Prince Harry and Meghan's Digs at Kate May Backfire

Kate Middleton's silence on the royal rift shows "real strength," a PR expert told Newsweek as the palace awaits the second part of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix documentary.

Trailers for Harry & Meghan released at the start of December suggested the series would turn the spotlight on the new Princess of Wales: a shot of Meghan crying cut to a shot of Kate while breaking glass could be heard in the background.

The first three episodes did not level major accusations at Prince Harry's sister-in-law, but they also did not cover the period that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey had marked a turning point in their lives.

And those early episodes did suggest that Kate is not a "hugger," and that the first meeting between the two princesses may have been awkward.

"When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner. I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot," Meghan said. "I was a hugger. I've always been a hugger, I didn't realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."

Episodes 4 to 6 will be released on December 15, when the royal family will discover whether the series as a whole reflects the trailers.

Whatever is said about Kate in Part II of Harry & Meghan, U.K.-based PR expert Edward Coram James said the princess's silence had worked well and she should not switch tactics now.

Coram James, chief executive of Go Up, told Newsweek: "When a senior royal is making a comment, that is basically them panicking. There would have to be something truly monumental coming out of the next few episodes that might prompt her to make a strong denial. But even then it would have to be through the palace press office and not herself."

The royal family has not always remained silent. Days after Harry and Meghan's interview with Winfrey, during which they made allegations of racism against an unnamed family member, Prince William took the rare step of answering a question shouted by a TV reporter while he was visiting a school.

William told Sky News in March 2021: "We are very much not a racist family."

Coram James said this had been an error: "From a purely reputational point of view, when William said, 'We're not racist,' I thought that was a major blunder [from] him and his PR team. In a crisis, any famous person or famous brand, you'd expect them to give a statement and if they didn't give a statement you'd expect them to be slaughtered for it.

"For the royals, they've managed to flip that on its head," he said. "The expectation is they'll stay silent. By remaining silent, there's a real strength in that. Not only does it give the impression of rising above the fray, it also gives the impression of just being the grown-ups in the room while at the same time not confirming or denying the allegations."

Ingrid Seward, the author of Prince Philip Revealed, suggested that William might be the easier target if Part II of the Netflix documentary does make new allegations about the royal family.

She told Newsweek: "Kate's been really careful. She's been very, very careful. They can attack William. That's the thing.

"I think people will side with William and Kate. You don't really want to get involved in the mess of Harry and Meghan."

Part I of Harry & Meghan explored the couple's early relationship and their experiences with the media, including Harry's during childhood.

He said: "I don't have many early memories of my mum. It was almost like, internally, I sort of blocked them out. But I always remember her laugh, her cheeky laugh, her always saying to me 'You can get in trouble—just don't get caught'.

"I'll always be that cheeky person inside."

The duke added: "The majority of my memories are of being swarmed by paparazzi."

In the March 2021 interview with Winfrey, Prince Harry said his family had been initially welcoming of Meghan but this had changed after the couple's tour of Australia and the South Pacific in October 2018, five months after their wedding.

During that interview, which aired on CBS, Meghan pointed to newspaper articles published in November 2018, which accused her of making Kate cry. Those reports had been a turning point, she said.

The duchess told Winfrey: "After we had gotten back from our Australia tour…and we talked about when things really started to turn when I knew we weren't being protected. And it was during that part of my pregnancy, especially, that I started to understand what our continued reality was going to look like."

Part I of the Netflix series did not cover that period in the couple's life, so any discussion of this turning point would have to be in Part II.

Coram James said Part I was well executed, but Netflix would not be likely to hold back major bombshells for Part II. He added that Harry and Meghan's reputations could suffer if they did not provide new material.

"To be honest with you, they've already run out of road. I've been surprised by the lack of any alternative PR strategy because they've had quite a long time now to figure this out," he said. "The only thing that seems to be gaining any traction whatsoever is the same story that everyone's been hearing for the past two-and-a-half years.

"This line of 'We finally get to tell our side of the story,' they've been telling their story for two-and-a-half years now."

He added: "The thing that struck me most watching it was there was a heavy insinuation coming from Netflix and the Sussex camp that there was going to be some explosive new material. Something no one had ever heard.

"That's why they gained so much for saying nothing. They doubled the premiere viewership of The Crown. They did that because people were promised explosive material, but there was nothing explosive."

Update 12/15/22, 9 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a quote about Kate Middleton from "Harry & Meghan."