Was the Royal Family Jealous of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?
Prince Harry isn't holding anything back in his new Netflix docuseries, even insinuating that his brother and sister in law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, were once jealous of his wife Meghan Markle's popularity.
In Vol. II of the hit docuseries Harry & Meghan, Harry implies Will and Kate were envious of Meghan's popularity.
"The internals at the palace were incredibly threatened by [the Duke and Duchess's popularity]," the couple's friend Lucy Fraser claims in the episode.
As media headlines flash onto the screen showing reports that Harry and Meghan are more popular with the public than the other royals, Harry shares some bold thoughts.
"The issue is, when someone who's marrying in, who should be a supporting act, is then stealing the limelight or is doing the job better than the person who was born to do this, that upsets people," Harry says.
"It shifts the balance because you've been led to believe the only way that your charities can succeed, the only way that your reputation can be grown or improved, is if you're on the front page of those papers. But the media are the ones who choose who to put on the front page," he continues.
Harry says the "first time that the penny dropped" was after an event he and Meghan attended at Buckingham Palace. In the days following the event, every newspaper featured Meghan front and center, even though other senior members of the royal family had been present at the event.
"On the front page of The Telegraph — Meghan," Harry says, recounting one news outlet's report.
"I went, 'Oh my God! But it's not my fault!'" Meghan recalls of her reaction at the time.
"I know, and my mum felt the same way," Harry agrees, referring to the late Princess Diana and alleging that after that instance, Meghan's press coverage became increasingly negative.
In the docuseries, Harry also alleges the Royal Palace previously faked his participation in an official public statement about his relationship with Will, which was allegedly strained at the time.
According to Cosmopolitan, in January 2020 the Royal Palace released a supposedly joint statement that read:
Despite clear denials, a false story ran in a UK newspaper today speculating about the relationship between The Duke of Sussex and The Duke of Cambridge. For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful.
Harry claims no one had consulted him about the statement.
"I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and in my brother's name, squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family. I couldn't believe it, no one had asked me. No one had asked my permission to put my name to a statement like that. I rang M and I told her, and she burst into floods of tears because within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us," Harry says in Harry & Meghan Vol. II.