry, 38, first signed a multi-year deal with Netflix in September 2020. At the time, The New York Times reported that the Sussex’s production hub, later christened Archewell Productions, would exclusively create documentaries, docuseries, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming for the popular platform.
Meghan briefly spoke about what audiences can expect to see in the docuseries in an October interview with Variety.
“It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story — a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired — even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it,” the Archetypes host said of working with Garbus. “But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.”
“It’s interesting. My husband has never worked in this industry before,” she continued, referencing the entertainment business. “For me, having worked on Suits, it’s so amazing to be around so much creative energy and to see how people work together and share their own points of view. That’s been really fun.”
In her August interview with The Cut, Meghan remained similarly vague when asked if the upcoming special would cover their love story.
“What’s so funny is I’m not trying to be cagey,” she said at the time, proceeding to praise Garbus’ acclaim. “I don’t read any press. So I don’t know what’s confirmed. I will tell you Liz Garbus is incredible.”
Cameras were seen following Meghan and Harry around the Invictus Games in The Hague in April, likely for a feature on the prince’s adaptive sports tournament for injured, sick and wounded service personnel and veterans.
In April 2021, the Invictus Games Foundation announced that a Netflix docuseries about the epic event was in the works through Archewell Productions. Heart of Invictus, the project’s working title, would follow athletes as they prepared for the 2022 Games in The Hague.
It will be a busy winter for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, with Prince Harry’s memoir set to hit shelves on Jan. 10, 2023. Late last month, Penguin Random House confirmed that the prince will share his story in Spare, a 416-page memoir where Harry reflects with “raw, unflinching honesty.”
Source: https://people.com/