The first three episodes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix documentary painted a bleak picture of life in Harry and Meghan’s world.

While the following, final three will cover the brutal royal drama that played out as they left the UK, it will end on a lighter note as the couple reflect on the happy family life they have since created in California. It will also cover their wedding and the birth of their son, Archie, but as one friend pointed out, “even in happier times, it was challenging”.

Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have been critical of the royal family in a Netflix documentary series.

The second tranche of the series, to be released on Thursday, is expected to cover the couple’s dramatic exit from royal life, their thwarted hopes of creating a hybrid, half-in, half-out model, and the negotiations that shaped the family’s crisis talks.

As such, Buckingham Palace is braced for impact.

While individual members of the royal family got off relatively lightly in the first half of the series, they are prepared for allegations coming down the track.

The duke is thought to be convinced that other royal households were briefing against him and Meghan and has branded it a “dirty game”. Aides who maintained a dignified silence last week, opting to rise above the fray, have reserved the right to hit back next week when their “weary sadness” could be replaced with anger.

The trailer for the forthcoming episodes hints at an attack on the family, as Meghan says directly to the camera: “This is when a family and a family business are in direct conflict.”

Meanwhile, Harry suggests that the knives were out. “Everything that’s happened to us was always going to happen to us,” he says.

The duke takes responsibility for their decision to leave: “There was no other option at this point and I said, ‘we need to get out of here.’”

The media is also expected to come in for another thorough bashing.

The extent to which the couple were involved in the final product has remained something of a mystery but director Liz Garbus described it as a “collaboration”.

As well as handing over 15 hours of personal video footage, recorded on their phones in the early part of 2020 as they left the UK, and dozens of family photographs, the couple are understood to have provided written notes to the production team.

The first three episodes generated a wealth of criticism on both sides of the Atlantic, with reviewers largely united in asking when the whining would end. In the US, a critical market for Netflix, trade publication Variety said the couple showed “little interest in looking forward rather than back”.

Its review pointed to a “sort of narrative stuckness”, adding: “There’s an air of duty about the entire enterprise of Harry & Meghan, as if they’re honour-bound to keep reciting their personal story until we eventually lose interest.”

The duke and duchess, it noted, are clearly at the mercy of their paymasters. We should pity them, it suggests, as “even after breaking free of Buckingham Palace, they’re still someone’s subjects”.

Those close to them, however, insist that they set out to document their love story and that, regardless of anything else, viewers are given a front-row seat as that story develops.

“People at least feel like they know them a little bit better or they understand why they’re so in love and why they’re so protective of one another,” one said.

Another dismissed the negative reaction. “Some of the most beloved movies have the worst reviews,” they said. The couple are said to feel relieved that after almost three years they have told their story as they promised to do.

“This is the end,” one source said. “They are ready to move on.”

While that may be the intention, the royal family would be forgiven for harbouring reservations.

There is also the small matter of Harry’s memoir, Spare, which will bring a fresh onslaught when it is published on January 10.

While the Netflix documentary spans the couple’s experiences of royal life over the six years they have been together, friends note that the duke has had “38 years of not being able to share his story”.

The book is expected to focus far more on his younger years and the trauma of his mother’s death.

The Telegraph, London

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