Prince Harry Owns Up To One Of His Biggest Scandals In Tell-All Series
If you thought that we might get a brief break from the royal family in the interim of King Charles taking the throne and his son, Prince Harry, releasing his highly anticipated memoir, "Spare," we have bad news for you. Netflix shocked fans by dropping Harry and Meghan Markle's equally explosive docuseries earlier today. Netflix released the first three episodes and promised to release more the following Thursday. So far, the series has focused on Harry and Meghan's early romance: how they met, fell in love, and got married. But as any devoted royal watcher knows, the truth is much more complicated than that.
While Harry and Meghan were busy planning their wedding, they were also inundated with behind-the-scenes drama from Buckingham Palace. There are long-standing rumors about a conflict between Meghan and Kate Middleton, with one of them reportedly making the other cry days before Harry and Meghan's wedding. Meghan later clarified that Kate made her cry despite reports to the contrary. There's also the rumor that William warned Harry against rushing into anything with Meghan. Suffice it to say, the royal family is very complicated, and thanks to Harry and Meghan's deal with Netflix, we commoners are finally getting a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos that is Buckingham Palace.
In the first three episodes of the series, the royal couple talked about their dazzling romance and deepest regrets. To Prince Harry, however, there was an instance that stands out above the rest as one of the worst decisions of his life.
Prince Harry learned a tough lesson
Unsurprisingly, the moment Prince Harry regrets the most is the time he dressed up as a Nazi. Harry apologized for the poor choice in 2005 per The New York Times, but still struggles with it. During an interview for the Netflix series, Harry opened up about the extraordinarily poor choice of costume and why he still lives with regret to this day.
The prince described the scandal as "probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life" when reminiscing about that incident, per The Independent. "In this family, sometimes you're part of the problem rather than part of the solution," Harry said. "There is a huge level of unconscious bias," he continued, suggesting that his upbringing sheltered and warped him to the point that he thought a Nazi uniform would be an appropriate costume. The bad press and backlash inspired Harry to learn more about antisemitism and racism so as to understand where he went wrong. "We sat down and spoke to the chief rabbi in London, which had a profound impact on me," he explained. "I went to Berlin and spoke to a Holocaust survivor. I could've just ignored it and probably made the same mistakes in my life over and over again in my life, but I learnt from that."
While it may be one of his worst, the Nazi costume would be far from Prince Harry's last scandal. Even with the release of this docuseries, he's facing yet more criticism.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's side of the story makes waves
In addition to discussing the role "unconscious bias" played in his poor decision to wear a Nazi costume, Prince Harry spoke up about his family's same blind spot when it came to the public's treatment of Meghan Markle. Harry explained that other royals considered public scrutiny a "rite of passage" for women entering the family, per The Guardian. "Why should your girlfriend be treated any differently?" Harry said they wondered. "I said, 'the difference here is the race element.'"
In the doc, Meghan indeed opened up about facing racial bullying in her life. "The woman turned around and screamed the N-word at my mom," Meghan recalled of a hurtful experience she had with her mother at the Hollywood Bowl, per People. The series' spotlight on her hardships echo Harry and Meghan's years-long concern about the royal family not stepping in, and the new project is said to be seen as a subtle diss to the royals.
The couple and Netflix reportedly failed to liaise with the palace on production. In the series, Netflix claimed that they did in fact reach the palace but got no response, per the Daily Mail. However, upon the release of the first three episodes, Kensington Palace released a statement claiming that they were informed of the series from a third party, not Netflix or the royal couple, and when they reached out, no one got back to them. The palace may not have responded to Harry and Meghan's side of the story yet, but there are still three episodes left and likely much more drama.