New Harry and Meghan film casts Prince William as villain
But show's producers deny that was their intent
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A new made-for-TV movie seems to portray Prince William as the villain a la Game of Thrones’ sinister Joffrey.
Lifetime’s Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace claims to pull back the curtain on “what really happened inside the palace that drove Harry and Meghan to leave everything behind in order to make a future for themselves and their son Archie.”
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New Harry and Meghan film casts Prince William as villain Back to video
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The third movie from the network on the California couple premiered Monday.
In the film, Harry and William are shown fighting over alleged racism in the Royal Family and the lack of support for former Suits actress Markle.
William (portrayed by Jordan Whalen) tells Harry: “What causes problems isn’t colour — it’s culture. Meghan is an American. She acts more like a celebrity than a royal.”
Harry (Jordan Dean) fires back: “You need to bloody well make a statement with me decrying racism. As future king, you need to push on this horrific bullying.”
William adds: “For the last time, I agree diversity in the family is a good thing.”
The scene is reportedly fictionalized and unauthorized.
However, the show’s executive producers deny they were trying to turn William and wife Kate Middleton into the bad guys.
“If we saw a villain in the story, the villains are the press and ‘the Firm’ (the royal institution), which are really the players behind the scenes of the actual family,” executive producer Merideth Finn told The Washington Post.
“The people born into this family are in an impossible situation. They really don’t have choices. … The intention was never to make William seem like a villain, it was more to see him as a person in kind of an impossible conflict.”
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Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan may want to stay away from the U.K. for a while. According to a new poll, the pair’s popularity is still in freefall.
The poll from YouGov reveals that just 34% of the British public has a positive view of the couple. In April, that number was 43%.
Meghan’s popularity has dropped from 30% in March to 26% now.
YouGov points the finger at “poor responses to their statements surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the withdrawal from Afghanistan” for the latest decline. Some of their statements have been described as a “woke word salad.” The “many layers of pain” particularly struck Brits as “bizarre.”
Still, it could have been worse.
While the Queen tops the charts as the most popular royal, embattled second son Prince Andrew is the least favourite.
“I think Harry and Meghan’s grandiose, comfy and caring comments about the situation in Afghanistan, the disaster in Haiti and new COVID variants is another example of them trying to set up some sort of alternate woke Royal Family,” his biographer Angela Levin told the Mail.
@HunterTOSun
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