SUSSEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE
HARRY and Meghan faced a new “fakery” storm last night after Netflix passed off Katie Price footage as proof the couple were “hounded” by the media.
At least four images promoting the controversial docuseries are not what they seem, while one other has been selectively edited.
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This is despite Meghan and Harry repeatedly claiming that they want to reveal the “truth”.
Amid growing fury, the latest Netflix promo:
- USES footage of journalists waiting outside court for Katie Price last year to illustrate the media frenzy around the couple;
- GIVES the impression a lone snapper covertly photographed Harry, Meghan and son Archie inside a private home — when it was pre-agreed coverage of a visit to Archbishop Desmond Tutu;
- SHOWS cameras round a limo before the trailer cuts to tearful Meghan — when the passenger was in fact Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer;
- COMES after the first trailer showed a press pack at a Harry Potter film premiere years before the couple had met.
The second incendiary teaser released yesterday sees Harry accusing his family of “leaking” and “planting” stories in the media.
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He also warns senior royals: “No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth.”
But soon after it aired, the 63-second promo found itself accused of painting a false picture.
In one scene, Harry, 38, tells how he feared Meghan, 41, was being treated like his late mother, Princess Diana.
He adds: “I was terrified. I didn’t want history to repeat itself.” As his words appear, camera crews are seen racing to an unseen target. It is in fact former model Price leaving Crawley magistrates’ court last December.
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Viewers also noted the footage was “flipped” to give a different angle.
The trailer also gives the impression a photographer covertly snapped the family.
But the image came from a visit to the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town in 2019.
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Witnesses said the photographer had been granted official access in advance.
In a third scene, press are seen crowded around a car before the trailer cuts to Meghan wiping tears from her eyes.
But experts worked out Meghan was not in the vehicle, which instead carried Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, heading to prison in New York in 2019.
The row over the trailer’s integrity came a day after The Sun revealed the first promo also used a “phoney” photo.
We told how an image of the press apparently “hounding” the couple was taken at a Harry Potter premiere in 2011 — five years before Harry and Meghan had met. Another still, of Harry shielding his face, was taken when he was dating Chelsy Davy in 2007.
Last night there was mounting anger over the privacy-loving couple’s £100million series, which airs on Thursday.
Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said: “The inaccurate photographs undermine the validity of what Harry and Meghan are trying to say. It makes them the object of ridicule.
“If you are going to criticise the monarchy you have to make sure everything you say or do is absolutely correct.”
Royal author Robert Jobson added: “They say the camera never lies, but it really depends where the image is used and in what context.”
He said he was one of a small press group allowed by the Palace at Tutu’s Cape Town residence on the official royal visit in 2019 and there was “no intrusion whatsoever”.
Mr Jobson added: “The photograph they’ve used is of a camera lens, overlooking them carrying Archie. That photograph was taken from an accredited pool position and allowed by the Palace.
“To suggest the newspapers are encroaching on the child is simply a distortion of the truth because nobody else was allowed into that compound. Therefore, you have to question the veracity of their truth in their documentary.”
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Netflix chiefs released the second trailer just after noon UK time yesterday, and it soon racked up more than a million views.
It opens with Harry and Meghan sitting in a car. In a voiceover, the Duke says: “It’s really hard to look back on it now and go, ‘What on Earth happened?’”
Footage switches to scenes from their engagement and 2018 wedding, with TalkTV’s Piers Morgan heard saying: “She’s becoming a royal rock star.”
It then cuts to Meghan saying, “And then…” before she snaps her fingers.
Harry adds: “Everything changed.” As dramatic music builds, the clip shows the Royal Family — led by the Queen — lining up on the Buckingham Palace balcony for Trooping the Colour in 2019.
Harry narrates: “There’s a hierarchy of the family.
“You know, there’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories.”
Amid a flurry of clips of Meg and Di, Harry says: “The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution, this feeding frenzy.”
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Meghan adds: “I realised, they’re never going to protect you.”
At the end, the screen fades to black before Harry issues his “truth” warning.