The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix docuseries, titled Harry and Meghan, has dropped in part today – unveiling dramatic revelations about their time in the UK.
Here, Sky News highlights the key admissions made by Harry and Meghan, along with a few more surprises.
Episode 1
Harry and Meghan both appear candid from the off and ready to tell their version of events following their 2016 whirlwind romance.
After completing their final stint of royal engagements in March 2020, the 38-year-old prince says it is “really hard to look back on it now and go ‘what on earth happened’? Like, how did we end up here?'”
Prince Harry spoke about women in the Royal Family and said he had learnt “the pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution”.
He said: “I remember thinking how can I ever find someone who is willing and capable to be able to withstand all the baggage that comes with being with me.”
Harassment of Princess Diana
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Prince Harry says his mother, Princess Diana, was “harassed throughout her life”.
He says: “My mum was harassed throughout her life with my dad, but after they separated, the harassment went to new levels.”
Harry goes on to say that the moment his mother divorced, she was “by herself”.
Image: The royal couple had a ‘guarded’ relationship at the beginning. Pic: Netflix
Meeting on Instagram
Meghan reveals she wasn’t looking for a relationship the summer they met.
“I was really intent on being single, and just having fun all the time,” she says. “I had my career, I had my life, I had my path, uh, and then came H – I mean talk about plot twist.”
Then Harry reveals how they actually met…
“Meghan and I met over Instagram,” he says.
“I was just scrolling through my feed and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them, like a Snapchat, with dog ears. That was the first thing – I was like ‘who is THAT?'”.
Archie heard speaking on TV for first time
The couple’s son, Archie, is heard speaking on TV for the first time six minutes into the episode.
As Meghan looks at the sunset, she asks Archie how he would describe it.
“It’s beautiful,” he says.
Image: Archie is heard speaking on TV for the first time. Pic: Netflix
Fitting the mould
Harry reveals there was an urge for members of the Royal Family to marry someone who “fit the mould”.
He says: “I think for so many people in the family, especially the men, there could be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mould as opposed to someone you are destined to be with.
“The difference between making a decision with your head or your heart.
“And my mum certainly made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart. And I am my mother’s son.”
How different Prince William and Harry were as children is explored in the first episode, and how the Royal Family reacted to the paparazzi.
Harry describes his childhood as “filled with happiness and laughter”, but added that “the majority of my memories are of being swarmed by paparazzi”.
He also describes how the Royal Family reacted to paparazzi: “Rarely did we have a holiday without someone with a camera jumping out of a bush or something. Within the family, within the system, the advice that’s always given is don’t react.
“Don’t feed into it. There was always public pressure, with its fair share of drama, stress and tears. And witnessing those tears. I could always see it on my mum’s face. And that was when I thought hang on what am I, who am I, what am I part of?”
Meghan ‘similar’ to Princess Diana
Speaking about Meghan, Harry says: “So much of how Meghan is, and how she is, is so similar to my mum.
“She has the same compassion, she has the same empathy, she has the same confidence – she has this warmth about her.”
He adds that he accepts “there will be people around the world who fundamentally disagree with what I’ve done and how I’ve done it, but I knew that I had to do everything I could to protect my family”.
“Especially after what happened to my mum. You know I didn’t want history to repeat itself,” he says.
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2:08
Harry and Meghan: Key takeaways
Episode 2
Falling in love
Meghan reveals in episode 2 that the beginning of her relationship with Harry was “long distance” and “guarded”.
She says: “Everything was just texts and FaceTimes and we’d just talk for hours and it just felt exciting which is so weird because it wasn’t exciting in the way that people would assume that it would be.”
The former Suits actress describes the start of their romance as “relaxed and easy”.
Image: Meghan says her relationship with Harry was ‘easy’ and ‘relaxed’
She says: “We just got to know each other. Truly, like any other couple when you’re figuring out… What do you like to eat, what do you like to cook? What kind of movies do you like?”
Speaking about the relationship, Harry says: “I got to know her more and more, I was like, ‘I’m really falling in love with this girl’. So in spite of my fear, I just opened my heart to see what’s going to happen.”
Meghan meets William and Kate in ripped jeans
Meghan said she found the Royal Family quite formal upon first meeting them, and revealed she first met Prince William and Kate while wearing a ripped pair of jeans.
She says she has always been a hugger and didn’t realise that was jarring for a lot of British people.
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside,” Meghan says.
“That there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and ‘phew I can relax now’ but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Prince Harry says the Queen was the first senior member of the Royal Family who Meghan met.
First death threat
Prince Harry describes the early stages of his relationship as a “combination of car chases, anti-surveillance driving and disguises”.
Meghan describes how she received a death threat while she was in Toronto after the huge surge of media attention she experienced.
She said when she got her first death threat “things changed because I needed to have security”.
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0:33
Prince Harry on ‘race element’
Harry revealed that members of the Royal Family questioned why the Duchess of Sussex should be “protected” when the couple raised newspaper headlines about her.
“The direction from the Palace was don’t say anything,” he says, adding that his family would ask why Meghan should receive “special treatment”.
“I said: ‘The difference here is the race element’.”
Meeting the Queen
In episode two, Meghan says she did not know what meeting the Queen would consist of and describes it as “all a bit of a shock”.
The Duchess of Sussex says: “I didn’t realise I was about to meet Queen, on way to a lunch and Harry asked, ‘You know how to curtsey right?'”
Image: Meghan and Harry with the Queen in 2018
She goes on to say: “Now I’m realising this is a big deal, talks about curtseying and meeting the Queen, it was so intense.”
Speaking about introducing Meghan to his family, Harry says: “I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed, some of them didn’t know quite what to do with themselves.
“I think they were surprised. They were surprised a ginger could land such a beautiful woman, and such an intelligent woman.”
But he says his family’s judgement may have been clouded by the fact Meghan was an American actress, and thought, “this won’t last”.
Episode 3
Engagement interview
In the third episode, Meghan describes her engagement interview as “an orchestrated reality show”.
She said: “It was, you know, rehearsed, so we did the thing out with the press and then we went right inside, took the coat off, sat down and did the interview. So it was all in that same moment.”
The couple announced their engagement in 2017.
Adapting wardrobes
Meghan explains in episode three that she “rarely wore colour” during her time in the UK as she understood you could not wear the same colour as the Queen in a group event.
“But then you also should never be wearing the same colour as one of the other more senior members of the family. So I was like ‘well, what’s a colour that they’ll probably never wear?'”, she says.
Image: Meghan and Harry met in 2016. Pic: Netflix
“Camel, beige, white. So I wore a lot of muted tones, but it also was so I could just blend in.
“Like, I’m not trying to stand out here. So there’s no version of me joining this family and trying to not do everything I could to fit in. I don’t want to embarrass the family.”
Unconscious bias in Royal Family
The Duke of Sussex reveals in episode three there is a “huge level of unconscious bias” in the Royal Family, before the documentary refers to when Princess Michael of Kent wore a Blackamoor-style brooch to an event the Duchess of Sussex attended in 2017.
He says: “In this family, sometimes you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. There is a huge level of unconscious bias.
“The thing with unconscious bias, it is actually no one’s fault. But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself you then need to make it right.
“It is education. It is awareness. It is a constant work in progress for everybody, including me.”
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6:08
Prince Harry takes aim at family
Nazi uniform ‘biggest mistake of my life’
Harry says wearing a Nazi uniform to a private party was “one of the biggest mistakes of my life” and that he felt “so ashamed afterwards”.
In 2005, Harry made headlines when he was pictured wearing a Nazi uniform with a swastika armband to a fancy dress party.
The pictures was published on the front page of The Sun newspaper under the headline: “Harry the Nazi”.
Clarence House later issued a statement which read: “Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realises it was a poor choice of costume.”
Googling the national anthem
Meghan opens up about her experience joining the Royal Family, the protocols and how she came to learn the British national anthem.
She says: “Joining this family, I knew that there was a protocol for how things were done. And do you remember that old movie The Princess Diaries, with Anne Hathaway?
“There’s no class, and some person who goes ‘sit like this, cross your legs like this, use your fork, don’t do this, curtsey then, wear this kind of hat’. It doesn’t happen”.
When asked how she learned the national anthem she says: “I googled it, and I’d sit, there, and I’d practice and I’d practice”.
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Image: Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Image: Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
Heaton Park, just north of Manchester City centre, is tonight hosting 80,000 fans who’ve come to see the Gallaghers’ homecoming.
“I would honestly say it’s a real cultural moment of the 21st century,” says Sam, who’s from Manchester and has come here with a group of friends – including one who has travelled from Australia for the gig.
Image: Oasis fans wear band T-shirts with the almost obligatory bucket hats. Pic: Reuters
This will be the fourth time Sam has seen Oasis play, although obviously not for many years, and he says he can’t wait for the moment the band comes on to the stage.
“The reaction from the fans, that’s going to be really special,” he says. “This band means so much to the North West.”
Like many people attending tonight’s concert, Sam is wearing a bucket hat.
Liam Gallagher’s iconic headgear has become a part of the band’s cultural legacy and they are certainly on display here, with street vendors popping up all around the park’s perimeter.
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Another fan, Dean, tells me he feels incredibly lucky to have got a ticket at all.
“I had seven devices out when the tickets were released and I didn’t get one,” he says. “And then about three days ago, a friend of mine messaged to say she couldn’t make it.
“So I made it. £120 with coach travel there and back – perfect.”
Image: Dom has flown from half a world away to be in Manchester tonight
Dom is another fan who has come from Australia for the gig.
“We’re frothing to be here, like so stoked,” he says, “The atmosphere is going to be electric.”
R&B singer Chris Brown has denied further charges following an alleged bottle attack in a London nightclub.
The 36-year-old pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) to music producer Abraham Diaw, during a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.
Brown also denied one count of having an offensive weapon – a bottle – in a public place.
Image: Chris Brown arriving at Southwark Crown Court on Friday. Pic: PA
The Grammy-winning US musician last month pleaded not guilty to a more serious charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent to Mr Diaw.
The attack allegedly happened at the Tape venue, a private members’ club in Hanover Square, Mayfair, on 19 February 2023.
The plea hearing is part of preparations for his five to seven-day trial, which is due to take place from 26 October 2026.
Brown’s co-defendant, US national Omololu Akinlolu, 39, on Friday pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting Mr Diaw occasioning him actual bodily harm.
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Akinlolu, a rapper who goes by the name Hoody Baby, has previously pleaded not guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.
Image: Brown’s co-defendant Omololu Akinlolu arrives at court. Pic: Reuters
The defendants sat side-by-side in the dock, looking straight ahead during the hearing in London.
Around 20 fans sat in the public gallery behind the dock for Friday’s hearing, with several gasping as Brown walked into the courtroom.
The Go Crazy singer was able to continue with his scheduled international tour after he was freed on conditional bail in May.
He had to pay a £5m security fee to the court as part of the bail agreement, which is a financial guarantee to ensure a defendant returns to court and may be forfeited if they breach bail conditions.
Mr Diaw was standing at the bar of the Tape nightclub when he was struck several times with a bottle, and then pursued to a separate area of the venue where he was punched and kicked repeatedly, Manchester Magistrates’ Court previously heard.
Brown was arrested at Manchester’s Lowry Hotel at 2am on 15 May by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.
He is said to have flown into Manchester Airport on a private jet in preparation for the UK tour dates.
Brown was released from HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 21 May.
The singer, who rose to stardom as a teenager in 2005, won his first Grammy award for best R&B album in 2011 for F.A.M.E..
He earned his second in the same category for 11:11 (Deluxe) earlier this year.