“Harry had a lifetime of experience of sharing stories with media and feeling that they were twisted into something he could not recognise, and, of course, Meghan had a short but very violent experience of that.
“For them to exert some control over their own story felt OK, as long as the viewer is aware of that contract. It’s like if you’re making a documentary with re-creations, just let your viewer know that they’re re-creations.”
When asked if the royals had “final cut” on the documentary, she replied: “It was a collaboration, and on all levels that is true. If I wanted to push for something, I did.
“That’s exactly that sort of contract between filmmaking and viewer that I think is key so that your audience is aware that this is not an investigative documentary; it was something done in partnership with the principals.”
Garbus concluded: “I have no regrets. I don’t know if it was the most watched doc series on Netflix ever, but it certainly was in the first few weeks.
“[Viewers] came for the love story, or the hot gossip, but were able to stay for other provocative and important stuff.”