Prince Harry insists that he ‘had’ to make lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify after being ‘cut off’ financially by the royal family, insisting that he needed to make money so that he could afford to pay for security to ‘keep his family safe’.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex claimed to Oprah Winfrey during their bombshell primetime interview that they ‘had no plan’ to ink multi-million-dollar deals with the ‘streamers’ when they first quit the royal family, but said that they were forced to find ways of making money when the royal family cut Prince Harry off, and took away his security.
Insisting that their deals with Netflix and Spotify – which are believed to be worth upwards of $100 million – were ‘never part of the plan’, Harry said: ‘We didn’t have a plan. That was suggested by somebody else by the point of where my family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us.’
The Duke of Sussex revealed that his family stopped all financial support in the ‘first quarter of 2020’, likely soon after Harry and Meghan announced they were stepping down as working royals, adding that had he not had the money that had been left to him by his mother Princess Diana, the couple would not have been able to afford to move to the US.
‘I’ve got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this,’ he said.
Defense: Prince Harry says he ‘had’ to make a multi-million-dollar deal with Netflix because he was ‘cut off’ by the royal family at the start of 2020 and needed money to pay for security
Safety first: Harry, 36, said that making deals with Netflix and Spotify were ‘never part of the plan’ but said ‘all he needed was enough money to pay for security to keep his family safe’
‘During COVID, the suggestion by a friend was, “What about streamers?”‘ Harry continued, while Meghan added: ‘We genuinely hadn’t thought about it before.’
‘We hadn’t thought about it,’ Harry continued. ‘So, there were all sorts of different options. And look, from my perspective, all I needed was enough money to be able to pay for security to keep my family safe.’
When asked about controversial series The Crown – which Harry defended during an interview with James Corden last month – the couple revealed that they ‘have watched some of’ the show, but gave little other hints about their feelings over it.
However they hinted that they have seen some of the most recent episodes, which focus primarily on Harry’s parents, including Diana’s battle with bulimia and her very turbulent relationship with Charles, with Oprah asking specifically about the show’s depiction of Prince Charles and Diana’s tour of Australia in 1983.
In the series, Charles is portrayed as growing jealous of Diana’s rising popularity during the trip, something that Harry suggested was echoed when he and Meghan visited the country themselves in 2018, hinting that the Duchess faced envy from other members of his family.
‘You know, my father, my brother, Kate and and all the rest of the family, they were really welcoming,’ he said of his wife’s introduction into the royal family. ‘But it really changed after the Australia tour, after our South Pacific tour.’
He continued: ‘It was the first time that the family got to see how incredible [Meghan] is at the job.’
Fans: Harry and Meghan revealed that they ‘have watched some’ of controversial Netflix show The Crown, hinting that they had seen episodes which focus on Prince Charles and Diana
Oprah then referenced scenes from The Crown in which Charles is seen growing increasingly jealous of his wife and the incredibly positive reception she received as they traveled throughout Australia.
She asked Harry whether his and Meghan’s tour of Australia ‘brought back memories’ of his parents’ trip, saying: ‘Your father and your mother went there, and your mother was bedazzling. So, are you saying there were hints of jealousy [from the rest of the royal family]?’
Harry refused to confirm whether he thought other royals were envious of Meghan, but said: ‘I just wish that we would all learn from the past.
‘But to see the… to see how effortless it was for Meghan to come into the family so quickly in Australia and across New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, and just be able to connect with people…’
He then described his wife as ‘one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever wished for’.
The couple’s confession that they have indeed watched episodes of The Crown come days after Harry defended the controversial show and its depiction of his family to Late Late Show host James Corden.
The fourth series of The Crown, which premiered last November, showed Charles meeting and marrying an innocent Diana while maintaining his affair with the then-married Camilla Parker-Bowles. Scenes showing Diana gorging on food before vomiting into a toilet are so graphic that they carry on-screen warnings.
Prince Harry – who also name-dropped Netflix elsewhere in the interview – said The Crown is ‘fictional’ but is ‘loosely based on the truth’ and captures the feeling of being expected to put ‘duty and service above family and everything else’.
Harry added he would like Homeland actor Damian Lewis to play him if his character ever appears on the show as an adult.
‘They don’t pretend to be news, it’s fictional,’ Prince Harry said of The Crown. ‘But it’s loosely based on the truth.
‘Of course it’s not strictly accurate but it loosely it gives you a rough idea of that lifestyle and the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else and what can come from that.
‘I’m way more comfortable about The Crown than the stories I see written about my family, my wife or myself. Because it’s the difference between that’s [the fact] obviously fiction, take it how you will – but this is reported on as fact because you’re supposedly news.’