‘I am genuinely concerned for the safety of my family’: First episode of Sussexes’ Netflix documentary opens with Prince Harry explaining their decision to leave royal family and says ‘no one knows the full truth

• Harry and Meghan LIVE: Follow MailOnline’s live coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s bombshell Netflix series 
• The first episode of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s incendiary Netflix documentary has been released 
• Royal Family have been bracing themselves for bombshells from new series
• The world is binge watching the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan 

The first episode of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s incendiary Netflix series has been released.

A message which appears at the beginning of the nearly one-hour episode said that members of the Royal Family – who have been bracing themselves for bombshells from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s documentary as it streams across the world from this morning – declined to comment on the content of the much-anticipated series. 

In the opening scenes, poignant piano music began to play before showing airport shots and Harry filming himself at Heathrow airport in March 2020, saying: ‘We’ve just finished two weeks, out final push, our list stint of royal engagements.

‘It’s really hard to look back on it now and go what on earth happened?’

As the King and the Queen Consort breakfast in their own home and the Prince and Princess of Wales deal with the school run, royal fans, commentators and the British media will be binge watching the first three episodes of Harry and Meghan’s already controversial tell-all take on royal life. 

In the opening scenes, Harry says: ‘We’ve just finished two weeks, out final push, our list stint of royal engagements. ‘It’s really hard to look back on it now and go what on earth happened?’

Meghan cries on her bed in Vancouver as Harry leaves the UK after Megxit

Harry and Meghan signed lucrative deals, thought to be worth well over £100million, with the streaming giant and Spotify, after quitting as senior working royals in 2020 following family rifts and struggles with royal life

The opening scenes of the first episode show an airport with a close-up of a departures sign while piano music plays over the footage.

It then cuts to Harry and words on the screen tell viewers he is in the Windsor Suite at Heathrow Airport in March 2020.

He appears to be filming himself speaking into his phone camera and says: ‘Hi. So we’re here on Wednesday the something of March.

‘We’ve just finished our two weeks, our like final push, our last stint of royal engagements. It’s really hard to look back on it now and go ‘what on earth happened’? Like, how did we end up here?’

As Harry speaks, images of the couple flash on screen, followed by newspaper headlines and broadcasters’ audio from coverage about their decision to step back from royal life.

Harry and Meghan signed lucrative deals, thought to be worth well over £100million, with the streaming giant and Spotify, after quitting as senior working royals in 2020 following family rifts and struggles with royal life.

The ‘unprecedented and in-depth’ docuseries, directed by Oscar-nominated Liz Garbus, is billed as a Netflix global event, with Harry and Meghan sharing ‘the other side of their high-profile love story’.

Harry, in a trailer for the docuseries, warned ‘we know the full truth’ and spoke of a ‘hierarchy in the family’, a ‘dirty game’ and ‘leaking’ and ‘planting of stories’.

The first episode, which is 56 minutes long, shared the impact of Harry’s childhood in the public eye and their secret relationship in the early days. Its Netflix tags were ‘Riveting’, ‘Investigative’, and ‘Docuseries’.

A friend close to the Royal Family stressed the situation concerned ‘real people’ and that there was a ‘great deal of sadness’ involved. 

‘It’s really important to remember that these are real people. This isn’t a soap opera. They are human beings and a family and there’s a great deal of sadness,’ the friend said.

Harry’s father Charles and brother William, along with Camilla and Kate, are not expected to personally watch the series, but royal aides will be tasked with closely monitoring the output, and considering, if at all, how to respond.

The King and the Royal Family will be carrying on with royal duties as normal on Thursday, with the docuseries also coinciding with the first circulation of coins bearing Charles’ effigy in post offices around the UK – symbolic of the adjustments still continuing in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

The promotional art for the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan

The six-part ‘Harry & Meghan’ show, billed as ‘unprecedented and in-depth’, is airing exactly three months after the death of Harry’s grandmother the late Queen, with the Windsors still grieving and the King less than 100 days into his reign.

Harry, in a trailer, has warned ‘We know the full truth’ and spoken of a ‘hierarchy in the family’, a ‘dirty game’ and ‘leaking’ and ‘planting of stories’.

The pair look set to outline Meghan’s treatment by the press, challenge allegations the duchess bullied staff, and seemingly delve into their relationships with the royals and the household.

The Sussexes signed lucrative deals thought to be worth more than £100 million with Netflix and Spotify after quitting the monarchy amid the Megxit crisis as they struggled with royal life.

They plunged the monarchy into crisis with their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, while the Duke of Edinburgh was in hospital.

The duke and duchess accused an unnamed member of the family of racism towards their son Archie before he was born, and the institution of failing to help the suicidal duchess.

The couple quit as senior working royals in 2020 in favour of more freedom and the ability to earn their own money in the US.

Harry said he felt let down by his father and that ‘there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened’ in their relationship. His longstanding rift with William has continued.

The brothers fell out over what Harry perceived to be William’s ‘snobbish’ attitude to his bride, it was claimed.

In the aftermath of the Oprah broadcast, the Queen issued a statement saying ‘while some recollections may vary’, the issues would be taken ‘very seriously’, but dealt with privately as a family.

But on a podcast and a mental health Apple TV series, Harry went on to accuse his family of ‘total neglect’ and appeared to criticise the parenting skills of Charles and the Queen and Philip, suggesting he had suffered ‘genetic pain’.

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