Insiders have rubbished claims the royal family were approached for comment on the allegations made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their bombshell Netflix series, despite the opening scene of the first episode claiming they were.
Royal sources at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace say the show's statement that they were all approached is not correct.
But sources at Netflix suggested King Charles and Prince William's offices were contacted and given time to reply ahead of the release.
The opening page of the six-part series states: “All interviews were completed by August 2022. Members of the royal family declined to comment on the content within this series.”
A clip displayed on the first episode states: "Members of the Royal Family declined to comment within this series."
But Buckingham Palace first denied any contact had been made.
Four hours later at 4.30pm this evening, both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace said they had "received an email purporting to be from a third-party production company, via a different, unknown organisation’s email address."
A royal source said Kensington Palace contacted Archewell Productions and Netflix to attempt to verify the authenticity of the email but received no response. "In the absence of this verification, we were unable to provide any response," they added.
A Buckingham Palace added: "A very similar approach was made to BP by the independent production company purporting to be making a Netflix documentary as attempts at verification with that company were unsuccessful.
"We are awaiting any further clarification."
The first three parts of Harry & Meghan landed this morning, including their account of what life was like in the royal family. There are also unseen photos from their private photo albums, including shots of Harry down on one knee when he proposed and snaps of their children, Archie and Lilibet.
In one of the interviews Harry says members of his family asked why Meghan shout be protected from media headlines, saying they told him it's something all royal women have to go through.
He 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.
“So it was almost like a rite of passage, and 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’.”
Meghan also speaks about her early encounters with her new in-laws, saying she was "surprised" by the formalities while Harry said the first meeting with the late Queen was a "shock to the system".
She said: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, 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.
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.
“There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Recalling Meghan's first meeting with the late Queen, Harry said: “My grandmother was the first senior member of the family that Meghan met. She had no idea what it all consisted of so it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.”
Meghan said: “There wasn’t like some big moment of ‘Now you’re going to meet my grandmother’. I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before.
“We were in the car and we were going to Royal Lodge for lunch, and he’s like ‘Oh, my grandmother’s here, we’re going to meet her after church.’ And I remember we were in the car driving up and he’s like ‘You know how to curtsy, right?’ And I just thought it was a joke.”
Harry said: “How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you will need to curtsy. Especially to an American. That’s weird.”
Meghan added: “Now I’m starting to realise ‘This is a big deal’. I mean, Americans will understand this… We have medieval times, dinner and tournament. It was like that.”
The couple also said they don't want to "make the same mistakes" their parents did when raising Archie and Lilibet.
Meghan said: “There’s so much from anyone’s childhood that you bring with you into the present. Especially when you’re the product of divorce.”
Harry added: “What’s most important to the two of us is to make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made.”
“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 once place to another or maybe your parents are competitive, or you’re in one place longer than you want to be or in another place less than you want to be. There’s all sorts of pieces to that.”
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