Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly want to edit their docuseries with Netflix and delay its release ‘until next year’ after the Queen’s death, multiple sources have told Page Six.
The Duke, 38, and Duchess, 41, of Sussex, who now live in their $14million Montecito mansion with their two children, Archie, three, and one-year-old Lilibet – are working on a documentary as part of their $100 million deal with the streaming service.
It was previously expected that the production would be aired in December, following the fifth season of The Crown on November 9, according to the publication.
However, sources claimed the couple now want to make edits to the series, which would possibly delay its release until later in 2023, as they look to ‘downplay much of what they have said about King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales’.
One Hollywood industry source said: ‘A lot of conversations are happening. I hear that Harry and Meghan want the series to be held until next year, they want to stall.
‘I wonder if the show could even be dead in the water at this point, do Harry and Meghan just want to shelve this thing?,’ they added.
A Netflix insider also claimed: ‘Netflix has been keen to have the show ready to stream for December. There’s a lot of pressure on (Netflix CEO) Ted Sarandos, who has the relationship with Harry and Meghan, to get this show finished.’
It comes after The Mail on Sunday reported that Harry has launched a last-minute bid to tone down his bombshell autobiography amid fears his final draft ‘might not go down too well’ in the wake of the Queen’s death.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured at the Queen’s funeral) reportedly want to edit their docuseries with Netflix and delay its release ‘until next year’ after the Queen’s death, multiple sources have told Page Six
The Duke, 38, and Duchess, 41, of Sussex (pictured with Prince William and Kate in Windsor on September 10, 2022), who now live in their $14million Montecito mansion with their two children, Archie, three, and one-year-old Lilibet – are working on a documentary as part of their $100 million deal with the streaming service
Revealed: Doctor who signed Queen’s death certificate had served her for 34 years
Dr Douglas James Allan Glass
The Queen‘s death certificate was signed by a Scottish doctor who has worked for the monarchy for more than 30 years, it can be revealed.
Dr Douglas James Allan Glass – who once saved the late Queen Mother‘s life when she choked on a fish bone – began his role as Apothecary to Her Majesty’s Household at Balmoral on March 30 1998.
His title became official during a special presentation at Buckingham Palace just a few days later on April 5 the same year.
The incident with the Queen Mother occurred when a fish bone lodged in her throat while staying at Balmoral in May 1993.
She eventually had to have surgery under general anaesthetic to remove it at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where she spent several days.
Dr Glass’s role is similar to that of Dr Timothy Evans, who looked after the late monarch’s health at the royal household in Windsor.
Dr Glass also works as a GP in the Highlands village of Aboyne, around 20 miles from Balmoral Castle, where the Queen died aged 96 on Thursday September 8.
He was listed as working at the Braemar Health Clinic until at least July 2020, although it is not clear if he still works there.
He signed the death certificate of Her Majesty on Monday (September 26), confirming that she had died of old age.
The memoirs had been signed off ready for an expected autumn release, but the Duke – who is writing the book as part of a near £40million three-title deal – has asked to make some significant alterations.
His request may be seen as a sign that he is ready to take a more conciliatory approach to the rest of the Royal Family, but could cause problems for his publishers.
‘Harry has thrown a spanner in the works,’ a source said. ‘He is keen for refinements in the light of the Queen’s death, her funeral and his father Charles taking the throne.
‘There may be things in the book which might not look so good if they come out so soon after these events. He wants sections changed now. It’s not a total rewrite by any means. He desperately wants to make changes. But it might be too late.’
Publishing sources suggested that the Duke might have limited ‘wriggle room’ given he was handed a seven-figure advance.
Publishers Penguin Random House had already demanded a rewrite after the first draft was deemed ‘too touchy-feely’ and placed too much focus on mental health issues, The Mail on Sunday understands.
MailOnline has contacted a representative for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for comment.
Last month, Meghan hinted that the documentary she and Prince Harry are currently filming for Netflix could focus on their ‘love story’.
Speaking in an interview with The Cut, the Duchess said her five-year-long romance with Prince Harry is one of the ‘pieces of her life’ that she has not yet been able to share with the public.
The couple’s production company, Archewell Productions, signed a reported $100million deal with the streaming giant in 2020 but there has yet to be a release.
A documentary series about the Invictus Games has been confirmed. Meghan’s planned animated children’s series was scrapped as part of wider Netflix cutbacks.
It had previously been rumoured that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were planning a fly-on-the-wall documentary series, in the style of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
However it appears it might be closer to a look back on the royal romance.
‘The couple has directly smashed rumors of a reality show, both in statements made to publications and in conversation with me,’ journalist Allison P. Davis noted in the article.
‘But, Meghan explains, there’s a difference between a historical documentary and a reality docuseries.’
King Charles III, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Princess Anne, Princess Royal arrive at the Committal Service held at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on September 19, 2022
It was previously expected that the production would be aired in December, following the fifth season of The Crown on November 9, according to the publication. Pictured, Harry and Meghan at the Queen’s lying in state on September 14, 2022, in London
They have been spotted with a film crew at a number of engagements, including the Invictus Games earlier this year
Cameras were also following Meghan and Harry during a visit to New York in September 2021, pictured
The Duchess continued: ‘The piece of my life I haven’t been able to share, that people haven’t been able to see, is our love story.’
The Duke and Duchess have been filming the Netflix documentary for more than a year after signing a widely reported $100million deal with the streaming service.
They have been spotted with a film crew at a number of engagements, including the Invictus Games earlier this year. The filming is believed to have taken place for their confirmed docu-series Heart of Invictus.
Last night, a royal biographer claimed Harry and Meghan may be worried that they are being edged out of the Royal Family after they were moved to the bottom of the Palace website alongside the disgraced Prince Andrew.
Links taking readers to pages dedicated to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had previously been placed around halfway down the page – below senior royals and above minor members of the family.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been moved to the bottom of the Royal Family website alongside Prince Andrew
MAY 19: Links taking readers to pages dedicated to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had previously been placed around halfway down the page – below senior royals and above minor members of the family
But after the webpage was updated following the death of the Queen earlier this month, Harry and Meghan have been moved down below the likes of Princess Alexandra and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
Prince Michael of Kent and his wife Marie-Christine, neither of whom are working royals, have been removed from the page entirely.
‘Harry and Meghan must be worried that they are slowly being eased out of the royal picture,’ royal biographer Phil Dampier told The Sun.
‘King Charles seems to be hesitating on whether to grant Prince and Princess titles to Archie and Lilibet. And the fact that they have been “demoted” on the Palace website is another indicator that they are not seen as working royals.’
It comes as King Charles is widely reported to be planning a ‘slimmed-down’ monarchy during his reign, believing the public does not wish to pay for an ever-expanding Royal Family.
Meanwhile, Princess Alexandra, the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousins, all remain on the page as they are still working members.
The Kents have carried out more than 200 public engagements, all funded by the Prince’s own household as opposed to taxpayers.
The Sussexes were first moved down the page around 15 months ago, having previously sat below the Prince and Princess of Wales, to below the Wessexes and the Princess Royal.
It follows allegations that the Queen was forced to put her foot down over Megxit and told the Sussexes they were ‘either in or out’ at the crunch Sandringham summit where the royals decided Harry and Meghan’s future.
The explosive extracts of the forthcoming book, Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown by Valentine Low, were published by The Times.
Mr Dampier believes that King Charles and the Prince of Wales may also ‘feel the same way’.
Mr Low wrote that it was the monarch herself who felt that unless the couple were willing to follow the rules which apply to all working royals, they would ‘not be allowed to carry out official duties’.
‘There was a very clear view: you can’t be in and out,’ a source told Mr Low. ‘And if you’ve got such clarity of view, it’s very difficult to say, “Why don’t we go 10 per cent this way instead of 20 per cent?”‘
This meant that compromise was taken off the table by the Queen, the author said.
Mr Dampier believes that the website change will make it clear the Sussexes are not working royals ‘and can’t pose as semi-official royals’.
It is understood that the website changes now reflect the roles within the Royal Family as opposed to the line of succession.
Royal biographer Angela Levin said that the change shows what Harry and Meghan are ‘not doing’, and how it is valued in the Royal Family.
The couple are still waiting on whether their two children will be given titles of prince and princess.
Following the death of the Queen, the Sussex children are entitled to prince and princess and the HRH titles as grandchildren of the monarch.
But despite William and Kate’s titles having been updated to the Prince and Princess of Wales, Archie and Lilibet’s have not yet changed.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: ‘Updating live on a website doesn’t quite work. We will be working through updating the website as and when we get information.’
A royal mystery: The Queen died of old age at 3:10pm. So, asks REBECCA ENGLISH, why did it take more than three hours to tell Prince Harry?
ByRebecca English Royal Editor For The Daily Mail
The Queen died at Balmoral of ‘old age’, it was revealed yesterday – the first time a monarch’s death certificate is believed to have been made public.
But the document also raises intriguing questions after details on it confirmed that Prince Harry was not informed of his grandmother’s death for more than three hours.
Only her two eldest children – King Charles and his sister, Princess Anne – were with their mother when she died at 3.10pm on September 8. Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, as well as Prince Andrew and Prince William, were all on a plane heading for Scotland at the time and are believed to have been informed mid-air.
Prince Harry, meanwhile, had not even made it to an airport amid apparent confusion over whether he should travel up to Aberdeenshire with his wife Meghan. He finally got a private jet from Luton at 5.35pm, landing at Aberdeen at 6.47pm.
The Queen died at Balmoral of ‘old age’, it was revealed yesterday – the first time a monarch’s death certificate is believed to have been made public
It has already been confirmed by palace sources that his father only managed to contact his son mid-air at 6.25pm – just five minutes before the news the world had been dreading was officially announced.
Charles had insisted all afternoon on telling his youngest son personally before any official statement was released by Buckingham Palace.
He had already rung both Harry and his brother, William, earlier in the day to tell them to get up to Scotland as quickly as possible because their grandmother was rapidly fading. He then returned to the Queen’s bedside.
But that leaves a crucial two hours and 25 minutes between the Queen dying and Harry taking to the air, when it appears there was no communication between the prince and his family.
In contrast, the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was informed at 4.30pm. Palace officials declined to comment last night, while other royal sources were unable to explain the discrepancy. But insiders stressed that the old-fashioned King does not have a mobile phone and his diary is such that calls between himself and his family normally have to be ‘scheduled in’.
Family members have to resort to calling staff or even one of his police bodyguards to try to get an urgent message to him.
Others said it was likely the King wanted to tell his son personally, but with the clock ticking for the release of an official announcement, simply ran out of time.
But that leaves a crucial two hours and 25 minutes between the Queen dying and Harry taking to the air, when it appears there was no communication between the prince and his family. Pictured: Prince Harry arriving at Balmoral shortly after Queen Elizabeth passed away
Sources with intimate knowledge of Operation London Bridge – the plan to manage the aftermath of Queen’s death – also stressed that as well as the dealing with the inevitable grief of the situation, there would have been a mass of administration to cope with.
‘I’m sure, as with everything, there is a meticulous plan on paper but then the chaos of actual life happens amid the trauma of their personal grief,’ said one.
Another source explained that ‘few people in the family’ were regularly in touch with Harry any more and that he could also be ‘incredibly hard to reach’.
Whatever the truth, it highlights the complexity of the relationship between the Royal Family and Harry, which saw him leave Balmoral on the first possible fight out of Aberdeen the morning after his grandmother died.
He remained in the UK until the day after the funeral, and was seen publicly at a walkabout at Windsor with his brother and their wives, and at the funeral itself. He was also seen at the vigil.
The possibility of behind-the-scenes family ructions have already been raised after it emerged that the plane containing Edward, Andrew and William up to Scotland was delayed by an hour. It had been scheduled for 1.30pm but did not take off until 2.39pm.
Just before 2pm that day a spokesman for the Sussexes announced that both Harry and Meghan would be travelling to Scotland together.
This came as a surprise to many as only close family members would be expected to be present, aside from the Countess of Wessex and Princess Anne’s husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, to whom the Queen was close. Kate, the then-Duchess of Cambridge decided to stay at Windsor with her and William’s three children.
Half an hour after their initial announcement, a spokesman for the Sussexes issued a correction, saying that only Harry intended to travel. The discrepancy was later explained away as a ‘mistake’.
Sources with intimate knowledge of Operation London Bridge – the plan to manage the aftermath of Queen’s death – also stressed that as well as the dealing with the inevitable grief of the situation, there would have been a mass of administration to cope with
Harry’s team hurriedly chartered a private jet – at an estimated cost of £30,000 – from Luton. It was later claimed by The Sun that Harry missed the RAF flight due to a ‘row over Meghan’ after his father told him it was ‘not appropriate’ to bring her.
It has also been claimed that, although Charles did try to call his son to tell him that his grandmother had died, the phone call did not actually go through. It is said that, although Harry knew his father was trying to speak to him, the prince actually read a breaking news announcement online before they could work the technology to speak.
This has been disputed by the palace, however, with a spokesman for the King has insisting the announcement of the Queen’s death ‘was not made until all family members had been informed’.
The Queen’s death certificate was finally released the Scottish Registrar General, Paul Lowe, exactly three weeks to the day after she died. By law it should be registered within eight days. The certificate records that Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, a widow, died at Balmoral Castle in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, at the age of 96.
It lists her usual residence as Windsor Castle and her occupation as ‘Her Majesty The Queen’.
The certifying registered medical practitioner was Douglas James Allan Glass. He has been Apothecary to Her Majesty’s Household at Balmoral since 1998.
The doctor, who is the GP in the village of Braemar, close to Balmoral, told The Times that he was present at her death and it was ‘not unexpected’. He said: ‘We have been concerned about the Queen’s health for several months.’
The cause of death, ‘old age’, is the same as that given for Prince Philip in April 2021. In Scotland, it should not be recorded as a sole cause, although there are exceptions, including the certifying doctor having personally cared for the deceased over a long period and observing a gradual decline.