No, Kate Middleton and Prince William didn’t watch Meghan Markle talk about their cold reception to her hug during their first meeting, and no, the Prince and Princess of Wales didn’t invest three hours of their life into watching the first volume of Harry & Meghan, Meghan and Prince Harry’s Netflix documentary series that dropped yesterday. Vanity Fair reports the couple “refused” to watch the series when it came out at 8 A.M. London time and instead did a school run for their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
Multiple aides told the outlet that the British royal family generally intends to take on a predictable “keep calm and carry on” approach to the release of Meghan and Harry’s series. One senior royal aide literally quoted that phrase when speaking to the outlet about the mentality on the series overseas: “There has been a lot of hype but there is not going to be a comment at every twist and turn. It’s business as usual and keep calm and carry on,” the source said.
That said, while Kate and William may not watch, the people working for the family will be…with lawyers. Vanity Fair wrote, “While aides will be watching the series closely, along with the royals’ lawyers, the palace are reluctant to comment on the show because they don’t want to feed what has become a media frenzy.”
There has already been a little drama over whether or not the palace was approached for comment on the series. Netflix and the doc itself claims they “declined” to comment on content from the series. Sources close to the filmmakers told Page Six they submitted multiple requests for comment and were ignored.
Multiple sources at Kensington Palace, which handles Kate and William’s affairs, admitted later that they did receive an email alleging to be from the filmmakers but weren’t sure if it was real. They then contacted Archewell, Meghan and Harry’s organization, but did not receive any response, they claim.
But sources close to Archewell told Page Six that Meghan and Harry hadn’t received any response from the royal family. A Netflix insider maintained to Page Six that they took steps on their end to reach out to the royals: “Communications offices for King Charles and the Prince of Wales were contacted in advance and given the right to reply to claims within the series.”
The palace has yet to issue any public comment on the series. Their social media accounts are focused on their members’ public engagements. Truly business as usual.
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.