Contrary to some reports that are doing the rounds, it looks like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s forthcoming Netflix docuseries *will* be going ahead as planned, despite their earlier wishes to have it pushed back!
When will Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix show air?
According to reports, the Netflix docuseries will not be pushed back to 2023 like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex originally wanted, and it will actually air this year (*omg!*) with several sources hinting that it could be hitting our screens in December! The official date has yet to be announced, but an insider told Page Six: “As far as I am aware, the docuseries is still going ahead later this year.”
Why was it going to be delayed?
If you'll recall, Prince Harry and Meghan wanted the show to be delayed to early 2023 so they had more time to edit – and perhaps film more footage to make up for what they wanted to cut out – the show, as they reportedly feared that some of the comments they made about King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles, Prince William and Kate Middleton, i.e., the new Prince and Princess of Wales, would be insensitive following Queen Elizabeth II's death.
However, Netflix bosses and members of their own production company were said to be unaccommodating, and wanted the show to go ahead with the current content as well as the original release date. Yikes!
"A lot of conversations are happening," a source previously told Page Six. "I hear that Harry and Meghan want the series to be held until next year, they want to stall. I wonder if the show could even be dead in the water at this point, do Harry and Meghan just want to shelve this thing?"
A Netflix source also added: "Netflix has been keen to have the show ready to stream for December. There’s a lot of pressure on [Netflix CEO] Ted Sarandos, who has the relationship with Harry and Meghan, to get this show finished."
Backlash over The Crown
The first posters for Netflix’s ‘THE CROWN’ Season 5 starring Elizabeth Debicki, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West have been released. pic.twitter.com/mtNk0oalLN
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) October 17, 2022
Some of the reports suggesting that the Sussex's docuseries would indeed be pushed back to 2023 have nothing to do with their panicked requests to Netflix, but everything to do with the new season of The Crown. According to reports, there is some backlash over Season 5 of The Crown, which is due to start streaming on November 9th, due to some of the content which could be seen as insensitive to the royal family following the Queen's death.
One of the incriminating scenes in question takes place in the first episode of the new season, and sees King Charles, played by Dominic West, attempting a coup against his mother, who is now played by Imelda Staunton, during a meeting with former British Prime Minister John Major. Major has since denied that such a meeting ever happened, and told The Mail on Sunday that the scene is a "barrel load of malicious nonsense."
Major's spokesperson has branded the supposed storyline "malicious fiction" and "a barrel-load of nonsense". https://t.co/ngE0NOSiky
— HuffPost UK (@HuffPostUK) October 16, 2022
A Netflix spokesperson defended the scene, and told The Mail on Sunday: "Series five is a fictional dramatization, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family — one that has already been scrutinized and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians."
