What we learned from Netflix's docuseries about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The first three episodes of a docuseries about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's relationship has been released on Netflix.

Harry & Meghan, a six-part series directed by Oscar nominee Liz Garbus, features interviews with the couple as well as their friends, colleagues and a handful of journalists and historians who contextualize their relationship in the history of Britain, the monarchy and the British media.

While not nearly as revealing as their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, the first three episodes of the series feature conversations with Harry and Meghan about their difficult interactions with the tabloid press and the institution of the monarchy. The next three episodes will be released on Dec. 15.

Here are five takeaways from the first volume of the series.

During her early courtship with Harry, Meghan was targeted with headlines and stories that drew attention to her biracial background, perpetuating harmful stereotypes. One such story was a headline that declared her to be "straight outta Compton," a reference to the 1988 gangsta rap album by N.W.A.

About eight days after their relationship became public, Harry put out a statement addressing the "racist undertones" in coverage about Meghan. But he says his family didn't understand how her treatment was different from theirs.

"What people need to understand is that as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they'd been put through as well," Harry said in the docuseries. 

"So it was almost like a rite of passage. Some of the members of the family were like, 'Right, but my wife had to go through that. So why should your girlfriend be treated any differently?' And I said the difference here is the race element."

As Meghan continued working as an actor on the show Suits in Toronto, she says British paparazzi arrived in the city to follow her. Some of them tried to pay her neighbours to install livestream cameras that looked into her backyard, she said.

Meghan says she complained of the persistent stalking to the police, but was told there was nothing to be done, "because of who you're dating." To ward off the photographers, Meghan travelled with a driver trained in evasive driving methods.

"It felt like all of the U.K. media descended upon Toronto," she said.

But that wasn't all, according to Silver Tree, a friend of Markle's and a producer on Suits. Some paparazzi tried to buy call sheets (which list when an actor will be present on set for particular scenes) from production assistants so that they could locate when and where Markle would be shooting Suits. 

Tree added that the paparazzi would break into the show's trailer area, forcing the production to cage in all the trailers.

"I don't think anyone knew how to manage that new normal," Tree said.