Will Harry and Meghan's Netflix docuseries force Britain to confront racism?
London — It's certainly not the first time Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex have told their story, but the teasers for the royal couple's new Netflix docuseries, expected to hit the airwaves later this week, promise the "whole truth," and with it, more revelations. In one clip, Harry drops a hint about "a dirty game."
"Nobody's mind is going to be changed watching this documentary," former British government advisor-turned journalist Ayesha Hazarika predicted to CBS News. "If anything, the people who hate Meghan and Harry are going to be like, 'these people are ridiculous… They're causing shame to the royal family.'"
But Hazarika acknowledges that Harry and Meghan are at the heart of a British culture war, and she said those who have supported them all along — as they've leveled accusations of racism within not only British society, but within its royal family — will find further vindication in the show.
In recent days, Meghan's claims of racism while she and Harry were still working royals have been bolstered.
The former head of counterterrorism policing in England told Britain's Channel 4 that Meghan faced "disgusting and very real" threats from far-right extremists, with some individuals being prosecuted.
And last week, a royal staffer, Lady Susan Hussey, was forced to resign by Buckingham Palace after repeatedly demanding to know where a Black British woman was from.
But none of that has changed the position of the couple's long-time enemies, the British tabloids, or some television anchors like Piers Morgan, who called Meghan a "latte munching imbecile" and urged her to "shut up" and drop what he dismissed as "sanctimony, the fake drama, the hammy 'woe-is-me' that's been going on now for years."
Hazarika says some people in Britain simply aren't ready or willing to have an honest conversation about racism.
"Meghan and Harry have become a bit a of a lightening conductor for a lot of anger from a lot of these people who are clinging to the past," she told CBS News, suggesting that some Brits are indignant that an American duchess should be calling them out on their racism.