Why Harry and Meghan’s Highly-Anticipated Netflix Docuseries Has Been Delayed

Netflix has reportedly postponed the release of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s at-home docuseries until 2023 following backlash against a season 5 plotline on the streamer’s hugely-popular show, The Crown. According to Deadline, the company’s execs were allegedly so “rattled” by the incident that they decided to push back the unofficial premiere of Harry and Meghan’s docuseries, which had been slated to debut in December on the heels of The Crown season 5 (which comes out November 9). Deets on the recoil, incoming 😶…

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Apparently, the season 5 episode of The Crown that, erm, caused this sh*tstorm in the first place is titled “Queen Victoria Syndrome” (the name alludes to the former monarch’s lengthy 63-year-reign). The reason? There’s allegedly a plotline featured suggesting that in 1991, King Charles III complained to U.K. Prime Minister John Major about having to wait to take over the throne, which the politician recently insisted never happened and described as “malicious nonsense,” per Deadline.

That said, at the time there *was* an actual poll that ran in the U.K. Sunday Times arguing both that (1) the monarchy was dated and (2) Queen Elizabeth should abdicate the throne in favor of her son. The Crown‘s fifth season episode allegedly riffs off that real-life event and features scenes of King Charles, portrayed by Dominic West, secretly agreeing with a passage in the paper that reads: “An aging monarch, too long on the throne whose remoteness from the modern world has led people to grow tired not just of her but of the monarchy itself.” It also allegedly depicts a meeting set-up by Charles to meet with the prime minister, wherein the royal expresses how much he relates to the story of Edward VII being “kept waiting in the wings” for decades due to Queen Victoria’s long rule.

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Previously, royal insiders have come out and said the family deems all of season 5 quite “exploitative,” since it also focuses on portraying the King’s former marriage to Princess Diana. “What people forget is that there are real human beings and real lives at the heart of this,” one source close with King Charles said.

Interestingly enough, Netflix stated today there has “never been any documentary from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed” to be on the streamer in the first place. However!! Page Six originally reported that the docuseries was in the midst of being created, and Deadline has *also* said it did exist and was filmed at the couple’s Montecito home, with the Sussexes serving as executive producers through their production company, Archewell (per IndieWire). Honestly? I have no thoughts other than…stay tuned!

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