Royal Family Hits Back At BBC After Network Aired Documentary About Prince William & Prince Harry
After a new BBC documentary called The Princes and the Press aired this week, the palace is angry that they didn't get to see the film beforehand. Now, they are speaking out about the allegations.
"A free, responsible and open Press is of vital importance to a healthy democracy," a statement from the palace read. "However, too often overblown and unfounded claims from unnamed sources are presented as facts and it is disappointing when anyone, including the BBC, gives them credibility."
The first part of the film focused on how Harry and William dealt with the media from 2012 to 2018, in addition to how the press focused on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's relationship. At one point, it was discussed how the former actress was branded "duchess difficult" while living at the palace.
"There's been rumor for quite some time that a lot of the most damaging and negative stories about Harry and Meghan that have ended up in the pages of the press have come from other royal households or from other royal aides or courtiers and from my own reporting and research that is exactly true," Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie claimed.
Camilla Tominey, associate editor of The Daily Telegraph, added: "We were getting briefings that all was not well with the relationship between William and Harry, Meghan and Kate and the relationship between Harry and Meghan and the royal household. If you're suddenly hearing a lot of chatter about things not being well behind palace gates you sort of take it seriously because normally everything's leveled off and things are played down. You hear a little bit of chatter and then you go and investigate further and you hear more chatter, that suggests something is going down."
Earlier this year, Harry confirmed that he wasn't on the best terms with his older sibling.
"I love William to bits. He's my brother. We've been through hell together. But we are on different paths," he told Oprah Winfrey in an interview which aired on Sunday, March 7. "The relationship is space. Time heals all things, hopefully."
Now that the two don't get to see each other often — Harry lives in California, while William resides in the U.K. — there's hope they can put their differences aside one day.
"Meghan would like some show of commitment from William and Kate, even if it’s a tentative date or time frame to put in the diary for some time next year," the source claimed to Heatworld. "They haven’t had a single royal visitor since moving to America, which they know is mainly because of COVID, but now that travel restrictions between the U.S. and U.K. have been lifted, they want that to change."
