Prince Harry and Meghan’s new Netflix show Polo is here – but the Duke is a supporting character in his own series

Prince Harry and Meghan’s latest Netflix endeavour Polo has been released on Netflix – the latest installment of their £80million deal. 

But after the Duke of Sussex caused a storm with his bombshell Netflix documentary released in December 2022 that took aim at his own family, he cuts a surprisingly low-key figure in the show, which was released on Monday. 

The Prince, 40, only appears a handful of times throughout the five episodes, with his wife Meghan Markle, 43, appearing even less – despite both being executive producers of the show. 

Harry appears in the opening credits of the show, but doesn’t appear again until episode four, when he is only part of a conversation with the other players. 

Instead, the series mainly focuses on Adolfo and Poroto Cambiaso, Louis Devaleix, Timmy Dutta, Nacho Figueras, Keko Magrini – who all overshadow Harry – and preparations for the US open. 

While Harry and Meghan firmly placed themselves in the spotlight with their 2022 documentary, they have appeared to take a step back in their recent productions. 

Two years ago, Harry and Meghan delivered a series of devastating ‘truth bombs’ on the rest of the royal family in the first installment of their Netflix extravaganza. 

But in Heart of Invictus, released in August 2023, production instead focused on the inspiring veterans taking part in the Invictus Games. 

Polo appears to go a step further – with Harry taking a step back to only make a handful of cameo appearances. 

In episode five, Harry’s next appearance is when he chats to Adolfo Cambiaso, asking ‘How’s the open?’ and asking him what it’s like to play against his son.

Again, Harry appears as a supporting character, with the other players being the focus of the plot and the conversation. 

Another blink-and-you-miss-it appearance comes at the beginning of episode five, when Harry plays a charity polo match for his non-profit Sentebale. 

At one point during the episode, the royal introduces Meghan to his teammate on the Team Royal Salute Sentebale, Alfonso Cambiaso – who is widely regarded as one of the greatest polo players of all time. 

While introducing Meghan to Cambiaso, Prince Harry revealed the Duchess is ‘also fluent in Spanish’. 

The former Suits actress, who can speak three languages, followed Harry’s lead and continued the rest of their conversation in Spanish. 

‘I lived there about 20 years ago. In Palermo Viejo (Buenos Aires),’ she told the polo legend. 

There is a brief humorous moment between the couple as Harry is asked if he speaks Spanish. While Meghan jokes ‘Yes’, Harry quickly adds: ‘Haha! He knows I don’t!’ 

The Prince is also seen scoring a goal, with Meghan enthusiastically applauding her husband in a sweet moment of affection. 

Meghan then presents him with the trophy, and the couple share a sweet kiss. 

However, this was also a moment that has been seen before, as the couple were photographed at the event in Wellington, Florida, back in April.   

The series goes behind the scenes of professional polo, offering an ‘unprecedented look into the players’ lives on and off the field’.  

It features Nacho Figueras, a long-time friend of Prince Harry‘s and a professional polo player and shows the ‘fierce rivalries’ and the ‘intense training’ that those competing in the US Open Polo Championship go through. 

At one point, Nacho says of his friend: ‘Harry wanted to win at all costs, and I was the same way.’ 

Speaking to People Magazine previously, Harry said: ‘This series offers audiences an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look into the passion and determination driving some of the world’s elite polo players, revealing the grit behind the glamor.

‘We’re proud to showcase the true depth and spirit of the sport — and the intensity of its high-stakes moments.’

The series by Archewell Productions was first teased in April when it emerged that Harry and Meghan have two nonfiction series’ in production with Netflix. The other show will focus on Meghan’s love of ‘cooking, gardening and friendship’.

Both are part of the couple’s £80million, multi-year deal with the streaming platform that they signed four years ago.

It comes after the release of Harry & Meghan on Netflix in 2022, which covered their relationship and their decision to step back from the Royal Family. It became Netflix’s top-performing documentary series in just one week.

Other works which are a part of their deal include Live to Lead, a docu-series released on New Year’s Eve 2022, the Heart Of Invictus which released last year, and an adaption of Meet Me at the Lake, the rights for which the couple reportedly paid $3.8 million.

The 2022 series saw Harry and Meghan make a series of devastating accusations that shook the Palace. 

In the documentary Meghan appeared to mock her own efforts at following royal protocol as she recounted the ‘surreal’ moment she first met the Queen – performing a deeply exaggerated curtsy. 

The Duke of Sussex described how Meghan meeting the Queen for the first time was a ‘shock to the system’.

Harry said: ‘My grandmother was the first senior member of the family that Meghan met. She had no idea what it all consisted of so it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.’

Harry also described a ‘huge level of unconscious bias’ in the Royal Family.

The couple discussed Princess Michael of Kent wearing a Blackamoor-style brooch to a pre-Christmas event in front of Meghan at Buckingham Palace in 2017. She was forced to apologise.

Harry said: ‘In this family sometimes you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution. And there is a huge level of unconscious bias. The thing with unconscious bias is actually no one’s fault.

‘But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself you then need to make it right.

‘It is education. It is awareness. It is a constant work in progress for everybody, including me.’

There was also a suggestion that the UK is racist and more obsessed with race than the US, with Meghan declaring that she ‘wasn’t really treated like a black woman’ until she came to Britain.

Meghan also hit out at the formality of the royals, describing meeting Prince William and Kate for the first time wearing torn jeans and bare feet.

Discussing what happened, she said: ‘I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.’

She said: ‘I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.

‘That there is a forward-facing way of being. And then you close the door and you are like “Oh great. OK, we can relax now”. But that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.’

Harry’s Invictus documentary in August last year showed the Sussexes had taken a starkly different approach to being on screen, instead following a group of former military servicemen and women on their road to the paralympic-style sporting competition Invictus.

It highlighted the story of a British army captain who played an intricate role in Harry’s creation of the Invictus Games, after he set up the sporting competition in 2014 for injured and sick military personnel and veterans.

Netflix said of the new series Polo: ‘Through fierce rivalries and intense training, viewers will get an unprecedented glimpse into the dedication and skill required to compete at the sport’s highest level.

‘From a young player pushed to his limits by his demanding father, to a former golfer who’s made significant sacrifices for the love of the sport, to the father-son duo widely regarded as the greatest players of all time — they all face intense personal and professional challenges as they vie for the coveted title.’

Polo is known as ‘the sport of kings,’ and the Duke has played for decades.

Queen Elizabeth II would often cheer Prince Philip on, as would Princess Diana when Charles, then Prince of Wales, played.

Biographer Andrew Morton described it as ‘a royal rite of passage’ for the female members of the Royal Family in his book Meghan: A Hollywood Princess.

The Duchess of Sussex’s first public appearance with Prince Harry was at a polo match, while Kate greeted Prince William after a match with a kiss.

King George VI introduced the Royal Family to polo and enjoyed both watching and playing the game. William and Harry have played since they were teenagers.

Following in the footsteps of their late mother-in-law Diana, Kate and Meghan have also been spotted on the sidelines watching their husbands play.

‘It is something of a royal rite of passage,’ Andrew Morton wrote in Meghan: A Hollywood Princess.

‘Some of the best – and most affectionate – photographs ever taken of Princess Diana were when she attended polo matches involving Prince Charles,’ he writes.

Meghan watched Harry play polo in May 2017 at Coworth Park in Berkshire at what was to be their first public event together. She clapped and cheered on the prince from the royal box at the charity match.

Harry ‘is by nature very optimistic as a person and always pushing boundaries, always challenging people, and that’s how he plays polo,’ professional player Malcolm Borwick told the Express.

Although he now lives in California, the Duke of Sussex still plays polo and, in April this year, his team won a match in Miami to help raise funds for Sentebale, the charity which Harry founded in 2006.

William ‘is gifted because he has had to overcome the fact that he is left-handed and he has to play polo with his right hand,’ a commentator told the Express.

Kate often watches her husband play in charity matches and the couple have been photographed sharing a kiss after a game.