A Betrayed King: Charles III's Pity for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry 'Soon Disappeared' After Netflix Documentary

King Charles III went from having sympathy for his youngest son, Prince Harry, to condemning him as "that fool" after he viewed the Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle's explosive Netflix documentary.

"Here you have the king doing his best, and no one was watching. It was a rousing mini soap opera within the world's largest soap opera — a level of melodrama only the British royal family can produce," Omid Scobie wrote in his new book, Endgame.

"And it eclipsed King Charles at every turn, besting his attempts to highlight his own narrative and promote the monarchy's new Carolean era," the author added when writing about the beginning of the King's reign in comparison to Harry and Meghan's domination of the media.

A palace insider later told Scobie: "The king was genuinely sad about the entire situation. He was angry but didn't want people to speak ill of his son in front of him, either, It was a brief moment where he paused and realized how bad things had become."

Charles III came to the throne after the longest wait for an heir in British history on September 8, 2022. Unlike the media saturation his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, commanded when she acceded in early 1952, her successor was bumped out of the headlines constantly by rebel family members. After the long-awaited Netflix docuseries premiered in December 2022, this was followed by more attention on Prince Harry the following month when he released his memoir, Spare.

In what many royal analysts claimed should be moments when the new monarch is front and center in everyone's attention, the exact opposite happened.

"The king's sympathy soon disappeared, however, when it became clear the Harry and Meghan hubbub would overshadow his work, including his participation in a worthwhile cause that received little coverage," Scobie observed.

"In the middle of the month, Netflix teased the final half of the series, in which Harry claimed he and his wife were victims of 'institutional gaslighting' and revealed new details about how his family leaked stories about the couple to score points with the press and other powerful players," Scobie wrote.

"These were true bombshells, but, just as they had done throughout the entire Netflix ordeal, both Buckingham Palace and those working with William and Kate remained silent, offering no official statements, though complaining plenty to preferred journalists in the royal rota in the form of anonymous source quotes," the Sussex "cheerleader" continued.

Numerous insiders and royal experts stepped forward after the series to debunk many claims within it.

"Some of Meghan's claims, including the fact that aides didn't prep her for her job in the firm, were 'a total lie,'" a royal source told an outlet.

Newsweek reported on excerpts from Endgame.