Harry and Meghan Are Playing a Whole Different Game

Fame at last! Two minutes into Netflix’s Harry and Meghan documentary, the headline of an article I wrote in January 2020 flashed on the screen. “Harry and Meghan Won’t Play The Game,” it said. Observing the departure of the duke and duchess of Sussex from the royal family—and from Britain itself—the piece declared that “no royal has ever taken on the press quite so directly, much though they might have wanted to.”

By that, I meant that Harry and Meghan had rejected the traditional bargain between the British royals and the media: The press follows you around, and you have to put up with it, because it’s part of the job. Now, three years later, we can see the new rules by which Harry and Meghan are playing. This six-part documentary is the tentpole of their reported multiyear production deal with Netflix. The director, Liz Garbus, is notionally , but the show makes frequent references to the couple telling “our story.”