Candace Owens Likens Meghan Markle to Martin Bashir Over Netflix Docuseries

Candace Owens compared Meghan Markle to controversial former journalist Martin Bashir over her and Prince Harry's newly released Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.

With the final three of their six-episode documentary set to debut on December 15, the couple will be expected to share more about their decision to step down from their roles as senior royals and relocate to Meghan's native California.

While the first three episodes, which debuted last week, have seen the couple criticize the royal family, it is expected that they may ramp up their attacks on the institution, thanks to the release of a trailer on Monday.

"I wonder what would have happened to us if we hadn't got out when we did. I said, 'We need to get out of here," Harry said in the teaser, before claiming that he was treated differently from his elder brother, Prince William.

One of the most incendiary parts of the trailer comes as clips of negative press coverage of Harry and Meghan are shown before a photograph of Buckingham Palace appears on screen, with Harry delivering the line: "They were happy to lie to protect my brother but were never willing to tell the truth to protect us."

What lies the prince could be referring to aren't explored in the trailer, but it sparked outrage from British media personality Piers Morgan, who is a frequent critic of the couple.

"Imagine being the Royal Family still grieving the loss of your great Matriarch just a few weeks ago, and now having to endure two relatives who deserted royal duty & Britain for riches in America, publicly trashing you as racists & liars week after week?" Morgan tweeted on Monday. "It's so disgusting."

Weighing in on the matter, conservative commentator Owens responded to Morgan's tweet: "Manipulating a royal to trash talk his/her own family for television views—This is why I refer to Meghan as Markle Bashir."

This is not the first time that Owens has weighed in with her opinion on the series. Last week, she accused Meghan of using Harry's "very real childhood trauma to mentally abuse him."

On Thursday, United Kingdom-based journalist Kirsty McCormack tweeted her sympathy for Harry as she wrote: "If you watch the first episode of #HarryandMeghanNetflix and feel nothing for Harry and his situation, then you have a heart of stone. He lost his mother at the age of 12, no wonder he is so protective of Meghan and his kids. Just heartbreaking."

Owens, who has been critical of Meghan in the past, shared a different take on the post, writing in a quote tweet: "I feel extreme compassion for Harry who is with a woman that is so manipulative that she has convinced him that she is Princess Diana reincarnated.

"It is disturbing to watch this Freudian transfer. Meghan is using Harry's very real childhood trauma to mentally abuse him."

In the docuseries, Harry gave his own take on Diana's famous 1995 interview with BBC Panorama, obtained by journalist Martin Bashir after he used falsified financial documents to make it look like her staff was against her.

Harry said: "She felt compelled to talk about it. Especially in that Panorama interview. I think we all now know that she was deceived into giving the interview but at the same time she spoke the truth of her experience."

His words are markedly different from William's assessment of the same tell-all.

In May 2021, William said in a statement: "It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents' relationship worse and has since hurt countless others."

He added: "It is my firm view that this Panorama program holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again. It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialized by the BBC and others. This settled narrative now needs to be addressed by the BBC and anyone else who has written or intends to write about these events."

Bashir rose to prominence when he interviewed Princess Diana, who made the memorable statement "there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," in reference to her then-husband King Charles III's relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles

Since the interview—titled An Interview with HRH The Princess of Wales—aired it has been subject to much controversy for its content and the way journalist Bashir obtained access to Diana, which was later found to be through false statements and documents.

The BBC apologized to Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, and her sons, William and Harry. An apology was also issued to Prince William's nanny, Alexandra Pettifer (formerly known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke), who fell subject to false rumors following the airing of the interview.

Those rumors had allegedly been started by Bashir in order to secure an interview with Diana, according to a report in The Telegraph.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Bashir said he "never wanted to harm" Diana, adding "I don't believe we did."

"Everything we did in terms of the interview was as she wanted, from when she wanted to alert the palace, to when it was broadcast, to its contents," Bashir said.

On having shown her brother, Earl Spencer, forged bank statements he said: "Obviously I regret it, it was wrong. But it had no bearing on anything. It had no bearing on [Diana], it had no bearing on the interview."

A BBC spokesperson told Newsweek: "As we have said before, the BBC will never show the program again; nor will we license it in whole or in part to other broadcasters—the decision to portray the interview is a matter for Netflix."