The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have accused royal staff—and even family members —of leaking negative stories to the media about them.
Liz Garbus, director of their six-part docu-series Harry & Meghan, told Vanity Fair: “Buckingham Palace said that we didn’t reach out for comment when we did.
“They did that to discredit us…and by discrediting us, they can discredit the content of the show…. We lived through some of those moments that were a little bit like Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
She also gave her take on an infamous column in The Sun by Jeremy Clarkson in which he said Meghan should be paraded through streets naked while people threw excrement at her.
Garbus said: “That was an extreme example of the kind of coverage they’ve been getting. I certainly lived through it a bit.”
Clarkson later apologized to Meghan over the column.
The saga over whether the palace was approached for comment played out on December 8, the day Part I of Harry & Meghan was released.
The show began with a title card reading: “Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within the series.”
An unnamed royal source then disputed that the palace had been given an opportunity to comment.
Newsweek was then told that the palace had been contacted for comment and there were records to prove it.
Harry described the smoke and mirrors of palace PR in his Netflix show: “I mean constant briefings about other members of the family … inviting the press in—it’s a dirty game.
“There’s leaking but also planting of stories. So if the comms team wants to remove a negative story about their principal, they will trade and give you something about someone else’s principal. And so the offices end up working against each other.”
By the time Harry’s book, Spare, was released, the prince expanded significantly on his allegations.
Among the book’s bombshells, he accused Queen Camilla of sacrificing him on her PR altar and King Charles III and Camilla of leaking a famous story about Meghan making Kate Middleton cry.
The story, first published in November 2018 in The Daily Telegraph and followed up on the front page of The Sun, suggested that Kate had cried during a dispute with Meghan about flower girl dresses in the days before her and Harry’s 2018 royal wedding.
Meghan and Harry say Kate did not cry but acknowledge a conflict did take place and say it in fact reduced Meghan to tears. The couple sat down with William and Kate at the time to try to work out how the story leaked, Harry said.
Spare reads: “We went around and around. The list of suspects became vanishingly small.
“Finally, finally, Willy leaned back and conceded that, ahem, while we’d been on tour in Australia, he and Kate had gone to dinner with Pa and Camilla…and, alas, he said sheepishly, he might’ve let it slip that there’d been strife between the two couples… I put a hand over my face. Meg froze.
“A heavy silence fell. So now we knew. I told Willy: ‘You…of all people…should’ve known…’ He nodded. He knew. More silence. It was time for them to go.”
Jack Royston is Newsweek’s chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
