‘A complete travesty’: Royal experts round on Sussexes after their latest Netflix trailer

Royal experts are rounding on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after their latest Netflix documentary trailer used a picture taken during an approved photo opp in South Africa was used to suggest intrusion from the press.

Just days after an image in the first teaser was revealed to be a scrum of photographers at a Harry Potter premier and another dated from when Harry was dating Chelsy Davy, it’s now emerged that parts of the second advert also aren’t as they seem. 

It includes one photograph showing a photographer taking a snap of Harry and Meghan from a balcony said to have actually been taken by ‘an accredited pool’ at Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s residence in South Africa.  

Royal correspondent Robert Jobson tweeted: ‘This photograph used by @Netflix and Harry and Meghan to suggest intrusion by the press is a complete travesty. It was taken from a accredited pool at Archbishop Tutu’s residence in Cape Town. Only 3 people were in the accredited position. H & M agreed the position. I was there.’

Echoing the point, ITV royal editor Chris Ship added: ‘Here Robert Jobson makes a valid point. The filming of Archie at Archbishop Tutu’s residence was highly controlled. 

‘And the ITN Productions camera filming the Sussexes’ Africa documentary was there with their permission. It was not a media scrum. They spoke to Tom Bradby inside.’

In a subsequent tweet showing a photo of Harry and Meghan alongside Archbishop Tutu with their baby Archie, Mr Jobson said: ‘This shot by me from the same accredited pool position on my iPhone was taken at Archbishop Tutu’s Cape Town residence. 

‘There was no intrusion. I was part of a 3 person UK palace pool. Nobody else was allowed in and we shared the words and photos with the UK Media.’

A brief clip from the latest trailer today also shows a group of photographers rushing towards a concrete building which is clearly identifiable as Crawley Magistrates Court – where former glamour model Ms Price appeared last December to be sentenced for drink driving. ‘I was terrified – I didn’t want history to repeat itself,’ Harry says as the footage is played. 

Another piece of video shows photographers huddling around a car as Meghan says – referring to the royal household – ‘I realised they are never going to protect you’. It then cuts to an image of Meghan dabbing her eyes, seemingly in tears.

But rather than showing the Sussexes being hounded, the footage is in fact of Mr Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, leaving his New York apartment in 2019 to serve time in prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. MailOnline has contacted Netflix for comment.  

It comes as royal experts today described the incendiary series as ‘an amazing act of revenge’ that will ‘widen the rift’ with Prince William and weaken the very institution he will inherit when he becomes King.

In a new-one minute preview, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex lash out at the ‘hierarchy of the family’, claim insiders ‘leaked and planted’ stories about them, describe royal life as a ‘dirty game’, then – after footage of Princess Diana and Kate being hounded by photographers – talk about ‘the pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution’.

The teaser will no doubt horrify courtiers bracing for further allegations that are likely to widen the rift between the Sussexes and the Waleses. 

Speaking to MailOnline, royal author Richard Fitzwilliams speculated that the effects of the Netflix docuseries will be felt for years to come. ‘This is a full frontal, extremely destructive attack on the Royal Family – the institution as well as members of those households,’ he said. 

He said: ‘I think this will widen the rift between the brothers. There is no doubt that this Netflix series is an amazing act of revenge designed to weaken the very institution that William will inherit as future King. Of course everyone will be asking how King Charles will react to this in the short-term, but the effects of this will be felt in years to come. That’s the whole point.

‘This is a full frontal, extremely destructive attack on the Royal Family – the institution as well as individual households and members of those households. This series I suspect will greatly weaken the royals in the eyes of the world, especially among young people.’

The late Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter called the series ‘one long whinge’, adding: ‘I think that William and Kate will watch this trailer and think to themselves, ”oh God, here we go again”. 

‘This is just one long whinge, and for what? Harry says he’s doing this to protect his family – protect them from what? Meghan says if we only knew what happened behind closed doors – why should we? What exactly is it that they have to say which we haven’t heard before?’. 

During the teaser, a friend is heard claiming that the couple’s experience has been ‘about hatred, about race’ as a strikingly intimate and previously unseen clip flashes up of an exasperated Harry holding a hand to his face as Meghan passes behind him while heavily pregnant with their daughter, Lili. 

After a series of clips of photographers and newspapers being printed, Meghan says, ‘I realised, they’re never going to protect you’ before she is seen once again crying. Harry then adds, ‘I was terrified, I didn’t want history to repeat itself.’

Today the streaming giant confirmed volume one will launch on December 8 – exactly three months after the death of Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II – while the second volume will be released on December 15 – clashing with the Princess of Wales’ carol service. 

The teaser opens with a scene of Harry and Meghan in a car, seemingly in America, as the duke says: ‘It’s really hard to look back on it now and go ”what on earth happened?”

As videos play of the couple announcing their engagement and their wedding in 2018, a news clip voiceover by Piers Morgan says: ‘She’s becoming a royal rock star’. 

Another scene plays of the Sussexes on a royal walkabout as a member of the public shouts ‘Meghan, we love you!’ 

It cuts to Meghan saying ‘and then’ before snapping her fingers with Harry adding: ‘Everything changed’. 

A photo of the Royal Family at the Trooping the Colour in 2019 is shown – including William, Catherine, Charles and Camilla – while Harry narrates: ‘There’s a hierarchy of the family, you know, there’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories. It’s a dirty game.’ 

The couple’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, tells the camera: ‘There was a war against Meghan to support other people’s agendas’ before Christopher Bouzy, a tech entrepreneur and a longtime supporter of the couple, says, ‘it’s about hatred, it’s about race’. 

Clips of paparazzi photographing the couple are then paralleled alongside old footage of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, being followed by the media. 

The duchess then says: ‘I realised they’re never going to protect you’ and Harry adds, ‘I was terrified, I didn’t want history to repeat itself.’

Finally, Harry appears in a selfie video as he says, ‘No one knows the full truth – we know the full truth’ and the trailer ends. 

The docuseries will debut on Thursday, Netflix confirmed today. 

In the latest Sussex updates – 

Last week, Netflix released the first official teaser which featured never before seen private photographs of the couple including happy snapshots of the Sussexes kissing while Meghan sits on a kitchen island, as newlyweds dancing with joy at their evening wedding do, cuddling in a photobooth and Meghan cradling her bump while pregnant. 

While another shows the duchess pictured with her hand over her face as she sits cross legged on a chair holding a phone but it is not clear in this image whether she is crying.

Billed as a Netflix Global Event, the streaming giant has promised an ‘unprecedented and in-depth documentary series’ over six episodes where Harry and Meghan ‘share the other side of their high-profile love story’.

It added it was a ‘never-before-seen look at one of the most-discussed couples in history’.

Netflix said the show ‘explores the clandestine days of their early courtship and the challenges that led to them feeling forced to step back from their full-time roles in the institution’.

It features commentary from friends and family, most of whom have never spoken publicly before about what they witnessed according to Netflix, and historians who discuss the state of the British Commonwealth today and the royal family’s relationship with the press.

It adds: ‘The series does more than illuminate one couple’s love story, it paints a picture of our world and how we treat each other.’

The director is two-time Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus.

Harry and Meghan signed lucrative deals – thought to be worth well over £100 million – with Netflix and Spotify after quitting the monarchy and moving to the US.

The Royal Family have tried to put a brave face in recent days by insisting they would not be ‘blown off course’ by the documentary. 

Contrary to claims that there are behind-the-scenes ‘crisis talks’ and plans to ‘hit back’ at yet another barrage of claims and accusations, senior royals plan a very much ‘business as usual approach’.

‘We are not going to be blown off course by squalls from across the Atlantic,’ a royal source told the Daily Mail witheringly.

The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday how the King and Queen Consort are ‘wearied’ by the constant attacks from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Buckingham Palace sources said that there was ‘mounting frustration and exhaustion’ at the barrage of complaints that Harry and Meghan relentlessly and publicly make about their alleged treatment by members of the Royal Family.

The late Queen famously made clear that ‘recollections may vary’ over many of the couple’s claims – and that view has not changed.

Throughout the royal households there is a sense of ‘here we go again’ over the series. 

But there is hope among the family that the ‘Sussex squall’ will blow itself out by the time the series ends and Harry’s upcoming memoir is published in January. 

‘It’s likely to be a difficult few weeks but really after that what on earth more can they have to say?’ another insider asked.

‘It’s all going to start to become very ‘end of the pier’ show if they are not careful, hawking around the same complaints on talk shows and documentaries. 

‘Surely a time will come when even they realise they have got to get on with their lives? The rest of the family certainly want to.’

Indeed the King and the Queen Consort have a busy week ahead with several significant and long-planned engagements. Tomorrow the monarch is in Luton meeting community leaders and voluntary organisations who promote inter-faith harmony, something he has been promoting for 50-plus years.

At Luton Town Hall, he will be reunited with Festus Akinbusoye, Bedfordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, who was previously supported by his Prince’s Trust.

His Majesty will also visit the newly built Sikh Guru Nanak Gurdwara, speaking to volunteers and learning about their programmes for the community.

On Wednesday, the Queen Consort will invite seriously and terminally ill children from Helen & Douglas House and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity to decorate the Clarence House Christmas tree.

She holds the magical event each year, personally serving up sausages and mash for the youngsters and this year has arranged a surprise visit from Father Christmas and his reindeer. ‘Their Majesties are getting on with what’s important,’ a source added.

Royal sources told The Mail on Sunday that Charles and Camilla were ‘not worried but wearied’ by the continued outbursts from the Duke and Duchess.

Since quitting as working royals and moving to California, they have criticised the Royal Family in interviews, including a high-profile show with Oprah Winfrey, and recorded the Netflix series.