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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9961915/Prince-William-villain-refusing-speak-racism-controversial-new-TV-film.html#comments

Prince William is portrayed as villain for 'refusing to speak out on racism' and 'scoffing at comments about Archie's skin tone' in controversial new TV film Escaping the Palace

*  William will be portrayed as the villain in a new TV film about Prince Harry and Meghan leaving the royal family
*  Promotional photos show the actors playing William and Harry arguing as Duke of Sussex lectures his brother
*  Harry berates William for 'not speaking out on racism' while William scoffs at comments made about Archie
*  It comes just days after it was revealed the movie will open with a dream sequence which sees Meghan, 40, involved in a car accident just like Princess Diana's

By Bridie Pearson-jones For Mailonline

Published: 09:58, 6 September 2021 | Updated: 10:20, 6 September 2021

Prince William will be portrayed as the villain in a controversial new TV film about Prince Harry and Meghan leaving the royal family.  Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace, the third made-for-TV movie from US cable channel Lifetime, will dramatise the Sussexes' 'controversial conscious uncoupling from the crown, after the birth of their son Archie', according to its synopsis.  And the latest promotional photos released show the actors playing William and Harry arguing as the Duke of Sussex lectures his older brother from not speaking out on racism.  It comes just days after it was revealed the movie will open with a dream sequence which sees Meghan, 40, involved in a car accident just like Princess Diana's.  Images show Prince Harry (played by Jordan Dean) and Prince William (played by Jordan Whalen) arguing in a Kensington Palace garden.   William tells Harry: 'What causes problems isn't colour, it's culture. Meghan an American. She acts more like a celebrity than a Royal.'

In the on-screen bust-up, an angry Harry tells William he needs to address racism.  'You need to bloody well make a statement with me decrying racism.  As future King, you need to push on this horrific bullying.'

William also scoffs at comments made about Archie's skin-colour, saying: 'For the last time I agree diversity in the family is a good thing.'

The fall out is watched by worried Kate (played by Laura Mitchell) and Meghan (played by Sydney Morton).  Harry is also seen arguing with Prince Charles on the phone because Charles has refused to see him about his concerns.  The drama claims to explore the 'real details' behind the decision that eventually drove the couple to leave their royal life behind.  The brothers have been separated by a rift that began in March 2019 when William reportedly threw Harry and Meghan out of Kensington Palace over the alleged bullying of staff, with the Sussexes breaking up their joint foundation and setting up a new office at Buckingham Palace.  The claims emerged in Robert Lacey's book Battle of Brothers, published before Harry and Meghan went on Oprah to accuse the Royal Family of racism and claim they were abandoned when the Duchess of Sussex was suicidal and six months pregnant.  Harry first publicly said his brother and father were 'trapped' by the institution of monarchy, and that feels 'really let down' by his father Charles. The duke also accused the Royal Family of having 'concerns' about 'how dark' Archie's skin would be before he was born because she is mixed-race and Harry is white.  In a series of astonishing claims, Harry alleged that the Prince of Wales cut off contact with him in the wake of his decision to step away from The Firm.  He told how, during his time in Canada, his father refused to answer his calls as tensions within the family rose and their relationship soured.  The movie was shot in Vancouver, and Harry is given a full head of hair despite having thinning locks in real life, while his balding brother William is portrayed by an actor who has lost most of his hair.  Stills also show passionate embraces between the couple in bed in their luxurious Montecito mansion.  The first teaser released earlier this year saw several heated discussions between Harry and Meghan, during which the former was seen expressing his fears that his wife is being 'hounded to death'.  'I see you literally being hounded to death and I'm helpless to stop it,' the actor tells his on-screen partner, echoing comments made by Prince Harry during his Apple TV+ series, in which he said that his late mother, Princess Diana, was 'chased to death' and admitted that he was afraid of 'history repeating itself' with Meghan. 

In previous films Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance and Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal, the couple were played by Murray Fraser and Parisa Fitz-Henley, and Charlie Field and Tiffany Smith respectively.  The drama, which will be broadcast in the US today, will explore the 'real details' behind the decision that eventually drove the couple to leave their royal life behind.  It will 'detail Meghan's growing isolation and sadness, their disappointment that The Firm was not defending them against the press's attacks, and Harry's fear that history would repeat itself and he would not be able to protect his wife and son from the same forces that caused his mother's untimely death'.

The trailer - which Lorraine Kelly branded 'hideous' revealed it will re-enact Harry and Meghan's explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year, and dramatise the moment Meghan suffered a miscarriage.   It sees the Duchess questioning whether she 'made the world's biggest mistake' by marrying into the Royal Family, while Harry insists that he 'will do everything in his power to keep his wife and son safe'.  The film opens with the Duchess of Sussex under an overturned car, as a seriously injured Meghan then pleads with Prince Harry to help her but the ordeal is just a nightmare and the duke wakes up and is comforted to see his wife and their son Archie.  Speaking to Newsweek, Sydney said she feels a 'responsibility to be respectful' while playing the Duchess.  'Because she is a living breathing person and I’m playing her pretty much right now in her life, I definitely felt a responsibility to be respectful and very grounded and make her a three-dimensional person and not portray her as this tabloid cartoon,' she told the publication.

'I think that it’s a different thing when you’re playing someone who is alive and experiencing things in real-time you definitely want to approach it with care.'

The trailer also offers an insight into the stuffy way in which other senior royals will be depicted, revealing glimpses at the on-screen versions of the Queen, Prince William and Kate Middleton.  The Duchess of Cambridge will be played by television actress Laura Mitchell, while Her Majesty will be portrayed by Maggie Sullivun.  The reported tension between Meghan and Kate, 39, is also alluded to in the trailer, with Kate's character insisting that that those marrying into the Royal Family know what 'they signed up for'.  'This is the life we signed up for. Here, we value dignity above all else,' she says, while flashing a copy of the large sapphire engagement ring that once belonged to Princess Diana and was given to Kate by William when he proposed in 2010.

Jordan Whalen will play Prince William and is seen in the trailer saying: 'Let everyone understand it, the Monarchy is at stake,' he says while the on-screen Queen states: 'The Monarchy will always survive.'

One clip shows the Queen, Prince Harry, Prince William, and Kate Middleton all sitting in a room together in what appears to be an imagining of the talks that took place between the senior royals in the lead-up to Megxit in January 2020.  At the time, it was revealed that Harry, 36, had a private heart-to-heart with the Queen following a family meeting at Sandringham, and it is understood that Her Majesty made the decision to allow her grandson and his wife to quit their royal roles after this talk.  Harry and William's late mother Princess Diana is also featured in the quick trailer, with actress Bonnie Suter stepping into her shoes.  In a flashback scene, Suter is seen standing at a podium making a speech, while wearing a black silk jacket with a velvet lapel a near-identical design to the dark green ensemble worn by Diana in December 1993, when she publicly announced that she would be stepping back from her public duties in order to take on 'a more meaningful public role with a more private life'.

The speech was made one year after Diana and Charles announced that they were separating, and saw the former opening up about her struggle to deal with the 'overwhelming attention' she had received in the wake of that news.  'I was not aware of how overwhelming that attention would become,' she said at the time. 'Nor the extent to which it would affect both my public duties and my personal life, in a manner, that's been hard to bear.'

Many have drawn clear comparisons between Diana's 1993 speech and the announcement that Meghan and Harry made when they revealed they would be stepping down as senior members of the Royal Family in order to 'carve out a new progressive role within the institution'.