What if getting everything you wanted wasn’t all you thought it would be?
That is likely a question that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are currently asking themselves. After stepping back from most royal responsibilities and leaving the country altogether, the two really landed on their feet in America. After navigating the complexities and controversies of Sussexit, the two landed very lucrative media deals. Among other projects, these royals got the green light for a tell-all memoir from Harry and a documentary series that focuses on their lives as they raise a family.
With these kinds of media deals, they didn’t have to worry about losing some of the royal funding they had before. Now that Queen Elizabeth is dead, though, the two are frantically trying to delay and edit these works before they are released.
Just why do they want to make these edits, and what personal comments about royals do they want to edit out? Keep reading to discover the answers!
Delaying Harry’s memoir
Prince Harry has been busy writing a memoir. Originally, that memoir was set to come out in November of this year after facing previous. Now, though, the memoir has been delayed again and has an unspecified release date.
Why the delay, though? Ostensibly, Harry wanted the memoir delayed out of respect for the death of Queen Elizabeth. But as Marie Claire reports, there is major speculation that Harry is also desperate to make edits to that memoir before it comes out.
If true, that would mean Harry is likely worried about earlier drafts of the book making negative comments about the Royal Family. He may think delaying the book and changing what he had to say can help restore his relationship with his family. But as royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti points out, this may not work because many others have seen the original drafts, and all it takes is one person leaking an earlier draft to undo Harry’s revisionism.
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Original television plans
While Harry’s memoir promises to be interesting, the bigger deal on the horizon is Harry and Meghan’s documentary series on Netflix. In this series, the two let camera crews into their home in Montecito, California. The intent is to give a more intimate look at these two famous figures and the family they are raising.
All of that sounds simple enough, though getting this show off the ground has been something of a struggle. As PageSix reports, Harry and Meghan signed a $100 million deal with Netflix. While this will include other shows they are involved with, it’s clear that Netflix really wanted a show that put these two front and center.
One Hollywood insider said that Netflix was “getting its pound of flesh” from the royals after paying so much to them. And that might explain why the company is hesitant to make any delays or changes to this upcoming content.
The Queen’s death changed everything
Originally, Netflix wanted to have some good, old-fashioned brand synergy with this docuseries. As PageSix reports, they wanted to debut this new series in December of this year. That would be one month after the fifth season of The Crown debuts and one month after Harry was supposed to release his memoir.
However, Queen Elizabeth’s death proved to be a real game-changer for Harry and Meghan. Now, the two want to make major changes to the docuseries. With these changes, it would likely come out sometime later in 2023 rather than by the end of 2022.
Apparently, the edit requests are so extensive that a Hollywood industry insider confided to PageSix that he wasn’t sure if the royals even want the show to go forward at this point. “I wonder if the show could even be dead in the water at this point, do Harry and Meghan just want to shelve this thing?”
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What do Harry and Meghan want to change?
It’s one thing to delay content due to the death of the Queen, but it’s another thing to drastically edit that content. That leads to the big question: what, exactly, do Harry and Meghan want to change so badly?
We don’t have specifics on any exact comments just yet. But according to Marie Claire, their primary focus is trying to “downplay” comments they have made about four particular people: Charles, Camilla, William, and Kate.
Why did the death of the Queen prompt this sudden need for edits? In all likelihood, it has to do with the fact that all four of the people named above just became that much more powerful. Charles is no longer just an annoyed father to Harry…he’s also the King of England. And there are persistent rumors that Charles won’t be granting royal titles to Harry and Meghan’s children until after he reviews the contents of the memoir and series.
And in addition to William being his somewhat estranged brother, Prince William is also the future King of England. It’s possible that Harry and Meghan are belatedly worried about the consequences of angering their powerful family members.
Regardless, it looks like Netflix is going ahead to release the series without edits. As PageSix reports, one industry source pointed out the hypocrisy of the royal’s belated concerns. “Harry and Meghan are panicked about trying to tone down even the most basic language. But it’s their story, from their own mouths.” And while Netflix hasn’t put out any statements, one industry insider familiar with the matter told PageSix “Netflix has made it clear that the project is going forward.”
Despite Harry and Meghan’s best efforts, it looks like we might see this docuseries before the year is out. And only time will tell if it generates even a fraction of the drama that their interview with Oprah did!