Controversy has plagued the royal family throughout the past few years as American actress Meghan Markel entered the scene when she married Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson. The Dutch and Dutchess encountered various issues that no royal couple has had to deal with before, leading to their decision to leave the family in Jan. 2020. The couple received a lot of hate following this decision, but they agreed to share their side of the story in the “Harry & Meghan” documentary. 

“I think it was the right decision for them to leave the family, and they should do whatever they need to keep their privacy. As I watched the show, I think that the British tabloids do not have any respect for the royalty and their privacy, which is really sad,” Alexis Cua, sophomore, said. 

This series opened with both Harry and Meghan detailing their childhood experiences so viewers could better understand how their thoughts and actions were influenced by past trauma. When Harry was young, his mom died in a car crash while running from the paparazzi, and now, he has very negative feelings towards them. Meghan’s parents got divorced when she was young, and she lived with her mom, who received many racial slurs and comments about how Meghan was adopted because her complexion was lighter than her mother’s. 

“I think it was very eye-opening to see how different their childhoods were, with Meghan  coming from a low-income family and Harry coming from the royal family. Also, the things Harry went through, even though the royal family is so perfect, is shocking,” Megan Busbee, junior, said. 

The couple went on to tell their love story: how they met, fell in love, and got married. They shared how they made it through the dating stage while living in different countries, maintaining a long distance relationship. The two also explained how they dated in secret for a while, so they could get to know each other without the press getting in the way. Meghan would come to England and secretly stay on private royal property. Some say they lived a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ relationship. Harry had the desire for them to date in secret because the media had run many of his other girlfriends away. 

“I was terrified of her being driven away by the media. The same media who had driven so many people away from me,” Harry said. 

The couple lived together with the royal family in England, but after some time, the Dutchess of Sussex felt the continuous strain that came from marrying into the monarchy. She claimed she was put down for being mixed race while showcased as an English royal. This became one part of the increasingly negative treatment Harry and Meghan suffered from living in The Buckingham Palace that eventually led them to depart from England. 

“I think we should view [the couple leaving the royal family] as inspirational and be proud of them. Leaving such a prestigious and powerful family must have been incredibly difficult and required a lot of strength,” Priscilla Dice, senior, said. 

To learn more about the real reasons that the couple left the royal family, one can stream this one-of-a-kind, ‘Harry & Meghan’ documentary on Netflix.