Tabloids fume, many in UK shrug over Harry and Meghan series

LONDON (AP) — Britain's press erupted in outrage Friday at Prince Harry and Meghan's documentary series, which lambasts the U.K. media over its treatment of the royal couple.

But much of Britain reacted to the Netflix show with a shrug. Buckingham Palace had no comment, and the prime minister didn't watch.

The first three hour-long episodes of “Harry and Meghan” were released Thursday, with three more due Dec. 15. So far, the series has contained few of the bombshells the palace had feared.

In the program the couple, along with friends and Meghan's family members, recount their early lives and blossoming romance, leading up to their fairy-tale wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018, and their growing discontent with what they saw as the media's racist treatment of Meghan and a lack of support from the palace.

Harry and Meghan walked away from royal duties in early 2020 and moved to California to start a new life as campaigners, charity benefactors and media personalities.

At the heart of the show is the symbiotic and sometimes toxic relationship between Britain's royal family and the media. Each side needs the other, but both are often dissatisfied with the arrangements. Prince Harry has long railed against press intrusion that he says clouded his childhood and contributed to the death of his mother, Princess Diana. She was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by photographers.

Meghan claims in the documentary that the media wanted to “destroy” her, while Harry says his wife was subjected to a press “feeding frenzy.”

That riled British newspapers, many of which splashed their anger across front pages and editorial columns.

Some objected to claims in the series that the Commonwealth of the U.K. and its former colonies — an organization led until her death by Queen Elizabeth II — is an extension of the British Empire and its racism. The Daily Telegraph's front page accused the show of being a “direct hit” on the queen's legacy. In an editorial, the conservativeleaning Daily Mail called the show “little more than a hatchet job from start to finish.”

The tabloid Sun said the documentary was “made for an American audience — cementing their money-making potential in the US — and to hell with everything and everybody else, including the truth.”

Scotland's Daily Record said the palace was stunned by the couple's allegations, running the headline: “We are not amused.”