Harry and Meghan promise to tell it all in a new documentary series 1:11
(CNN) — The first episodes of Netflix’s highly anticipated Harry and Meghan documentary series began airing on Thursday.
The first chapters of the Harry and Meghan documentaries have been released.
Here are some key points from the first three parts:
Your first days in relationship
The couple spoke about how they met on social media.
“Meg and I met through Instagram. I ‘scrolled’ through my feed. A friend had this video where they both had a Snapchat-esque filter…like dog-ears.” Harry said, “I said who is that?”
Meghan said she checked Harry’s feed before exchanging phone numbers.
The first date in Soho
Harry was late for the couple’s first date in Soho, London.
Meghan said: “You were running late and I couldn’t understand it. Meanwhile, he texted me saying, ‘I’m stuck in traffic, I’m so sorry’.”
Harry recalled, “I was panicking, I wanted to freak out. I started sweating.” Not knowing what was going on, Meghan began to doubt the date would work, as she thought Harry might have an “ego”.
But when he finally emerged, he profusely apologized to what Meghan called “cute,” adding, “You were so embarrassed.”
Meghan added: “It was so much fun. So refreshingly funny. We were like children together.”
They agreed to meet again the next evening.
“That’s when it hit me,” Harry said. “This girl, this woman, is amazing. She’s everything I’ve been looking for.”
The trip to Botswana
The pair described how their relationship was cemented in Africa when Meghan traveled to accompany Harry on a visit to Botswana, having previously only seen him twice.
“We had to meet before the rest of the world found out and before the media found out,” Harry said.
They spoke about spending time indoors with essentials and how they still weren’t sure how the relationship would turn out.
unrelenting media attention
Harry spoke at length about the pervasive role of the media in his family life, beginning with the photos that were taken of him outside the hospital after he was born.
Of the continued attention throughout his childhood, he said, “Most of my memories are of being surrounded by paparazzi.”
He recalled how he had learned to deal with that publicity as a child: “In the family, in the system, the advice that’s always given is, ‘Don’t react. Do not feed.'”
The pressure, he said, was always there. “Drama, stress and also tears… I could always see it on my mother.
He added: “Those are the moments when I thought, what am I? Who am I? What am I a part of?”
“My mother did a good job trying to protect us. She took it upon herself to confront these people,” he said.
The documentary collects footage from a family ski holiday to highlight this. In one clip, Harry can be seen alongside his brother, Prince William, and his cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, as they pose for the throngs of photographers in an unwritten agreement that would finally give them privacy later on during the holidays. But that was followed by another, more intrusive clip that led to her mother confronting a photographer.
“It was never fair, it never worked,” he added.
“Pain and suffering” of women marrying into the royal family
Harry brought up the now-discredited Panorama Show interview with his mother, Princess Diana. Though she admitted she was “fooled,” she also said she was “telling the truth.”
“My mom was bullied all her life when she was with my dad, but after they broke up, the bullying reached a new level,” she said.
The “moment he left the institution” (the royal family) was “completely exposed,” he said.
As Harry grew up, he witnessed the “pain and suffering of the women who married in this facility.” And he added, “What happened to my mom … I didn’t want history to repeat itself.”
A picture from the documentary shows Meghan crying.
Adjust ‘the shape’
In a revealing part about the experience of other royal marriages, Harry said: “I think for a lot of people in the family, especially men, there can be a temptation or an impulse to marry someone who fits the mold rather than get married who you ought to be.”
“The difference between decisions made with the head and with the heart. And my mother certainly made most if not all of her decisions with her heart. And I’m my mother’s son,” he added.
Meghan’s comparison to Diana
Harry opened up about how Meghan resembles his mother Diana, who died when he was 12.
“So much of Meghan is very similar to my mother. He’s got that same compassion, he’s got that same empathy, he’s got that same confidence, he’s got that warmth,” Harry said.
“I accept that there will be people around the world who will disagree with what I did and how I did it. But I knew I had to do everything I could to protect my family, especially after what happened to my mother,” he said.