Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Trailer Scandal Echoes Oprah Winfrey Backlash

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix documentary has sparked a backlash before it has aired—this time over the portrayal of the British media in trailers, in an echo of their Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.

Docu-series Harry & Meghan will drop its first three episodes on December 8 and teasers have suggested they will tell a story of palace leaks, media intrusion, and family hierarchy, though it has already come under fire over accuracy. Newsweek has contacted representatives of the royal couple as well as Netflix for comment.

First, the streaming giant was accused of using stock images of packs of photographers to create a narrative about the couple being hounded by the media when in reality the photos had nothing to do with the royals.

Then, royal biographer Robert Jobson pointed out that a third image, which appears to show a photographer looming over the couple from a balcony as they go about their day, was in fact taken from an official "pool position" created by Kensington Palace during a royal tour of South Africa.

Pool positions allow a handful of accredited media permission to access spaces where the royal family does their jobs on the basis that they then share their images or copy with a wider group of media who were denied entry. The aim is to keep the number of photographers inside royal events limited to avoid the kind of large-scale press packs visible in the trailer.

When the actual documentary airs on Thursday, it could feature footage of Harry and Meghan being hounded by the media.

However, the saga has echoes of a scandal that engulfed Harry, Meghan, Winfrey, and CBS after it emerged headlines quoted in the royal couple's bombshell March 2021 interview had been either fabricated or wrongly attributed.

Images Used in Netflix Trailers for 'Harry & Meghan'

Jobson wrote on Twitter: "This photograph used by @Netflix and Harry and Meghan to suggest intrusion by the press is a complete travesty. It was taken from a accredited pool at Archbishop Tutu's residence in Cape Town. Only 3 people were in the accredited position. H & M agreed the position. I was there."

Jobson, author of William at 40: The Making of a Modern Monarch, told Newsweek: "I think it should be made clear these photos were not press intrusion but taken from a legitimate official pool position inside Archbishop Tutu's home. I am reserving judgment on the documentary until I've seen it."

He said he did not believe the streaming giant would issue a disclaimer to clarify the imagery but, in a nod to backlash against the fictional Netflix show The Crown, he added: "I would simply say a documentary needs a higher level of accuracy than a drama and Netflix knows this."

The dispute over the picture from South Africa came after two other images in the trailer were shown to be unrelated to Harry and Meghan.

One showed a large bank of photographers with long lenses who were in fact on the red carpet at a Harry Potter premiere in 2010, six years before the couple met. Another showed photographers outside what was actually an appearance by British former model Katie Price at the Crawley Magistrates Court, in West Sussex, U.K.

The Oprah With Meghan and Harry Fake Headlines Backlash

Harry and Meghan's Oprah Winfrey interview also became engulfed in a backlash after it emerged headlines had been attributed to U.K. newspapers that were either edited or printed by media outside the country.

Among them, an apparent mock-up of a Mail Online headline was shown in the interview which read: "'Meghan's seed will taint our Royal Family.'"

The original headline read: "'Meghan's seed will taint our Royal Family': UKIP chief's glamour model lover, 25, is suspended from the party over racist texts about Prince Harry's wife-to-be."

The broadcast version did not acknowledge the news story was quoting a woman who was condemned in the coverage as "racist" and left open the possibility the article was by a columnist.

A Mail on Sunday leader column at the time read: "The presentation on CBS contrived to suggest that we were expressing the very thing we were condemning.

"How could CBS, once the home of the greatest and most principled of all American broadcasters, Edward R. Murrow, have sunk to such depths of distortion?"

Other headlines shown were from U.S. magazines like National Inquirer or Us Weekly or Australian outlets.

CBS broadcast a headline purporting to be from The Guardian which read: "BBC's Danny Baker on comparing royal baby to a chimp."

The story was real, but The Guardian ran no such headline and its actual coverage of the saga described the broadcaster's tweet as "offensive."

ITV broadcast Oprah With Harry and Meghan in the U.K. and revised the headlines after the fact on the version of the interview that was shown on its streaming platform.

At the time, the network said in a statement: "Regarding the headlines the Mail on Sunday have drawn to our attention, we have taken steps to edit these on the ITV Hub."

Harry & Meghan streams on Netflix in two parts with three episodes each dropping on December 8 and December 15.