What will the Palace do about Harry and Meghan’s claims?

When Netflix releases three episodes of Harry and Meghan’s much anticipated documentary series, royal aides will have their smart TVs and tablets at the ready.

Both at Buckingham Palace and at Kensington Palace, senior members of the King and Princes of Wales’ households will be consuming every minute.

They need to, because if there are any serious claims of wrongdoing - they have a duty to react.

They won’t be providing a running commentary and they won’t be in a rush to respond publicly, but that doesn’t mean they are going to remain silent.

The ‘never complain, never explain’ mantra may have served the late Queen well, but even she responded, eventually, to the claims of racism and mistreatment that Harry and Meghan made in their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

“Recollections may vary” was the now infamous phrase the palace used to respond at the time - but only once the Queen had seen the interview for herself when it was broadcast the following day in the UK on ITV.

It’s clear from the two trailers that Netflix released in the last week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan to talk about media intrusion, the ‘planting’ of stories against them and the issue of race.

The response from the palace, when it comes, will be measured and they will never lose sight of the fact that this is a family dispute and pits a father against a son and a brother against a brother.

There have been calls for former royals aides from the Sussex’s old office to be released from their non-disclosure agreements so they can respond to the claims, should they identity any glaring inaccuracies.

But before any decisions can be taken about how to respond, they first need to know what they are dealing with.

And that will only come at 8am on Thursday morning.

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