Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s hotly-anticipated Netflix documentary dropped some major bombshells when it arrived on the streaming platform on 8 December.
WATCH: Harry & Meghan: How to watch documentary, episode timings and more
The series, titled Harry & Meghan, features previously unseen images and footage from the couple’s private life, sharing their high-profile love story and what challenges led them to make the decision to step back as senior royals. Read on for the biggest revelations from the first three episodes…
WATCH: The five best moments of the Harry and Meghan documentary: episode one
Prince Harry and Meghan met on Instagram
Perhaps one of the most surprising (and extremely relatable) revelations of the documentary, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex first met through Instagram.
The Prince spotted the Suits actress in a picture on a mutual friend’s feed. “I was just scrolling through my feed and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them, it was like a Snapchat and that was the first thing, I was like, ‘Who is that?‘” said Harry.
READ MORE: Did Meghan Markle just have her own ‘revenge dress’ moment?
MORE: Prince Harry’s secret Instagram account revealed
Meghan recalled: “I asked if I could see his feed. So that’s the thing, when people say, ‘Did you google him?’, No. That’s your homework. You’re like let me see what they’re about in their feed, not what someone else says about them but what they are putting out about themselves. That to me was the best barometer.”
She continued: “So I went through and it was just like beautiful photography and all of these environmental shots and this time he was spending in Africa.”
They went on to reveal that they had the first date at 76 Dean Street – and Harry was late! “I was panicking, I was freaking out. I was sweating,” said the 38-year-old, who was a little tardy after being stuck in traffic.
Harry and Meghan first met on Instagram
Prince Harry revealed temptation in royal family to marry someone who ‘fits the mould’
The Duke opened up about the “urge” for men within the royal family to marry someone who “would fit the mould”.
“I think for so many people in the family, especially the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mould, rather than someone you are perhaps destined to be with,” he explained.
MORE: Prince Harry put on the spot as he’s asked about ‘destroying the royal family’ in new clip
“The difference between making decisions with your head or your heart and my mum certainly made most of her decision from her heart. I am my mother’s son.”
Harry spoke of an “urge” within the royal family to marry someone who would “fit the mould”
Prince Harry’s secret ‘checklist’ for potential girlfriends
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex reflected on the early days of their romance in episode one of the series and revealed that Harry had an “extensive list” of qualities that he wanted in a girlfriend.
Lovingly poking fun at her other half, Meghan said: “He had a list apparently of what he was looking for. An extensive list.”
Harry added: “I’m not showing you the list.”
Harry revealed he had a “checklist” for potential girlfriends
Meghan revealed paparazzi paid her neighbours to spy on her
In episode two, Meghan revealed that when the news broke of her relationship with Harry back in 2016, her neighbours in Toronto were paid by members of the press to plant a camera in her back garden.
“It felt like all of the UK media descended upon Toronto. My house was just surrounded,” revealed the 41-year-old. “Just men sitting in their cars all the time, waiting for me to do anything.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED: Harry & Meghan episode one: all the best moments
MORE: Harry & Meghan episode two: most shocking moments
MORE: Harry & Meghan episode three: biggest bombshells
“My neighbours texted me saying, ‘They’re knocking on everyone’s doors, they’re trying to find you,'” said Meghan.
“They had paid certain neighbours to put a livestream camera into my backyard. Suddenly it was like everything about my life was getting so much more insular. All the curtains were pulled, all the blinds were pulled. It was scary.”
Neighbours were paid to plant cameras in Meghan’s garden
Prince Harry said royal family asked why Meghan should be protected
In the second episode, Prince Harry claimed that members of the royal family asked why Meghan should “get special treatment” and “be protected” when the couple questioned the UK press’ treatment of the actress in the early months of their relationship.
Referring to a Daily Mail newspaper headline from 2016 that read: “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton,” Harry said: “The direction from the Palace was don’t say anything.
“But what people need to understand is, as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they had been put through as well.
MORE: ‘Why should Meghan Markle be protected?’ Prince Harry makes sensational claim on royal family
“So it was almost like a rite of passage,” he continued. “Some of the members of the family were like ‘my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’
“I said ‘the difference here is the race element.'”
Harry claimed the royal family asked why Meghan should “get special treatment”
Prince Harry doesn’t want to make the same mistakes as Prince Charles and Diana
Talking about parenthood in episode two, Harry revealed that he and Meghan, who were both children of divorce, didn’t want to make the same mistakes as their parents.
“What’s most important for the two of us is to make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made,” he said. “I think most kids who are the product of divorced parents have a lot in common, no matter what your background is.
“Being pulled from one place to another, or maybe your parents are competitive, or you’re in one place longer than you want to be in, you’re in another place less than you want to be, there’s all sorts of pieces to that.”
Harry said he didn’t want to make the same mistakes as his parents
Meghan’s mother Doria said she felt “unsafe” after being “stalked” by paparazzi
Appearing in front of the camera in episode three, Doria Ragland revealed that when Harry and Meghan first got together, she was made to feel “unsafe” after being “stalked” by members of the press.
MORE: Meghan Markle’s mother Doria Ragland speaks out for the first time in Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary
“I felt unsafe a lot,” she explained. “I can’t just go walk my dogs, I can’t just go to work. There was always someone there waiting for me, following me to work. I was being stalked by the paparazzi.
“Once I pulled over and so [the paparazzi] pulled next to me and said, ‘You know, I’m just trying to get a story. You can get a lot of money for this,’ and I just looked at him and said: ‘This is my child. I have nothing to say.'”
Doria said she felt “unsafe” after being “stalked” by members of the press
Toronto police said there was ‘nothing they could do’ to help Meghan over media ‘stalking’
In the early days of Meghan and Harry’s relationship, the actress was “followed” by paparazzi, who surrounded her home in Toronto. After complaining to the police, she was told her there was “nothing they could do”.
“I would say to the police ‘if any other woman in Toronto right now said to you, I have six grown men who are sleeping in their cars around their cars and following me everywhere I go and I feel scared, wouldn’t you say it was stalking?'” she revealed.
“They said, ‘Yes but there’s really nothing we can do because of who you’re dating.’
“I’m like, ‘So I’m just supposed to live like this?’ And they said ‘Yeah’, and then I got a death threat and things changed because I needed to have security.”
Meghan went to the police about media intrusion
Meghan revealed her surprise at the ‘formality’ behind closed doors of royal family
In episode two, the Duchess recalled her first meeting with Prince William and Kate, going on to reveal that the “formality” presented to the public by the royal family “carries over” behind closed doors.
“I met her [Kate] for the first time, they came over for dinner,” said Meghan. “I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger, I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
MORE: King Charles and Prince William deny claim made in Harry and Meghan’s Netflix series
As footage of Kate and William walking alongside each other at a royal engagement played, Meghan’s voice could be heard, saying: “I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.
“That there is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door,” she said, letting out a sigh of relief, before adding: “I can relax now. But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.”
The ‘Fab Four’ pictured in 2017
Harry revealed the royal family thought his and Meghan’s relationship wouldn’t last
In episode two, Harry explained that Meghan’s career as an actress “clouded” the judgement of his family, who didn’t think their relationship would last.
“I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed. Some of them didn’t quite know what to do with themselves.
READ: Prince Harry praises ‘willing and capable’ Kate Middleton in Netflix documentary
He jokingly added: “I think they were surprised, maybe surprised that a ginger could land such a beautiful, intelligent woman.
“The fact that I was dating an American actress was probably what clouded their judgement more than anything else at the beginning. ‘Oh she’s an actress, this won’t last.'”
Harry revealed Meghan’s job “clouded” his family’s judgement
Meghan referred to the couple’s engagement interview as an ‘orchestrated reality show’
In the opening moments of episode three, Meghan referred to the couple’s BBC engagement interview as an “orchestrated reality show.”
“It was rehearsed,” the Duchess said. “We did the thing out with the press, then we went right inside, took the coat off and did the interview. So it’s all in that same moment.”
When asked if the couple were prepped on how the interview would play out, she explained: “Yeah, but also like, ‘Then there’ll be a moment where they’ll want to see the ring, so show the ring’.
“We weren’t allowed to tell our story because they didn’t want [it],” she added.
Meghan and Harry announced their engagement in 2017
Meghan revealed her half-sister Samantha exaggerated the extent of their relationship
The Duchess’ elder half-sister, Samantha Markle, exaggerated the extent of their relationship to the UK media in the lead-up to Meghan and Harry’s wedding, despite having minimal contact with the actress throughout her life.
“My half-sister, who I hadn’t seen for over a decade, and that was only for a day and a half. Suddenly, it felt like she was everywhere,” explained Meghan.
“I don’t know your middle name, I don’t know your birthday. You’re telling these people that you raised me and you coined me ‘Princess Pushy’.
“I don’t remember seeing her as a kid at my dad’s house.”
WATCH: Meghan says she hadn’t seen Samantha, half-sister, in over a decade,
Harry said there is a ‘huge level of unconscious bias’ in royal family
“In this family, sometimes you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution and there is a huge level of unconscious bias,” explained the Duke. “The thing with unconscious bias is that it’s actually no one’s fault. But once it’s been pointed out or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right.
“It’s education, it’s awareness and it’s a constant work-in-progress for everyone, including me.”
He then went on to say that dressing up in a Nazi uniform at a fancy dress-themed birthday party in 2005 was “one of the biggest mistakes of my life”.
“I felt so ashamed afterwards,” he added, before explaining that he paid a visit to the chief rabbi in London and also spoke to a Holocaust survivor in Berlin in order to “learn” from his mistake.
Harry spoke of an “unconscious bias” in the royal family
Meghan claimed stories were ‘planted’ in the press ahead of their wedding
In the third instalment of the series, the Duchess claimed that “salacious” stories were “planted” in the press in the lead up to her wedding to Harry in 2018.
“We were playing whack-a-mole every day. Every day it was like ‘Wait, another one popped up. Wait, stop, another story.’ Constant.”
Newspaper headlines flashed on the screen, mentioning claims such as ‘related to serial killer’ along with references to a ‘porn star ex’ and ‘snorts cocaine’.
Meghan continued: “They were going through the woodwork and pulling people out to create and plant the most salacious stories that they could.”
Meghan and Harry tied the knot in 2018
Meghan confronted her father Thomas about staged paparazzi photos
The Duchess described her father, Thomas Markle, as “cagey” when she confronted him over the phone about staging photos of himself for the paparazzi, which he reportedly sold for $100,000.
She also revealed that he found out that he wouldn’t be attending her wedding “through a tabloid”.
Meghan confronted her father over staged paparazzi photos
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