Royal family turn their backs on Sussex film
King and siblings plan to ‘keep calm and carry on’ with full schedule of work as Netflix series begins
IT WILL be “business as usual” for the Royal family this week as they plough ahead with a full programme of engagements, while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unleash the untold story of their “truths” and “challenges” to millions around the world.
The first instalment of the “unprecedented” six-part Netflix series is expected to be released on Thursday, in the middle of an ordinary week for the House of Windsor.
That day, the King will carry out two community visits, while his siblings fulfil commitments to charities ranging from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards that honour their late father.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the family will “keep calm and carry on” in the face of provocation to underline their different approach to public life.
Events are expected to include the annual white-tie diplomatic reception, which has traditionally been held at Buckingham Palace and usually brings out the Royal Family in force to honour several hundred foreign and British diplomats.
Elsewhere, the Queen Consort will invite seriously and terminally ill children to Clarence House to decorate its Christmas tree and the Prince of Wales will carry out an investiture celebrating worthy members of the public.
A palace source said: “The Royal family will be going about their business as usual. There are engagements in the diary and they will carry on with them. That’s their only focus.”
The King and his family’s attitude towards the Sussex saga has been described as one of “weariness”.
Netflix promotional material promises that members of the Sussexes’ families and their friends will take part in the show, delivering their first on-camera views on “what they witnessed”. They are not believed to include any members of the extended Royal family.
It had been thought Princess Eugenie may speak up for the couple as she is on good terms with her cousin, Prince Harry, and has visited his family in California. But The Telegraph can confirm none of the York family will take part.
The Duchess of Sussex is not on particularly good terms with members of her own family, except her mother Doria Ragland, and is estranged from her father, Thomas Markle.
The programme, called Harry & Meghan, will explain the “challenges that led to them feeling forced to step back from their full-time roles in the institution”, Netflix said.
A one-minute trailer reveals a stream of unseen photographs of the couple. The only image of the Royal family shows the Prince and Princess of Wales looking stern during a Westminster Abbey service in 2019, with the Sussexes behind them.
One picture, which flashes across the screen amid shots of photographers and newspapers rolling off the presses, suggests the programme will also focus on the history of the Royal family, the public and Commonwealth. Taken in 1938, when Queen Mary visited Brixton, it shows smartly dressed smiling black and white schoolchildren waving Union flags.
The little-known picture has previously been used to illustrate articles such as the BBC’S “the Black British history you may not know about”.
Any claims airing in the coming week may be topical, after a “race row” at Buckingham Palace led to a long-serving, senior member of staff resigning after she was accused of interrogating a British-born black visitor about where she was “really” from at a reception.
Netflix has not confirmed when the documentary will stream. It is reported that three episodes will air on Thursday and the others a week later.