Not a fan. Howard Stern didn’t hold back when discussing his reaction to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s Netflix docuseries.
“It’s been painful,” Stern, 68, said on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show on Monday, December 12, while discussing watching Harry & Meghan via Mediaite. “I wouldn’t stay with it, but my wife [Beth Ostrosky Stern] wants to watch it. You know, we have shows we watch. But they come off like such whiny bitches. I gotta tell you man, I just don’t get it.”
The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan debuted on Netflix Thursday, December 8. The docuseries recounted how the twosome met and their engagement alongside never-before-seen photos and videos. The six-part series also contained interviews with people from their inner circle, but it wasn’t enough to impress the shock jock.
“I get Prince Harry being pissed off at the monarchy for his mother,” Stern said, referring to the late Princess Diana, who died in 1997. “They treated her like s–t … I feel bad for Prince Harry losing his mother and all that. So you got my empathy there. But Jesus Christ, when those two start whining about ‘Wah wah wah, and they don’t like me’ — and [Meghan] wants to be beloved in this country, but man, oh man.”
Stern said the duo just rubbed him the wrong way, especially seeing the commentary they filmed on their cell phones before their Netflix deal was even announced. “It’s just very weird to watch two people who keep screaming, ‘We wanted our privacy, we wanted the press to leave us alone,’ And then what is their special that they put out on Netflix? Showing you them and their kids and their life. It’s like The Kardashians — except boring,” the radio personality said, adding that he “found it troubling.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their roles as senior royals in 2020. They dropped their first bombshell tell-all special in March 2021, and the Netflix series seemingly covers much of what the CBS interview revealed. Stern questioned if this was their new professional path.
“Where do you go with this? Is this your career? Talking about how humiliated you were being part of, I don’t know, living in a castle — it’s hard to relate to,” the New York native remarked. “It looks pretty terrific to me. … I guess they’re off the royal payroll so they’ve gotta make a buck.”
Stern even predicted an eventual divorce for the duo, who married in May 2018. “I think he’s eventually not gonna dig her. I’m telling you. She’s a little bit …” he trailed off.
While the host has already formed his opinion, there are still three more episodes to convince him otherwise. The final three installments of Harry & Meghan will debut on Netflix Thursday, December 15.
For their part, Meghan and Harry addressed the concerns about privacy via a spokesperson earlier this month. “Their statement announcing their decision to step back mentions nothing of privacy and reiterates their desire to continue their roles and public duties,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s global press secretary, Ashley Hansen, said in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday, the same day the show started streaming. “Any suggestion otherwise speaks to a key point of this series. They are choosing to share their story, on their terms.”
