Harry and Meghan Netflix series: All the updates you need, right here

Prince Harry said that media claims Meghan Markle broke protocol when she joined the royal family were often fabricated.

One small revelation from the first half of the Harry & Meghan docuseries released is that the couple initially encountered each other for the first time on Instagram. In an interview with the BBC in 2017 to mark their engagement, the couple explained how they met the previous year, with Prince Harry stating that they were introduced by a mutual friend and it was "a blind date for sure".

Prince William will be "furious" after footage from Princess Diana's infamous Panorama interview has been shown in Harry and Meghan's Netflix docuseries, The Mirror reported. 

"He (William) will be rightly furious about it. “He couldn't have been clearer in the past and this is one thing he would have thought he and Harry were aligned on. Sadly once more it shows the gulf between the two brothers couldn't be wider,” the report said. 

Speaking about the press coverage of Meghan Markle's background, her mother Doria Ragland said paparazzi would take pictures of deprived neighbourhoods in Los Angeles.

Doria Ragland said, "They would take pictures of different parts of say Skid Row and say that is where I lived and that is where she was from."

"It was horrible," Meghan said.

"But I continued to hold the line. Say nothing."

Prince Harry praised his mother, Diana, for her efforts to “protect” him and his brother from the media.

“My mum did such a good job in trying to protect us. She took it upon herself to basically confront these people.”

Prince Harry said he was “terrified” that Meghan would be “driven away by the media”.

“The same media that had driven so many different people away from me. I knew that the only way that this could possibly work was by keeping it quiet for as long as possible," Prince Harry said.

Meghan claimed her elder half-sister Samantha Markle exaggerated the extent of their relationship.

"The UK media, I truly believe, wanted my mum's side of my family to be the ones that all this drama could be stirred up with and they just had my mum who is classy and quiet, and then you have the other side of my family that is just acting differently. My half-sister, who I hadn't seen for over a decade, and that was only for a day and a half, suddenly it felt like she was everywhere. I don't know your middle name, I don't know your birthday. You are telling these people that you raised me and you are calling me Princess Pushy?", Meghan Markle said. 

“We didn't have a closeness to be able to have (one) - and I wanted a sister,” Meghan Markle said. 

Neither Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace or any member of the royal family were approached for comment over the content of the series, The Mirror reported. 

It comes despite a notice in the first few seconds of the series stating that royal family members "declined to comment".

King Charles has been seen at a reception in central London as the royal family appears to be carrying on with business as usual, despite Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's documentary airing. 

Daily Express' royal correspondent, Richard Palmer, who was in attendance, said: "The King was asked if he’d seen Harry and Meghan’s Netflix programmes and, predictably, sidestepped the question."

Prince Harry said wearing a Nazi uniform was the "biggest mistake of his life" as the duke referred to his decision to go to a private fancy dress party in 2005 in the guise of a Nazi soldier from the Afrika Korps complete with swastika emblazoned on his arm. 

“It was probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I felt so ashamed afterwards. All I wanted to do was make it right. I spoke to the Chief Rabbi in London, which had a profound impact on me, I went to Berlin and spoke to holocaust survivors. . . I learned from that,” Prince Harry said. 

While dicsussing Meghan Markle's first meeting with his family, Prince Harry recalled that they were "incredibly impressed."

“I think they were surprised, maybe surprised that a ginger could land such a beautiful woman,” Prince Harry said. 

He added that the fact that he was dating an American actress was probably what "clouded their judgement more than anything else in the beginning."

Prince Harry says, "My son, my daughter, my children are mixed race, and I’m really proud of that.

Meghan Markle talked about her old website The Tig, which she says "became a really successful business". The Tig featured "fashion, tonnes of food, and travel, all the things that I loved," Meghan Markle said.

She discussed writing op-eds about "self worth, being bi-racial, and volunteer work", and friends recalled how her focus was gradually becoming activism. 

“That's what I was excited about. I wasn't trying to find the great indie film that's going to get me an Oscar. No, I just wanted to go and volunteer,” Meghan Markle said. 

The episode moves on to the whole story of how Harry proposed. This has already been elsewhere, so we won't drag you through it again, but long story short, Meghan said yes.

Prince Harry said he had to "wear two hats" after the death of his mother.

"One was two grieving sons... two was the royal hat: show no emotion, get out there, meet the people and shake their hands," he said.

Prince Harry spoke about women in the royal family and said he had learnt "the pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution".

“I remember thinking how can I ever find someone who is willing and capable to be able to withstand all the baggage that comes with being with me,” he said. 

"I wanted to do it earlier but I had to ask permission from my grandmother," says Prince Harry. 

"I couldn't do it outside of the UK. I did buy a bottle of champagne while she was roasting a chicken, which slightly gave the game away," he said. 

Meghan Markle laughs: "It was a magnum."

Meghan Markle said, “I rarely wore colour - there was thought in that. To my understanding, you can't ever wear the same colour as Her Majesty if there's a group event. But then you can't wear the same colour as one of the more senior members of the family. So I was like, 'well, what'a a colour that they'll probably never wear? Camel, beige, white?'”

“So I wore a lot of muted tones, but it was also so I could blend in, like I am not trying to stand out here. There is no version of me joining this family and trying to not do everything I could to fit in. I don’t want to embarrass the family,” Meghan Markle added. 

Biographer Robert Jobson wrote: "Prince Harry has used footage from Diana Panorama interview in Netflix documentary.

"Prince William said after Dyson report that it should not be aired again. Harry said, 'The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation & unethical practices ultimately took her life.'"

"I had my two dogs, it was great, easy, low key, we'd go for hikes and walks, go to set, I loved my job." Meghan Markle said. 

"Meghan had a beautiful life before everything exploded," a friend of hers said. 

“It really did take a dark turn quickly. It started feeling a little bit dangerous... I don't think anyone knew how to manage that new normal,” Meghan Markle said. 

Prince Harry described how members of the royal family had asked him why his wife should be "treated differently".

"What people need to understand is as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they've been put through as well. So it was almost like a rite of passage. And some members of the family were like “my wife had to through that so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently, why should you get special treatment, why should she be protected? And I said the difference here is the race element',” Prince Harry said. 

Meghan Markle says, "At that time, I wasn't thinking about how race played a part in any of this. I genuinely didn't think about it." There is some discussion of a famous Daily Mail headline from the time, which read: “Harry's girlfriend is (almost) straight outta Compton.”

Then, Prince Harry says: "As far as the [Royal] family was concerned, everything that she was being put through, they had been put through as well."

"So it was almost like a rite of passage," Prince Harry continues. "And some of the members of the family said 'Right, but my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently?'", he added. 

Meghan Markle discovered her dad wasn't going to attend her wedding 'through a tabloid', she claimed in the series Harry and Meghan that released on Netflix. In the third episode, Meghan Markle said she discovered her father Thomas Markle wasn't going to attend her wedding "through a tabloid".

Meghan Markle spoke about her estranged father while reflecting on the immediate lead up to her wedding on May 19, 2018.

Meghan Markle spoke about joining the royal family, the protocols and how she came to learn the British national anthem along with Prince Harry in the couple's new Netflix series. Read more

The key theme is media intrusion with both Meghan Markle and Prince Harry emotionally talking about the effect that media attention has had on their lives - both as individuals and as a couple.

Meghan Markle has talked about the difficulties of joining the royal family, citing a challenging first meeting with Prince William and Kate Middleton, as well as feeling awkward about the formality of meeting the Queen for the first time.

Prince Harry has spoken about the rigidity of being a senior royal.

The documentary has also revealed rare footage of the couple's son, Archie, playing happily and talking to his parents.