Harry recounts the details behind his and wife Meghan Markle's exit from the royal family in volume II of their Netflix docuseries.
Prince Harry is opening up like never before about the rift he has with his brother, Prince William, in volume II of his and wife Meghan Markle's Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan.
The second three episodes of the docuseries dropped on Thursday and feature the couple detailing their exit as senior working members of the British royal family. Despite having fond memories of their 2018 royal wedding, Harry notes that the family's reception of Meghan changed when her popularity grew and she began to make the cover of the newspapers over other, more senior members of the family.
"William and I saw what happened in our Dad's office and we made an agreement that we would never let that happen in our office," Harry recalls, noting how the different communications teams for the different members of the royal family were often at odds.
He says that once Kensington Palace split and he and Meghan were separated from William and his wife, Kate Middleton, the negative headlines and planted stories began to crop up about them.
"To see my brother's office copying the same thing that we promised the two of us would never ever do, that was heartbreaking," Harry says.
Ultimately, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to step back from their role as senior royals after much back and forth, and following what Harry and Meghan claim were many leaked conversations and correspondences. After spending time in Vancouver, Canada, Harry and Meghan returned to the United Kingdom and claim they were denied a meeting with Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. Harry says he then sent a note requesting a meeting with the senior royals, which was denied until Meghan returned to Canada to be with their son, Archie.
Harry then went to Sandringham for a closed-door summit with his family.
"It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father [King Charles III] say things that just simply weren't true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in," Harry recalls.
Harry goes on to discuss his relationship with the now Prince of Wales in the aftermath of the exit.
"This wedge created between me and my brother so that he's now on the Institution's side, and part of that I get," he says of William, who is next in line to the British royal throne. "I understand, right? That's his inheritance. So to some extent it's already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability of the continuation of this institution."
Harry adds that when a story came out about William bullying Harry and Meghan out of the family, the Palace released a joint statement on behalf of Harry and William, which Harry claims he'd never even seen and released without his knowledge.
"I couldn't believe it. No one had asked me. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that," Harry recalls.
He recounts calling Meghan to tell her what had happened, saying she "burst into floods of tears" because within four hours "they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us."
That moment caused the couple to decide to officially "get out of there" with Harry noting that it was never his wife who initiated the exit.
"In fact it was my decision. She never asked to leave," he says. "I was the one that had to see it for itself."
Not much else was said about the brothers' relationship. In one scene, Harry is seen showing Meghan a text message from William the day after the March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview aired, but the contents of that text aren't shown.
Harry also discusses returning to England for the April 2021 funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip.
He says that going back to the U.K. was hard, "especially spending time having chats with my brother and my father, who just, were very focused on the same misinterpretation of the whole situation. So none of us really wanted to have to talk about it at my grandfather's funeral, but we did. I've had to make peace with the fact that we're probably never gonna get genuine accountability or a genuine apology."
The footage and interviews for the docuseries were all completed by August 2022, before the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8.
In the first three episodes of the docuseries, which were released last week, a disclaimer was put on the series that reads, "Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within this series."
"That is incorrect. Neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace nor any members of the royal family were approached for comment on the content of the series," a source close to the royal family previously told ET in regard to the disclaimer. "[The Palace] is not aware of any such approach for comment."
ET reached out to Netflix for comment on the claims. Meanwhile, a Netflix source previously told ET that communications offices for King Charles and Prince William were contacted in advance and given the right to reply to claims within the series.
Additionally, ET learned that Kensington Palace did receive an email from a third-party production company about the Netflix docuseries. The email originated from an unknown organization's email address. The office contacted Archewell Productions and Netflix to attempt to verify the authenticity of the email and that it was genuine but received no reply. The email did not contain the substance of the allegations made in the Netflix program or address the entire series. In the absence of any verification or reply from Archewell or Netflix, there was not any reply.
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