Harry and Meghan are to blame for 'civil war', says Queen's chaplain
RICHARD EDEN: Sussexes are to blame for ‘civil war’: Queen’s chaplain says Harry and Meghan are the ones who have launched hostilities as he admits Royal Family should be deeply concerned about Netflix docu-series
- Former chaplain’s said Prince Harry and Meghan are to blame for the ‘civil war’
- Dr Gavin Ashenden said Royals should be deeply concerned about ‘docu-series’
- In trailer, Harry and Meghan’s lawyer talks about ‘war’ being waged against them
One of the Queen’s chaplains has said that Prince Harry and Meghan are to blame for the ‘civil war’ in the Royal Family after they launched hostilities.
Dr Gavin Ashenden, who was a chaplain to Her Late Majesty for nine years until 2017, said that the Royal Family should be deeply concerned about the ‘docu-series’.
In the new trailer for the couple’s Netflix reality show Harry and Meghan’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, talks about a ‘war’ being waged against her clients.
However, Dr Ashenden believes it was the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who started the hostile environment among the senior royals.
‘I’m afraid they have to be very worried,’ Dr Ashenden said. ‘Meghan and Harry have created a kind of existential civil war and there’s no doubt at all they’re capable of landing severe damage on the Royal Family, partly because they’re fitting in with a certain social mind set, and society is divided into two halves, a reactionary and a progressive half.
One of the Queen’s former chaplain’s has said that Prince Harry and Meghan are to blame for the ‘civil war’ in the Royal Family
Dr Ashenden (pictured) believes it was the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who have launched hostilities
Harry and Meghan’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, talks about a ‘war’ being waged against her clients
Meghan wipes away tears in a clip included in the Netflix trailer for their ‘docu-series’
Dr Ashenden said that the Royal Family should be deeply concerned about the ‘docu-series’
‘The progressive half will support them without thinking, and the reactionary half, the conservative half, if I can call it that, has no protection against them.
‘It would be much better if this civil war wasn’t happening, but it is, and it will cause damage all round.’
Dr Ashenden, 68, resigned as chaplain to the Queen after criticising a service at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, at which a Muslim student had been invited to read, in Arabic, a passage from the Koran that explicitly declared that Jesus is not the Son of God.
‘The [royal family] have to ignore it and pretend it’s not happening,’ he said on LBC. ‘Given the position they hold in society, they don’t have a mandate to attack.’
Royal experts today described the incendiary series as ‘an amazing act of revenge’ that will ‘widen the rift’ with Prince William and weaken the very institution he will inherit when he becomes King.
In a new-one minute preview, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex lash out at the ‘hierarchy of the family’, claim insiders ‘leaked and planted’ stories about them, describe royal life as a ‘dirty game’, then – after footage of Princess Diana and Kate being hounded by photographers – talk about ‘the pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution’.
The teaser will no doubt horrify courtiers bracing for further allegations that are likely to widen the rift between the Sussexes and the Waleses.
Speaking to MailOnline, royal author Richard Fitzwilliams speculated that the effects of the Netflix docuseries will be felt for years to come. ‘This is a full frontal, extremely destructive attack on the Royal Family – the institution as well as members of those households,’ he said.
He said: ‘I think this will widen the rift between the brothers. There is no doubt that this Netflix series is an amazing act of revenge designed to weaken the very institution that William will inherit as future King. Of course everyone will be asking how King Charles will react to this in the short-term, but the effects of this will be felt in years to come. That’s the whole point.
‘This is a full frontal, extremely destructive attack on the Royal Family – the institution as well as individual households and members of those households. This series I suspect will greatly weaken the royals in the eyes of the world, especially among young people.’
The late Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter called the series ‘one long whinge’, adding: ‘I think that William and Kate will watch this trailer and think to themselves, ”oh God, here we go again”.
‘This is just one long whinge, and for what? Harry says he’s doing this to protect his family – protect them from what? Meghan says if we only knew what happened behind closed doors – why should we? What exactly is it that they have to say which we haven’t heard before?’.
During the teaser, a friend is heard claiming that the couple’s experience has been ‘about hatred, about race’ as a strikingly intimate and previously unseen clip flashes up of an exasperated Harry holding a hand to his face as Meghan passes behind him while heavily pregnant with their daughter, Lili.
After a series of clips of photographers and newspapers being printed, Meghan says, ‘I realised, they’re never going to protect you’ before she is seen once again crying. Harry then adds, ‘I was terrified, I didn’t want history to repeat itself.’
Royal experts are rounding on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after their latest Netflix documentary trailer used a picture taken during an approved photo opp in South Africa was used to suggest intrusion from the press.
Just days after an image in the first teaser was revealed to be a scrum of photographers at a Harry Potter premier and another dated from when Harry was dating Chelsy Davy, it’s now emerged that parts of the second advert also aren’t as they seem.
Today’s trailer included this image of Meghan and Harry shortly before their lawyer referred to a ‘war against Meghan’ involving the media. Royal correspondent Robert Jobson today claimed it was taken by a photographer who had been given permission to stand there
Echoing the point, ITV royal editor Chris Ship added: ‘Here Robert Jobson makes a valid point. The filming of Archie at Archbishop Tutu’s residence was highly controlled’
In a subsequent tweet showing a photo of Harry and Meghan alongside Archbishop Tutu with their baby Archie, Mr Jobson refuted claims of intrusion
NETFLIX: A brief clip from the latest trailer shows a group of photographers rushing towards a concrete building as Harry says ‘I was terrified, I didn’t want history to repeat itself’
REALITY: The footage in fact shows former glamour model Katie Price arriving at Crawley magistrates court to be sentenced for drink driving
Prince Harry blasts ‘pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution’ – over footage of Kate facing a ‘feeding frenzy’ of photographers
By Lydia Hawken for MailOnline
Prince Harry has blasted the ‘pain and suffering of women marrying into the institution’ in the latest trailer for his new Netflix series.
This afternoon, the streaming platform has released a second trailer for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new series and confirmed the first episodes of the television special will debut on Thursday.
In a clip from the series, the father-of-two discusses how life within the firm can be a ‘dirty game’.
As Prince Harry muses on his experience as a senior working royal, the trailer jumps to an undated clip of Princess Diana at a royal engagement where she faces the world’s press.
The new Netlix trailer used video footage of the Princess of Wales (pictured in 2007) outside her home in Chelsea before marrying into the Royal Family
As the video flashes up on screen, Harry comments: ‘The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution, this feeding frenzy. No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth.’
Producers then used a split-second clip of the Princess of Wales outside her flat in Chelsea in 2007.
The future royal – who was working as an accessories buyer at fashion brand Jigsaw at the time – is seen walking along the street outside her home while being surrounded by photographers.
The then 25-year-old had been in a relationship with Prince William for seven years at the time the video footage was taken.
It includes one photograph showing a photographer taking a snap of Harry and Meghan from a balcony said to have actually been taken by ‘an accredited pool’ at Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s residence in South Africa.
Royal correspondent Robert Jobson tweeted: ‘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.’
Echoing the point, ITV royal editor Chris Ship added: ‘Here Robert Jobson makes a valid point. The filming of Archie at Archbishop Tutu’s residence was highly controlled.
‘And the ITN Productions camera filming the Sussexes’ Africa documentary was there with their permission. It was not a media scrum. They spoke to Tom Bradby inside.’
In a subsequent tweet showing a photo of Harry and Meghan alongside Archbishop Tutu with their baby Archie, Mr Jobson said: ‘This shot by me from the same accredited pool position on my iPhone was taken at Archbishop Tutu’s Cape Town residence.
‘There was no intrusion. I was part of a 3 person UK palace pool. Nobody else was allowed in and we shared the words and photos with the UK Media.’
A brief clip from the latest trailer today also shows a group of photographers rushing towards a concrete building which is clearly identifiable as Crawley Magistrates Court – where former glamour model Ms Price appeared last December to be sentenced for drink driving. ‘I was terrified – I didn’t want history to repeat itself,’ Harry says as the footage is played.
Another piece of video shows photographers huddling around a car as Meghan says – referring to the royal household – ‘I realised they are never going to protect you’. It then cuts to an image of Meghan dabbing her eyes, seemingly in tears.
But rather than showing the Sussexes being hounded, the footage is in fact of Mr Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, leaving his New York apartment in 2019 to serve time in prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. MailOnline has contacted Netflix for comment.
Today the streaming giant confirmed volume one will launch on December 8 – exactly three months after the death of Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II – while the second volume will be released on December 15 – clashing with the Princess of Wales’ carol service.
The teaser opens with a scene of Harry and Meghan in a car, seemingly in America, as the duke says: ‘It’s really hard to look back on it now and go ”what on earth happened?”
As videos play of the couple announcing their engagement and their wedding in 2018, a news clip voiceover by Piers Morgan says: ‘She’s becoming a royal rock star’.
NETFLIX: Another piece of footage shows a scrum of photographers forming around a car as Meghan says – referring to the royal household – ‘I realised they are never going to protect you’. It then cuts to an image of Meghan in tears
REALITY: But rather than showing the Sussexes being hounded, the footage is in fact of Mr Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, leaving his New York apartment in 2019 to serve time in prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress
NETFLIX: This photo of a casually dressed Prince Harry featured in an image montage in the bombshell Netflix trailer last week
REALITY: The picture was actually taken in September 2007 when Prince Harry met his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davey at Heathrow Airport. Netflix cropped out Chelsey and appear to have added a filter to emphasise the flash photography
NETFLIX: Another photograph that was used in the first Harry and Meghan’s Netflix trailer released earlier this week
REALITY: But rather than showing photographers fighting for space to snap Harry and Meghan, the image is actually from a Harry Pottery premiere
Another scene plays of the Sussexes on a royal walkabout as a member of the public shouts ‘Meghan, we love you!’
It cuts to Meghan saying ‘and then’ before snapping her fingers with Harry adding: ‘Everything changed’.
A photo of the Royal Family at the Trooping the Colour in 2019 is shown – including William, Catherine, Charles and Camilla – while Harry narrates: ‘There’s a hierarchy of the family, you know, there’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories. It’s a dirty game.’
The couple’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, tells the camera: ‘There was a war against Meghan to support other people’s agendas’ before Christopher Bouzy, a tech entrepreneur and a longtime supporter of the couple, says, ‘it’s about hatred, it’s about race’.
Clips of paparazzi photographing the couple are then paralleled alongside old footage of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, being followed by the media.
The duchess then says: ‘I realised they’re never going to protect you’ and Harry adds, ‘I was terrified, I didn’t want history to repeat itself.’
Finally, Harry appears in a selfie video as he says, ‘No one knows the full truth – we know the full truth’ and the trailer ends.
The docuseries will debut on Thursday, Netflix confirmed today.
Source: Read Full Article