By the time you read this, you may well be one of the 220 million Netflix subscribers planning to watch Harry & Meghan.
The fly-on-the-wall style documentary series promises to give viewers a never-before-seen insight into life in the Royal Family.
From the trailer and teaser alone, we were warned to expect the warts-and-all scoop on what really led to Megxit.
“What on earth happened?” Harry asks in bewilderment in one of the sneak previews.
From the sounds of things, we’ll get those answers today as the truth bombs are dropped on the streaming channel, which has a reported $100million content deal with the couple.
There will be claims from the couple. Possible counterclaims from people who will claim to be speaking for the Royal Family.
If you set aside all the mud-slinging, I hope the one thing this documentary does is shed light on issues such as sexism, racism and mental health, which are too often trivialised in society.
Harry specifically called out the undisputed fact that women who enter the Royal Family are subject to unbearable scrutiny and criticism. Everything about their lives is dissected. Clothes, hair, even their nail polish, in the case of Meghan.
It’s considered the price they have to pay for entering into what looks like, well from the outside anyway, a life of privileged pampering. For the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that price was simply too high.
It’s not just royal women who face such scrutiny and often abuse. Trolling of high-profile women, and women in public life is worse than it is for men. Women are being turned off from careers in politics because of online abuse. And it’s even worse for Black women.
Research from Amnesty International found that half of all online abuse aimed at women MPs was directed at a single person – Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP. Its data also showed that Black women were 84% more likely to be abused on social media.
Let’s hope the documentary sparks serious debate on these issues and is a catalyst for change.
