Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix docu-series release date revealed

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary will be released on 8 December, industry sources have claimed.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were reported to have tried to push it back to 2023 despite the streaming giant paying them a rumoured $100million (£88million) for the fly-on-the-wall series.

There have been mixed reports in the US, with Deadline insisting the show will be delayed until the new year citing bosses being ‘rattled’ and ‘blinking first’ because of the backlash over Season 5 of The Crown.

However Page Six has now revealed the documentary, which sources said was once called ‘Chapters’, will air next Thursday.

The couple’s production company, Archewell Productions, signed a reported $100million deal with the streaming giant in 2020 but there has yet to be a release.

A documentary series about the Invictus Games has been confirmed. Meghan’s planned animated children’s series was scrapped as part of wider Netflix cutbacks.

It had previously been rumoured that the Duke and Duchess were planning a fly-on-the-wall documentary series, in the style of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. 

They have been filming the Netflix documentary for more than a year after signing a widely reported $100million deal with the streaming service.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were reported to have tried to push it back to 2023 despite the streaming giant paying them a rumoured $100million (£88million) for the fly-on-the-wall series 

Harry and Meghan had been working on the series as part of their rumoured $100 million (£88million) deal with the beleaguered streaming giant. But there has been toing and froing over when it will be released

They have been spotted with a film crew at a number of engagements, including the Invictus Games earlier this year. The filming is believed to have taken place for their confirmed docu-series Heart of Invictus.

Even before it’s release, the show has made waves on both sides of the Atlantic and it is expected to cause fresh turmoil for the Royal Family. Harry also has his memoirs, named ‘Spare’, on the way. 

Royal experts claim these two bombshell projects have prevented any reconciliation with King Charles or Prince William.

This summer, Meghan hinted that the documentary  could focus on their ‘love story’.

Speaking in an interview with The Cut, the Duchess said her five-year-long romance with Prince Harry is one of the ‘pieces of her life’ that she has not yet been able to share with the public.

The Duchess continued: ‘The piece of my life I haven’t been able to share, that people haven’t been able to see, is our love story.’ 

But after the Queen’s death the Sussexes were said to have wanted to ‘downplay much of what they have said about Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales’ in their documentary series, according to a previous report.

It was reported how the Duke and Duchess were ‘at odds’ with the production staff on their Netflix docuseries because the ‘panicked’ couple wanted to make ‘such extensive edits’ that the team believe the project could be ‘shelved indefinitely’. 

One Hollywood industry source said the couple were facing doubts about the series following the Queen’s death.

They said: ‘A lot of conversations are happening. I hear that Harry and Meghan want the series to be held until next year, they want to stall.

‘I wonder if the show could even be dead in the water at this point, do Harry and Meghan just want to shelve this thing?,’ they added.

A Netflix insider also claimed: ‘Netflix has been keen to have the show ready to stream for December. There’s a lot of pressure on (Netflix CEO) Ted Sarandos, who has the relationship with Harry and Meghan, to get this show finished.’

However the source added that the streaming platform was ‘standing by the filmmakers’ who want to keep the content in the project, and that it will still be ‘going forward.’ 

Insiders reportedly told US website Page Six earlier this year that the couple were ‘having second thoughts’ on the project.

‘Harry and Meghan are panicked about trying to tone down even the most basic language. 

‘But it’s their story, from their own mouths,’ one Netflix source told the website last month.

Another said: ‘They’ve made significant requests to walk back content they themselves have provided’.

And Prince Harry faced claims that he was trying to get Netflix to postpone his controversial fly-on-the-wall documentary until after Christmas so it was released at around the same time as his bombshell memoir. 

Hollywood news website Deadline previously said that ‘rattled’ Netflix bosses ‘blinked first’ and decided to push back the original December release date after the US company came under heavy criticism over its bombshell fifth series of royal drama The Crown.

It was then claimed that Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions were driving efforts to delay the docuseries, following claims the couple want to make ‘extensive cuts’ to the programme. 

Meghan even appeared to distance herself and Harry from their upcoming and controversial Netflix documentary around a month after Her Majesty’s death. 

The Duchess of Sussex suggested that its direction is now in the hands of Left-leaning filmmaker Liz Garbus ‘even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it’.

She said in a magazine interview: ‘It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story — a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired — even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it. But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.

‘It’s interesting. My husband has never worked in this industry before. 

‘For me, having worked on Suits, it’s so amazing to be around so much creative energy and to see how people work together and share their own points of view. That’s been really fun.’

Garbus, who was also due to work on the Duchess’ series Pearl before it was scrapped by Netflix, is a documentarian and filmmaker and also helmed the last season of The Handmaid’s Tale, which earned her an Emmy nomination in 2021.

The TV drama is an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel, which became an instant feminist classic following the story of a woman named Offred, who is forced to live as ‘handmaid’ producing children against her will in a totalitarian North America.

Garbus has been involved in a host of other TV and film projects about oppressed women, notably including Girlhood, which follows two female inmates – victims of horrific violence and tragedy – who are serving time in a juvenile detention centre.

She has also had control over a documentary about the life and legend of singer, pianist and civil rights activist Nina Simone as well as a film called Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech.

Meanwhile the director’s Instagram page is openly political, with recent posts urging for women’s abortion rights and comments about ‘brilliant’ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

It comes after a new biography revealed the remarkable way the Queen welcomed Meghan into the Royal Family – despite her concerns that Prince Harry was ‘perhaps a little over-in-love’ with his new partner.

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, a close and trusted confidant of the senior Royals, has disclosed in unprecedented detail how the Queen was genuinely delighted with her beloved grandson’s choice of wife, and had high hopes for the contribution she could make to public life.

But if her cordial generosity towards her future granddaughter-in-law made the Sussexes’ subsequent decision to turn their back on the UK and their Royal duties any more painful, Her Majesty did not display it. The ever-pragmatic monarch was even sanguine about the bombshell interview the couple gave to Oprah Winfrey, expressing more concern about Harry’s wellbeing than what she dismissed as ‘this television nonsense’.

The extraordinarily well-sourced insight comes in an extract from Mr Brandreth’s fascinating new book, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, published exclusively in The Mail on Sunday today.

It follows revelations in yesterday’s Daily Mail that the Queen found solace watching Line Of Duty after Prince Philip’s death and that she reluctantly accepted she would have to cut down her punishing schedule as she became increasingly frail in her later months. 

It comes after The Mail on Sunday reported that Harry launched a last-minute bid to tone down his bombshell autobiography amid fears his final draft ‘might not go down too well’ in the wake of the Queen’s death.

The memoirs had been signed off ready for an expected autumn release, but the Duke – who is writing the book as part of a near £40million three-title deal – has asked to make some significant alterations.

His request may be seen as a sign that he is ready to take a more conciliatory approach to the rest of the Royal Family, but could cause problems for his publishers.

‘Harry has thrown a spanner in the works,’ a source said. ‘He is keen for refinements in the light of the Queen’s death, her funeral and his father Charles taking the throne.

‘There may be things in the book which might not look so good if they come out so soon after these events. He wants sections changed now. It’s not a total rewrite by any means. He desperately wants to make changes. But it might be too late.’

Publishing sources suggested that the Duke might have limited ‘wriggle room’ given he was handed a seven-figure advance.

Publishers Penguin Random House had already demanded a rewrite after the first draft was deemed ‘too touchy-feely’ and placed too much focus on mental health issues, The Mail on Sunday understands.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for comment.