'Harry & Meghan' Director Liz Garbus Says Buckingham Palace Lied To 'Discredit' Doc

The palace "said that we didn’t reach out for comment [on the docuseries] when we did," according to Garbus.
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Liz Garbus, whose recent “Harry & Meghan” docuseries chronicled Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s split from the royal family, has accused Buckingham Palace of lying about the hit Netflix show.

“Buckingham Palace said that we didn’t reach out for comment [on the docuseries] when we did,” she told Vanity Fair in an interview published Tuesday. “They did that to discredit us…and by discrediting us, they can discredit the content of the show.”

She went on to compare the palace’s purported behavior to the surreality of “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”

Garbus’ six-part doc opened with a title card that said, “Members of the Royal Family declined to comment on the content within the series.”

In December, a palace source told HuffPost that Netflix had made no attempt to speak to the royal household, Buckingham Palace or Kensington Palace, while a Netflix source insisted that the offices of Prince William and King Charles were contacted before the premiere of “Harry & Meghan” that month.

Liz Garbus said Buckingham Palace tried to "discredit the content" of her docuseries on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Liz Garbus said Buckingham Palace tried to "discredit the content" of her docuseries on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Adela Loconte via Getty Images

In any case, the royal family’s fracture was evident long before the show dropped.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex famously left the monarchy in 2020 for greener pastures in California. Harry told Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that he had felt “trapped within the system,” while Meghan said that she had experienced suicidal ideation as a royal — and faced racist concerns over their son’s skin color.

This year, Harry’s “Spare” memoir has sparked further discussions around royal family dysfunction.

“Harry & Meghan” delivered the most-viewed documentary debut in Netflix history, with 28 million households consuming the first half of the series in its first four days.

The couple at the center of the show “certainly did see this documentary, and do see it, as very much their love story,” Garbus told Vanity Fair.

“Their interest was very much in telling their love story from their point of view, as opposed to the love story as told by others, and to share their personal archive in order to have that look behind the curtain.”

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