New Harry and Meghan Netflix trailer launches most explicit attack on royals yet

Meghan Markle today ramped up her war on the Royal Family in the latest Netflix trailer for the final three episodes of the Sussexes’ docuseries – being released worldwide tomorrow.

In yet another extraordinary and explicit attack on her husband’s relatives, the Duchess of Sussex said that stories would be leaked or made up about her or Harry to ensure negative press about other royals would ‘go away’.

In the teaser, Meghan claims there was a conspiracy to attack her, while her British privacy lawyer Jenny Afia described it as a ‘war against Meghan’ from within Buckingham Palace ‘to suit other people’s agendas.’

Ms Afia insists she has seen the evidence, and Meghan’s friend Lucy Fraser – who was a mystery figure until a week ago, when her real name was revealed by MailOnline as Lucy Meadmore, a British former PR manager, declares: ‘Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace.’

The Duchess also suggested she was made a scapegoat, adding: ‘You would see it play out. A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they’d go: “We’ve got to make that go away”.’

Meghan Markle has declared war on the Royal Family in the latest Netflix trailer for the final three episodes of the Sussexes’ docu-series out tomorrow

Her friend Lucy Fraser, whose real name is Lucy Meadmore, said: ‘Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace’, which would leak stories about the Duchess, she claims

Today’s 65-second trailer does not feature Prince Harry, who has already accused unnamed shadowy figures of lying about him and his wife to protect his brother Prince William. 

He also talked of ‘institutional gaslighting’ – believed to be an attack on his own family and their staff. 

Royal experts predict the Netflix series will destroy Harry’s relationship with William, who will view it as disloyalty.

And critics have accused the couple of using Netflix to launch a disinformation campaign against the Royal Family and the British Press. There are growing calls to see the evidence for these highly damaging claims, with one royal source declaring yesterday: ‘No one is taking lessons in honesty from them.’ 

In today’s trailer, Meghan, who said she was ‘fed to the wolves’ when she was in the UK, suggested that she would be used by royal aides to divert coverage away from negative press for other members of The Firm.

She added: ‘There’s real estate on a website homepage, there is real estate there on a newspaper front cover, and something has to be filled in there about someone royal.’  

Ms Afia said that briefing against her clients was to ‘suit other peoples’ agendas’

Lucy said: ‘Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace. And so they would feed stories on her, whether they were true or not, to avoid other less favorable stories being printed.’

Meghan’s privacy lawyer, Jenny Afia, a partner at Schillings, said: ‘There was a real war against Meghan and I’ve certainly seen evidence that there was negative briefing from the Palace against Harry and Meghan to suit other peoples’ agendas.’

She added that negative press about Meghan’s estrangement from her father Thomas Markle was the breaking point for the Duchess. 

‘This barrage of negative articles about the breakdown of the relationship with her father was the final straw in a campaign of negative, nasty coverage about her’, she said.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment.

Yesterday, in the first trailer for the second part of their lucrative tell-all Netflix documentary, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex talk about ‘institutional gaslighting’. It is assumed this is directed at the monarchy.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse in which a person is manipulated into questioning their own sanity and perceptions of reality.

The documentary makers also use a picture of Buckingham Palace and footage of the duke and Prince William at their grandfather’s funeral as Harry says: ‘They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.’

Meghan adds dramatically: ‘I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves. I was being fed to the wolves.’

The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan – part of the Sussexes’ multi-million-dollar deal with Netflix – were streamed last week, with the final three hour-long episodes coming tomorrow.

The initial tranche covered the couple’s courtship and romance, but many were left deeply unhappy about the programme’s full-on assault on the late Queen’s Commonwealth legacy, with some saying it seemed as if the couple want to ‘bring down the monarchy.’

Harry also let rip with a string of sly digs at his family, particularly his father and brother, including the suggestion that they had married not for love but to a woman who fitted ‘the mould’.

But the clear suggestion was that the second part – covering the couple’s wedding, their subsequent falling out with William and Kate and acrimonious departure from the Royal Family – would be far more brutal for Buckingham Palace.

And it seems as if the gloves are well and truly coming off.

The new trailer starts with Harry saying: ‘I wonder what would have happened to us had we not got out when we did.’

Meghan adds: ‘Our security was being pulled, everyone in the world knew where we were,’ before the film cuts to Harry recalling: ‘I said, “We need to get out of here”.’

The trailer then flits to self-filmed footage of Harry – presumably flying from Canada to California in early 2020 – saying: ‘We are on the freedom flight.’

In 2019, the couple were given the Queen’s blessing to spend time in Canada, where they borrowed a friend’s mansion on Vancouver Island, ostensibly to have some ‘time out’ from the limelight. 

Meghan’s privacy lawyer Jenny Afia, a partner at Schillings, said that negative stories about Meghan’s relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, were the final straw

Ms Afia says in the Netflix show: ‘There was a real… war against Meghan’

Footage of Buckingham Palace was used as Meghan’s allies described a briefing against her

The final three episodes will be released worldwide tomorrow, after today’s trailer (pictured)

The documentary makers also use a picture of Buckingham Palace and footage of the Duke and Prince William at their grandfather’s funeral as Harry says: ‘They were happy to lie to protect my brother’

The Duke of Sussex continues: ‘They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us’

Meghan adds dramatically: ‘I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves. I was being fed to the wolves’

During the trailer, Harry makes the astonishing claim that he and Meghan were victims of ‘institutional gaslighting’ 

In reality they were already plotting their departure, working on plans to create a ‘hybrid’ working model for themselves – earning money while conducting occasional royal duties – and even creating their own website.

The story continues with more of the misrepresentations that have characterised the couple’s Netflix project so far, with its use of ‘fake’ footage to illustrate media harassment of the couple.

Meghan talks about being ‘fed to the wolves’ – a quote accompanied by a photograph of her being supposedly hounded by a bank of photographers.

However, the picture was clearly taken when she flew by private jet to New York for a lavish baby shower when she was expecting her first child, Archie, accompanied by a team of taxpayer-funded police officers.

Even more inexplicably – and controversially – Harry talks about how ‘they’ were happy to ‘lie to protect my brother.’ As he says this, the trailer cuts to footage of Buckingham Palace, followed by a second sequence of himself and William at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in April last year. 

Given the juxtaposition of the statement and film, many have taken ‘they’ to refer to the Royal Household.

But on a slightly different trailer featured on the Netflix website, subtitles can be seen which instead reads: ‘The British media were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.’

After this discrepancy was exposed on social media earlier today, the second trailer appeared to have been mysteriously taken down.

Harry’s words echo comments made by Meghan in their Oprah Winfrey interview last year, when she alleged that Kensington Palace aides had lied, saying: ‘I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there is an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us. 

On a slightly different trailer featured on the Netflix website, subtitles can be seen which instead read: ‘The British media were happy to lie to protect my brother’

‘It was when everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family.

‘They weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.’

The trailer also includes a clip of an interview with Christopher Bouzy, a US tech entrepreneur who has set up a firm to track disinformation and harassment online – despite having posted a string of disparaging posts, particularly about the Prince and Princess of Wales.

He says: ‘They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation’, but does not make it clear who ‘they’ are.

Sources also point out that official Royal Family accounts have at times been forced to shut down their own public comment forums due to online abuse from the so-called ‘Sussex squad’ – the couple’s self-styled band of acerbic fans.

Christopher Bouzy says: ‘They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation’, but does not make clear who ‘they’ are

The trailer includes a clip of star Tyler Perry, who lent the Sussexes his Hollywood mansion when they first moved to the States. He says: ‘They just wanted to be free. They wanted to be free to love and be happy. I applauded that.’

This sets the film up for a series of pictures of the couple looking happy and relaxed – Meghan with a birthday balloon arch, Harry jumping in the ocean – juxtaposed with stock footage of printing presses and critical headlines.

Harry adds: ‘In order for us to be able move to the next chapter, you gotta finish the first chapter,’ as the footage – pointedly – moves to some of the couple’s wedding photographs featuring Harry’s late grandparents.

Alongside footage of Harry playing football in the garden of their US home with his children and mother-in-law, Doria Ragland, Meghan says: ‘It gave us a chance to create that home we had always wanted.’

A series of pictures show the couple looking happy and relaxed – Meghan with a birthday balloon arch, Harry jumping in the ocean

Ironically, the home subsequently depicted is Frogmore Cottage, the couple’s Windsor residence, when they returned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.

The house underwent a £2.4million program of taxpayer-funded renovations, which Harry and Meghan eventually paid back when they quit as working royals.

The photographs, which appear professionally taken, feature both their children, Archie and Lilibet, who was making her first visit to the UK and celebrating her first birthday.

The children are both formally dressed, leading some royal insiders to suspect they could have been taken after Lilibet was introduced to her namesake great-grandmother, the Queen.

It has been reported that they asked to take a photographer in with them but the Queen, who was, it is believed, distrustful of their motives, refused.

Ironically the home subsequently depicted is Frogmore Cottage, the couple’s Windsor residence, when they returned for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 

Royal sources believe Harry and Meghan got one of their favorite private photographers, Chris Allerton, to shoot dozens of pictures for their documentary, which has been years in the planning. They began filming their video diaries as far back as March 2020.

The trailer ends with a montage of pictures and video of the couple and their children looking happy and relaxed, as a contrast to the family they constantly criticize.

Harry says: ‘I’ve always felt as though this was a fight worth fighting for.’

Both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace declined to comment.

It is understood that the royal households intend to wait until the entire series has been made available before they decide whether to respond to some of the couple’s more hurtful or damaging claims.