Within minutes of the trailer for Harry & Meghan hitting the internet, every frame had been dissected by eagle-eyed viewers. A new one is out today, which you can watch here, but the teaser is still making headlines as people pick apart one particular moment: the Kate Middleton stare.
‘No one see’s what’s happening behind closed doors,’ Harry is heard saying, 25 seconds in. Immediately, it cuts to a still of Meghan sat behind William and Kate at church with a sharp sound of glass cracking – Kate’s face is the most in focus, staring sternly at the camera. With slick editing and dramatic music, it naturally leads to the assumption that Kate and William will be repositioned in the documentary as the villains of Harry and Meghan’s story – at least that’s what many have concluded online.
It's worth noting here that without watching the documentary in full, one cannot possibly assume Harry and Meghan intend to frame any particular royal in any way, nor what bombshells about the Fab Four’s fall-out will be dropped – but we can certainly assume that Netflix editors will do a stellar job of making them seem as dramatic as possible. Worth noting indeed, because after some further digging, other pictures from the same day this one was taken show an amicable Fab Four – hugging and kissing including.
The photograph in question is from the March 2019 Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, where the Queen and guests from across the 53 countries of the British Commonwealth were in attendance. It was a notable event for the tabloids because it was one of the first times Meghan and Kate had been seen together since rumours of their feud first began. To the tabloids surprise – and disappointment, most likely – the pair were seen hugging and even planted a kiss on each other’s cheek’s, leading The Sun to conclude that they had ‘made up’. As far as royal statements go, it was a powerful display of unity between Kate and Meghan, following months of spiralling gossip about their relationship.
In case you’ve forgotten, in late 2018 tabloid rumours began swirling that the duo was no longer amicable after Meghan had caused Kate to cry during intense wedding preparations, allegedly due to ‘strict demands’ about the flower girl dresses. Meghan later told Oprah Winfrey in her and Harry’s tell-all interview that it was actually the other way round.
‘No,’ Meghan said when asked if she had made Kate cry. ‘No, no, the reverse happened. And I don’t say that to be disparaging to anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding, and she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised, and she brought me flowers and a note apologising and she did what I would do if I knew that I had hurt someone. To just take accountability for it.’
Meghan then explained that she had wanted the story corrected in the press, not necessarily to say it happened in reverse but to at least deny that Meghan ever made Kate cry, but no such denial ever came.
It makes sense then that pictures from the Commonwealth Day Service would be included in the documentary, which judging by the most recent trailer seeks to explain how certain stories were leaked and planted purposely to set a certain agenda about Meghan and Harry. Perhaps were meant to assume that the make-up wasn’t quite so smooth as we were led to believe on that Commonwealth Day, or perhaps it just speaks to that period of time were stories that damaged Meghan’s reputation was coming thick and fast regardless of the truth – and without important corrections from the Royal Family.
Certainly, dramatic edit or not, it looks like we’re going to find out a lot more about what really went on behind the scenes of the Meghan-bashing months.