A royally mixed reaction. While stars including Howard Stern and Bethenny Frankel have criticized Harry & Meghan, other celebs like Maren Morris and Gayle King have praised Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as their polarizing docuseries makes waves.
“I found it a little bit boring,” the Real Housewives of New York City alum said via a TikTok video after the first three episodes dropped on December 8. “It didn’t hold my attention. It seemed like they really wanted to be humanized. They wanted us to know that they are real human beings. … We believe that you are really in love and we believe that you’re really human beings.”
Frankel went on to suggest that the Suits alum “wanted” to “hang out with major celebrities” and gain notoriety from the famous family.
“It felt like this entire documentary was about how famous we are … it was relentless,” she continued. “If you are being trolled by the media, the royal family gave you the advice to say nothing because that’s the advice that most very famous people are given. If you add gasoline to a fire, the fire blows up even bigger. It feels like they — and Meghan in particular — just keep wanting to tell us more.”
The reality star added that the show was “a smash and grab job for money,” explaining: “It feels like, ‘Grab the bag because we’re leaving this thing and we gotta take everything we can.’”
Morris, for her part, defended Meghan before even tuning into the six-part show.
“This profound hatred and annoyance at Meghan Markle specifically — mostly coming from women, I have to say — it’s unfathomable to me. People are saying, ‘Oh, a woman should never take a man away from his family. That’s all that this is.’ Um, have you seen this family?” the country singer said via TikTok on December 9. “I just don’t [understand it]. I never have. But people have been annoyed by royals or a particular person in the royal family for centuries.”
Both Morris and Frankel referenced Wallis Simpson, the wife of King Edward VIII, in their lengthy videos — but their takes continued to differ.
“[King Edward VIII] left the family because they would not allow him to marry the woman he loved because she had been divorced,” the “My Church” songstress said. “When they didn’t allow Princess Margaret to marry Peter Townsend, she did not leave the family, but I kind of wish she had.”
The Bravo alum, meanwhile, suggested Harry and Meghan “left out big chucks” as producers of the series.
“They really wanted to push the [Princess] Diana aspect, the comparison, and I feel like it achieves the opposite result because Diana was there, five, six, seven times longer than Meghan and entered the monarchy when she was 19. It’s just not the same comparison,” Frankel said of Harry comparing his wife to his late mother. “Meghan walked into the monarchy a divorcée, older and a woman of color. Wallis Simpson was with the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated the throne, [and she] was a Jewish woman who was divorced and both of those elements contributed to it being controversial.”
While the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan detailed their love story and touched on the actress’ early struggles to adjust to life in the U.K. amid allegations of racism in the media, volume two appears to turn up the drama leading up to their royal exit in January 2020. In the latest teaser, Harry alleged the couple experienced “institutional gaslighting” as The Firm was “happy to lie to protect” Prince William but “they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”
Scroll through for more stars speaking out about Harry & Meghan: