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”.
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.
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”.
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?'”
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.
“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”.
He also won a US civil lawsuit in October 2022, after being accused of an unwanted sexual advance at a party in 1986.
The Channel 4 documentary titled Spacey Unmasked is said to feature testimony from men “regarding events they say took place between 1976 and 2013, and relate to what they describe as unwanted sexual behaviour” from Spacey, according to an email shown during the interview.
‘I wasn’t in on the deal’
The two-part series, produced by Roast Beef Productions, is set to air on Monday and Tuesday next week.
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“I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me,” the 64-year-old US actor said.
“I’ve never told someone that if they give me sexual favours, then I will help them out with their career, never.
“…I’ve clearly hooked up with some men who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me.
“But there was no conversation with me, it was all part of their plan, a plan that was always destined to fail, because I wasn’t in on the deal.”
‘Clumsy passes’
During the interview, he denied accusations of any illegal behaviour, but did say he had made “clumsy passes” at people in the past.
“Were there times when I would flirt with some of the people who were involved in those programmes who were in their 20s? Yes,” he said.
“Did I ever hook up with another actor? Yes. Did I make a clumsy pass at someone who wasn’t interested as it turned out? Yes.
“But I was not employing them, I was not their boss, I was often times just swimming in for an hour here or there as a well-known actor to lend support… to answer questions.
The Usual Suspects and House Of Cards star said he has struggled to get work after being acquitted of all criminal charges, branding his experience a “life sentence”.
Spacey was one of the most recognised faces in Hollywood when allegations of sexual misconduct were made in 2017, leading streaming giant Netflix to cut ties with the actor.
Sky News has not been able to verify the latest allegations.
Like all good (just about) millennials, my Instagram algorithm knows me better than anyone else.
Who and what do I spend my scroll time with? Dogs, mainly. Celebs in the ’90s, holiday cabins that are all floor-to-ceiling glass and breathtaking views and eyewatering prices. More dogs.
But over the past few months, something else has crept in: bare faces with swatches of different coloured fabric draped across their chests like rainbow napkins, their features brightening or dulling as the bibs are changed with a flourish by a stylist.
Pictures of celebrities with rainbow borders framing their faces fill my feed, sometimes with before and digitally altered “after” images side-by-side, showing how different our favourite stars might look with, say, a slightly warmer blonde tone to their hair, or in a silver dress rather than gold.
Welcome to the world of colour analysis – the science, the stylists say, behind the clothes that make you look good.
Like Avon parties, shoulder pads and blancmange, knowing your colour season was de rigueur in the 1980s, before the 1990s ushered in a more laidback approach, followed by instructions on What Not To Wear and How To Look Good Naked, focusing on body shape, in the noughties.
But colour styling is back.
In the past year or so, the trend has exploded on social media thanks to demand from millennials and Gen Zs who have discovered the power of knowing your season – search for #colouranalysis or #coloranalysis and you’ll find around 300,000 posts on Instagram alone, with similar numbers on TikTok.
Colour stylists say that not only is it a fun way to look at fashion, it’s also sustainable and a cost-saver – the idea being that if you know your colours, you’re not going to waste money on items that don’t optimise your looks.
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What is colour styling?
The idea is that every single person’s features can be classified into a set of shades associated with spring, summer, autumn or winter – broken down further into 12 sub-seasons such as “true spring” or “bright winter” – and from this palette you can take guidance on the colours that suit you best, not just for clothing but also for make-up and hair.
Winters look great in jewel tones such as emerald green, or neon brights, while autumns suit the colours you associate with the season – mustard, cinnamon, dark moss green. Springs are warm, bright and clear, summers more soft and subtle. But your season is not just about how you look on the outside, and some might surprise you.
Watching the switching of colour drapes, or scrolling through the digital equivalent, can feel like a magic trick; a glow-up without a hint of highlighter or hair dye. Stylists assure this is #nofilter and there is no digital trickery going on here; the wrong colours will wash you out, but the right colour on the right person could well make your eye bags and wrinkles all but melt away.
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Having watched this content from various colour stylists over the past few months, I have learned a lot about seasons, palettes and contrast, and undertone v overtone, warm v cool, clear v muted. I have learned that you might share the same eye, skin and natural hair colour as someone else and still be in a different season. That your colour season is not about skin colour or even tone.
And that, apparently, despite black being a go-to or a comfort blanket for many, it’s only – brace yourselves – those in the winter palette who truly suit it.
So now, in the interest of journalism, I’m finding out for myself.
Anyone who knows me will know my wardrobe is on the brighter side. I think I’m a spring. I hope I’m a spring. Am I a spring?
Have I been wearing the ‘wrong’ colours all my life?
I have my colours done by Francesca Cairns, a UK stylist of 10 years who says she has seen her Instagram following grow from about 10,000 to 500,000 across two accounts in the past 12 months or so, all thanks to colour analysis.
“It’s boomed, especially in the last year,” she says. “Gen Z want to learn about what works for them so they can create wardrobes that are sustainable. People are obsessed with it, it’s everywhere.”
Francesca works online, with clients internationally as well as in the UK, so needs photos. No make-up, natural lighting, standing in front of a window. I take about a million selfies before I find a couple that are vaguely passable and send them over, along with older pictures of myself over the years and some information: natural hair colour, (dark blonde/ mousey), eye colour (grey-green, a bit non-descript), how easily I tan (not bad) and my jewellery preference (silver; but, if I’m honest, this could well be a legacy from my frugal youth).
Rather than draping with material in person, she surrounds your face with colour digitally, the style equivalent of Tinder, swiping yes on the shades that work, relegating the ones that don’t, to see a pattern.
It’s mainly about undertone – not skin colour (overtone), she says. The tricky thing? You can’t necessarily see it.
“When I look at someone, I’m putting silver and gold next to them, or very warm versus cool colours,” Francesca says. “I’m seeing which looks best next to their features, which one’s not overpowering them.”
The aim of wearing your best colours is to see your face first, before everything else, she says. The right colour will enhance your features, bring out your eyes. “You don’t want a dress to wear you,” Francesca says. “When you walk into a room, you want people to see your face and your features before your outfit. You want it to all be in harmony rather than overpowering you.”
Her process usually takes 48 hours, but Francesca has my results over to me the next day.
I am, it seems, not a spring.
According to Francesca’s workings, I am a soft summer, just like Rihanna, Sarah Jessica Parker and Rachel McAdams. I have a neutral undertone which leans cool, she tells me, with muted and soft colouring, subtle rather than high contrast. Baby blue, pine green, lavender, sage and taupe are on the list of recommended clothing colours, while ash brown and cool blonde are suggested for my hair (not too far off, but my highlights are probably on the warmer side).
I do own a fair bit of light blue denim, which is good, but I’m looking at all the bright greens, oranges and pinks in my wardrobe. This isn’t about my favourites, though, it’s about the ones that harmonise with my features best.
“It’s colour science,” Francesca says. “If someone’s got a warm undertone, nine out of 10 times they’re probably going to be in the spring or autumn seasons because they look better with a lot of warm tones most of the time. But if you’re neutral, you can border both the seasons.” As I’m neutral, she says some of the spring colours would work – but winter is too high contrast and cool-toned.
Someone with a high contrast – pale skin, dark hair, bright eyes, for example – can pull off high contrast colours such as cobalt blue and fuchsia pink. “But they might overpower someone who’s got softer features,” she says.
Celebs in – and out – of season
It’s important to note that colour analysts don’t always agree. Some put Margot Robbie as a summer, for example, while others, including Francesca, say she’s a spring. Some say you have to do the analysis in person to be certain, while others say photos taken in the right conditions are enough.
I take an online colour quiz for a second opinion and it puts me as a spring, but this is without photographic evidence; I can’t help but think the result is probably something to do with the questions being mainly about the colours I’m drawn to and how I see myself.
Francesca is confident in my summer analysis, but says I can lean into the spring palette. And this isn’t about throwing away an entire wardrobe, but potentially making tweaks.
“Colour analysis isn’t about restriction,” she says. “I’m an autumn. People ask me all the time if I still wear black? Yes, because 90% of my wardrobe before I did this was black. I’ll always wear black, but I’ll make it work for me better by wearing my make-up in my colours, or accessories round my face, wear black lower down or with a lower neckline.
“If you love a colour that’s not in your season it doesn’t mean you can’t wear it, it just means that you wear your colours with it or make it work for you in a different way. And when I post celebrities against different [background] colours, it can be quite subjective.”
Because being groomed and beautiful means stars often look good against all sorts of different shades.
“People might prefer them in a different [colour to their season] and that’s their opinion. But when it comes down to the trained eye and you know what you’re looking for, you see straight away why one palette works better than another.”
But wearing colours out of your season can pack a punch – think Taylor Swift‘s platinum white hair and dark lipstick look during the height of the Kim and Kanye feud in 2016, or Beyonce‘s current platinum look for the release of Cowboy Carter. Swift is a spring, apparently, while Beyonce is autumn.
“But I’m always training my eye, even now after years,” says Francesca. “You’ll always find that someone’s colours will always surprise you. And there’s no rule book – it’s all about having fun.”
At a time when jukebox musicals dominate London’s West End, some of theatreland’s stars argue the success of original shows is proof “audiences are ready to take a risk”.
From Motown to Michael Jackon, Tina Turner to the Jersey Boys, the past two decades have seen an exponential rise in offerings based around songs most of us will already know the words to.
Back in 1999, the runaway success of staging Mamma Mia! – based on ABBA’s extensive back catalogue – proved to be a game-changer.
It resulted in several investors believing they’d stumbled across a magic formula – the combination of chart hits with nostalgia being an easier sell to a guaranteed audience who like to know what they are getting.
While there’s no escaping their popularity or dominance, they’re not the shows that critics are getting really excited about.
Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) is an original offering with brand new music that most people won’t have heard of, yet the millennial rom-com is losing count of the five-star reviews it has picked up within a matter of weeks.
Sam Tutty – who plays Dougal in the two-hander – says writers had to “fight tooth and nail” to bring it into the West End.
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The actor, who previously won an Olivier for playing the lead in Dear Evan Hansen, explained: “To be at the place it is now is because they were allowed a foot in the door somewhere along the way.”
Dujonna Gift stars alongside him as Robin in a story that follows how two twentysomething strangers meet ahead of a wedding.
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“Fringe theatre is kind of where it’s at right now,” she explains, “and supporting and championing these writers to believe that there is space in the market for their work will do great things.”
Gift, who’s previously starred in Hamilton and Motown: The Musical, says: “As someone who has done jukebox musicals before there’s always a market for that but right now… it’s really important that we create the spaces for these new writers.”
The success of Operation Mincemeat is proof of how word of mouth can get just as many punters through the door as casting a pop star.
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The musical, which is based on the true story of the secret mission that won Britain World War Two, has extended its run eight times to keep up with demand.
While it recently won Best New Musical at the Oliviers, before writing the hit its creators – sketch troupe SpitLip – had come close to quitting theatre for good.
“When we first started making theatre you could get grants,” actor and writer Natasha Hodgson tells Sky News.
“It’s just really hard to be a creator without an enormous pot of cash in your bank right now.
“The whole theatre ecosystem is very aware of how difficult it is for theatre makers to get work off the ground, and everyone’s doing everything they can in terms of supporting new work and trying to get commissions over the line, but it is difficult, we have to keep banging the drum of how the arts is in our blood in this country.
“I do think that this show and others like this are proving that actually audiences are ready to take a risk, they’re ready to come and support new stuff.”
While harnessing the power of well-known musical property is more widely considered a safe bet for producers, Two Strangers producer Tim Johanson says it has meant truly original offerings are a harder sell.
“Surprising familiarity is a phrase I’ve heard a lot,” he explains.
“You need to have heard of X, or it’s a stage version of this artist’s work, or it’s this book or film, and all of those can make really great shows.”
But, rather than bring fans of existing musicians into the theatre, Johanson says they appear to be amassing an army of their own.
“People have seen the show 15, 16, 17 times already, they’re the ones who are talking about it online and driving other people to come and see it, driving the millions of music streams that we’re heading towards.”
So, while jukebox musicals might be everywhere, Johanson isn’t too worried.
“Operation Mincemeat, Six, those are the two that blazed the trail and genuinely, in my career, this feels like the best time to write new British musicals.”
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is at the Criterion Theatre until 31 August. Operation Mincemeat is at the Fortune Theatre, London until 16 November.