Meghan Markle‘s decision to delay her Netflix series With Love, Meghan due to the California wildfires has sparked comparison to another decision she once made. Meghan and Prince Harry’s chose to move forward with a media blitz against Queen Elizabeth and the royal family during the monarch’s final days. The queen, who reportedly battled a grave illness during her final year, endured Meghan and Prince Harry’s accusations in an inflammatory interview with Oprah Winfrey and anticipated their explosive Netflix docuseries, and the release of Harry’s autobiography Spare.

Critics say Meghan Markle’s Netflix delay is more respectful than treatment of the queen

On the heels of the California wildfires, Meghan Markle delayed the debut of her new Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. The lifestyle series was set to premiere on Jan. 15 but was pushed back to March 4, 2025.

In a press release, Meghan shared her concern for her fellow Californians. She stated, “I’m thankful to my partners at Netflix for supporting me in delaying the launch, as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California.”

But royal critics believe Meghan and Prince Harry didn’t show the same respect to Queen Elizabeth during the final year of her life. Royal editor Richard Eden discussed the hypocrisy in a Daily Mail article.

“One friend of the royals pointed out to me this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex allowed their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast in 2021. Even though Prince Philip was seriously ill in the hospital. Prince Harry’s grandfather died four weeks later,” Eden declared. “They recorded their Netflix ‘docu-series’, or reality show, Harry & Meghan in 2022, when Queen Elizabeth was in rapidly declining health.”

Meghan and Harry reportedly ‘disrespectful’ to ‘increasingly frail’ monarch

Queen Elizabeth, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in 2018 | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Richard Eden pointed out the hypocrisy of Meghan pushing back her Netflix series to save face in her community, but continued with a media blitz, alongside Prince Harry in 2021, as both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth faced their final days.

Eden wrote for The Mail, “Two books have since reported that the Queen was suffering from bone cancer for a year before her death. It’s not clear if the Sussexes knew this, but they would have been acutely aware that she was increasingly frail. Yet they recorded the hurtful series anyway.”

He continued, “Most disrespectful to the queen were the sections of the program devoted to denigrating the Commonwealth, the organization close to her heart. Harry similarly didn’t think twice about writing his tawdry memoirs while his grandmother’s health was worsening.”

Eden concluded, “Thank goodness [Spare] was not published until four months after the queen’s death. So she did not have to read about his betrayals of private conversations and vilification of her loved ones.”

Harry and Meghan Markle’s media blitz as Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth faced illness

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left their roles as senior royals in March 2020. In Spare, Harry claimed members of the royal institution fed stories to the press and refused to set the record straight on false reports about Meghan, shifting the negative spotlight on her to protect other royals.

In March 2021, Harry and Meghan sat down with Oprah Winfrey to air their grievances toward the House of Windsor. They accused unnamed royals of racism, and insensitivity toward Meghan, among other issues.

Just one month later, on April 9, 2021, Prince Philip died. Harry attended his grandfather’s funeral without Meghan, who was pregnant with Princess Lilibet.

The couple filmed their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan from 2020 through 2022. It aired three months after Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022.

In January 2023, Prince Harry released Spare. He alleged he didn’t find out about the queen’s death from the royal family, but from the news while on a flight to Balmoral.