Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement claims debunked as BBC star hits back

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s controversial Netflix series has hit the headlines again after the BBC’s Mishal Husain hit back at the couple’s claims the engagement interview she conducted was an ‘orchestrated reality show’ – and other claims in the show have been disputed too

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sent shockwaves around the world with their controversial Netflix series, which included ‘truth bombs’ about their famous engagement interview.

Across six episodes, they made a series of bombshell claims about royal life from the early days of their romance, their engagement, their fairytale wedding and the dramatic lead-up to them sensationally quitting the UK for life in America.

Now 18 months on from its premiere, the docuseries is back in the headlines after BBC star Mishal Husain hit out at claims made by the couple in the show. BBC journalist Mishal conducted an engagement interview with the Sussexes that Meghan claimed in the documentary was an “orchestrated reality show”.

However, the BBC star defended the chat and said she “didn’t know what to make of” their version of events. And it seems that the engagement interview claim in the show isn’t the only one that has had doubt poured on it….

Meghan didn’t know who ‘Prince Haz’ was
In their engagement interview on the BBC, Meghan said she barely knew who Harry was because she is American. “Because I’m from the States, you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family. And so while I now understand very clearly there’s a global interest there, I didn’t know much about him,” she claimed.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their Netflix series
And in first episode of the new docuseries, Meghan recalls the moment a pal informed her she was being eyed up by royalty. When a mutual friend said that “Prince Haz” was interested in her and “dying to meet”, Meghan says she replied: “Who’s that?” However, just minutes before in the same episode, Meghan and Harry are seen reacting to an old interview of hers from less than a year before they met.

During the chat, the interviewer asks Meghan to pick between Prince William and Prince Harry, to which she shrugs and pauses before eventually choosing her future husband. Harry leans forward giggling while saying “sure”, as Meghan then asks the Netflix film maker what year the interview was.

When it’s revealed it was from October 2015, Harry says it was less than a year before they met, to which his apologetic wife replies: “Honey I’m sorry. Of course I choose you.” So there is evidence in their own docuseries that Meghan did know who Prince Harry was, so it’s hard to believe she had no idea who ‘Prince Haz’ was.

Harry didn’t know Nottingham Cottage’s former residents
In the fourth episode of the documentary, the couple recall their first home together, Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But the pair were not very complimentary about their home saying it was not the grand palace people thought they lived in and that Oprah Winfrey was shocked when she visited them.

Harry said: “As far as people were concerned we were living in a palace. [But] we were living in a cottage. On palace grounds.” “Kensington Palace sounds very regal of course, it does say palace in the name. But Nottingham Cottage was small,” explained Meghan.

Prince Harry inside his former home of Nottingham Cottage
Harry lived at Nottingham Cottage when he first met Meghan
And Harry added: “The whole thing was really small on a slight lean with low ceilings. Whoever lived their before must have been small.” However, Harry would have known two the cottage’s former residents – and one is even taller than he is – his brother William.

William lived in the cottage with wife Kate in the months after their oldest son Prince George was born. Meanwhile another former resident was his aunt and Princess Diana’s older sister Lady Jane Fellowes and her husband Robert, a former private secretary of the late Queen.

Harry and Meghan had to get engaged in the UK
Speaking about their engagement, Harry told viewers that he was forced to propose to Meghan in the UK. He claims he had to ask the late Queen for her approval to get down on one knee to Meghan, which happened while they were living at Kensington Palace.

The Sussexes announce their engagement in 2017
“I wanted to do it earlier but because I wanted to ask permission from my grandmother, I couldn’t do it outside of the UK,” he says in the third episode. “I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was greasing the chicken and that kind of slightly gave the game away cos she was like ‘You don’t drink champagne. What’s the occasion?’ I was like ‘I just have it around’.”

The Queen gave formal permission for her ‘dearly beloved’ grandson to marry his American bride. So that part of the story is definitely true, but it seems odd that Harry would be banned from doing it outside of the UK. His brother and future King, Prince William, proposed to wife Kate during a trip to Kenya.

Meghan didn’t have any say in her engagement announcement
In the same episode, Meghan describes the time around her engagement announcement to Prince Harry as an “orchestrated reality show”. It opens with archive footage of the pair being interviewed about their engagement on the BBC.

Reflecting on the 2018 interview, Meghan says: “It was rehearsed. We did the thing outside with the press, we went right inside, took the coat off and did the interview. It was all in the same moment.” She adds: “My point is we weren’t allowed to tell our story because they didn’t allow it.”

The couple during their engagement interview conducted by BBC journalist Mishal Husain

BBC journalist Mishal Husain who conducted that interview with the Sussexes, has strongly disputed Meghan’s claim. “My recollection is definitely very much, asked to do an interview, and do said interview,” Mishal said on BBC Radio 4 this morning. She added: “We know recollections may vary on this particular subject but my recollection is definitely very much, asked to do an interview, and do said interview.

And just this week in an interview with Saga magazine, she also wrote: “When the Duchess of Sussex said that my engagement interview with her and Harry was an ‘orchestrated reality show’ I didn’t know what to make of it. They seemed to have thought through what their new lives would be like and what marriage would mean for her life in particular. There was nothing that pointed to what would happen.”

Meghan stealing the limelight ‘upset’ royals
In the fourth episode, Harry suggested that Meghan was ‘better’ on royal engagements than those “born to do this” and said this “upset people”. It came around the time the couple embarked on their hugely successful tour of Australia and New Zealand just months after their wedding in 2018 when Meghan was pregnant with Archie.

Harry explained: “The issue is when someone who’s marrying in who should be a ‘supporting act’ is then stealing the limelight or is doing the job better than those who were born to do this then upsets people – it shifts the balance.” But discussing Harry’s claim that the couple’s public profile during their tour of Australia was a problem for other royals, Mirror royal editor Russell Myers told The Royal Beat: “I went on that tour to Australia. It was fantastic, the wall-to-wall favourable coverage, they were the new flavour. We’d already had William and Kate for a number of years, so I don’t even think the households were particularly bothered.”