Buckingham Palace may not comment on all of the stories concerning the royal family, but they will set the record straight when they need to. They did exactly that in regards to BBC Two’s documentary, The Princes and the Press. E! News reported that Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace released a joint statement about the claims in the documentary. Their statement, which was included at the end of the documentary, saw the royals addressing the “unfounded claims” that they believe that BBC Two shared in the program.ย
At the end of the documentary, which aired in late November, BBC Two shared the joint statement that they received from Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace. The statement read, “A free, responsible and open press is of vital importance to a healthy democracy. However, too often it is overblown and unfounded claims from unnamed sources that are presented as facts and it is disappointing when anyone, including the BBC, gives them credibility.”
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The Princes and the Press centers on the relationships that Prince William and Prince Harry have with the media. The series, which is comprised of two parts, featured an examination of the years in which the two “charted very different courses of their relationship with the media.” The second part of the special, which aired on Nov. 29, focused on the period between 2018 and 2021. Since they focused on that period in time, the second part largely featured Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. Not only did it touch upon the birth of their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, but it also showcased the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s royal tours. As royal watchers know, this program was released over a year after Harry and Markle chose to leave the United Kingdom and the royal family in light of the vitriol that they had to deal with both from social media users and media outlets in the country.ย
“The film charts the years leading up to and including the engagement and marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” the full description of the BBC Two special reads. “Providing context for the princes’ relationship with the media, the film examines some of the illegal activities engaged in by some newspapers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including hacking and ‘blagging’, and how these techniques were used to target members of the royal family and their associates.” The BBC did speak out about the criticism they received from the special by stating that the special is “about how royal journalism is done and features a range of journalists from broadcast and the newspaper industry.”
