‘Harry & Meghan’ Netflix Trailers Spark Controversy Over Misleading Images & Clips

Max Goldbart
·3 min read
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Netflix’s hotly-anticipated Harry & Meghan doc series has already been causing controversy as UK media outlets pick apart its two trailers and find footage and photos have been used in misleading ways.

Veteran UK royal correspondent Jennie Bond slammed the “extremely sloppy production values” of Harry and Meghan’s Archewell’s documentary this morning and ITV stalwart Lorraine Kelly described the use of certain images and footage as “bizarre.” Archewell is producing with Story Syndicate and Diamond Docs and Liz Garbus is director.

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A number of moments in the two trailers have been under the microscope.

Yesterday, an overhead camera shot supposed to illustrate press intrusion was called a “complete travesty” by another veteran royal commentator, Robert Jobson, who pointed out that the shot was taken from an accredited pool at Archbishop Tutu’s residence in Cape Town with only three journalists allowed in. Piers Morgan was one of many hundreds to retweet.

Meanwhile, analysis of several other images has found they were were taken from places completely unconnected to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

One of the main images used of hundreds of paparazzi that appears over Harry’s declaration – “I had to do everything I could to protect my family” – was revealed to have been taken at the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premiere, according to analysis from the BBC and The Sun.

Another, used when Harry speaks of the “pain and suffering of women” marrying into the Royal Family, showed a clip of model Katie Price arriving at a Court in London last December. A third, used to illustrate a media crush, shows footage of Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen being hounded by paparazzi. All have been analyzed by UK media outlets and confirmed by Deadline.

Alternative images and clips are undoubtedly used in multiple trailers but it is the combination of the doctoring and the subject matter that is causing such a stir.

The controversy could be a sign of things to come once the show launches on Thursday at 8 a.m. GMT (12 a.m. PST). If the trailers are already causing so much consternation, it is hard to imagine how many headlines will be generated from the first three hours of the doc, which comes just a few weeks after Netflix’s The Crown drama series similarly generated headlines for straying too far from the facts, according to its critics.

Episodes four to six will drop next Thursday and, by then, it is hard to imagine the extent to which this documentary will have placed the ex-Royal couple in the spotlight.

Deadline has reached out to Netflix and Archewell for comment.

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