Prince Harry, Meghan allege ‘institutional gaslighting,’ say ‘lies’ protected Prince William in new Netflix docuseries trailer

(NEW YORK) — Prince Harry and Meghan opened up about their decision to leave their senior royal roles in a new trailer for their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.

The trailer, released Monday, opens with footage of the duke and duchess of Sussex in their royal roles with Harry saying, “I wonder what would’ve happened to us if we had not got out when we did.”

Meghan then says the couple’s security was “pulled” and “everyone in the world knew where we were.”

The trailer includes a selfie video Harry took on what he described as the “freedom flight” that presumably took him out of the United Kingdom following his last engagement as a senior working royal.

Later in the trailer, Harry, the fifth in line to Britain’s throne, alleges that “lies” were told to protect his older brother Prince William, the heir to the throne.

As Harry is speaking, a shot of Buckingham Palace is shown followed by a clip of Harry walking next to William in the funeral procession for their grandfather Prince Philip in 2021.

“They were happy to lie to protect my brother,” Harry says, as a photo of him and Meghan flashes across the screen. “They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”

Harry also alleges “institutional gaslighting,” while Meghan says of her experience as a senior royal, “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves. I was being fed to the wolves.”

Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior royal roles in early 2020, just before they celebrated their second wedding anniversary.

The Netflix docuseries marks the Sussexes’ most extensive comments about their decision to leave the U.K. and start a new life in California, where they now live with their two children Archie and Lilibet.

The first three episodes of the docuseries, made in association with Harry and Meghan’s Archewell production company, aired on Dec. 8.

The final three episodes, which the new trailer previewed, will air on Netflix on Dec. 15.

In addition to detailing the controversy over their royal departure, the docuseries also shows glimpses of the life Harry and Meghan have created for themselves in California.

The trailer includes footage of Harry and Archie kicking a ball with Meghan’s mom Doria Ragland, in what appears to be the backyard of the couple’s Montecito home.

Meghan says, “It gave us a chance to create that home that we had always wanted.”

Amid clips of Harry walking on the beach and riding bikes with Meghan among the palm trees, the prince says, “I’ve always felt as though this was a fight worth fighting for.”

The trailer also includes quotes from Tyler Perry, who allowed the couple to stay in his California mansion when they first moved there from the U.K.

“They wanted to be free to love and be happy,” Perry says. “I applauded that.”

Members of the royal family have not commented on Harry and Meghan’s docuseries.

In the opening seconds of the first episode of Harry & Meghan, Netflix states that members of Britain’s royal family “declined to comment on the content within this series.”

Royal sources however told ABC News last week “that neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace nor any members of the royal family were approached for comment on the content of the series.”

According to royal sources, Kensington Palace, the household of Harry’s brother Prince William and his wife Kate, the princess of Wales, received an email purporting to be from a third-party production company, via a different, unknown organization’s email address.

The palace contacted Harry and Meghan’s production company, Archewell Productions, and Netflix to attempt to verify the authenticity of the email, but received no response, sources claimed.

According to the sources, without being able to verify the email’s authenticity, the palace was “unable” to provide any response.

A source at Netflix, meanwhile, told ABC News that communications offices for Harry’s father King Charles III and William were contacted in advance and given the right to reply to claims within the series.

According to Netflix, interviews for the series were completed by August, one month before the death of Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.