‘Harry & Meghan’ Documentary: The Palace Was ‘Threatened’ by the Couple’s Popularity

In the new episodes, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle discussed their 2018 wedding and how it fueled their rise in popularity. The royal aides didn’t like this, they say, because they were stealing attention and headlines away from other people who need publicity (read: Prince William and Kate Middleton).

Markle’s friend Lucy Fraser explained there was a shift in media coverage after the wedding, beginning with the royal tour of Australia. “They were so popular with the public, the internals at the palace were incredibly threatened by that,” she said.

And since they were disrupting the family’s power dynamics, they became a target for negativity and criticism. “The issue is when someone who is marrying in who should be a supporting act is then stealing the limelight or doing the job better than the person who was born to do this,” Prince Harry explained. “That upsets people. It shifts the balance.”

He continued, “You’d been led to believe that the only way that your charities can succeed and the only way that your reputation can be grown or improved is if you’re on the front page of those newspapers. But the media choose who gets put on the first page.”

Prince Harry soon realized the media was treating Markle the same way as his late mother Princess Diana. The prince said, “She was like, ‘But it’s not my fault.’ And I was like, ‘I know. My mom felt the same way.’”

It all makes sense now.

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