After two ominous, one-minute trailers, the first volume of the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan dropped on Thursday night in Australia.
Through the lens of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, the six-episode series is what the streaming giant calls "a vulnerable look" into their time in British royalty.
A trip to Southern Africa after just two dates and a Halloween party the night before their relationship was exposed were among the biggest moments from episode one.
Let's unpack them.
'Who is Prince Haz?'
About ten minutes into the episode, Harry and Meghan dive into the story about how they first met.
With the help of some Instagram sleuthing, Harry and Meghan were introduced to each other through a mutual friend.
"It's Prince Haz," Meghan's friend told her over email, right after she asked if she would be interested in going on a date with "a friend" of hers.
"Who is Prince Haz????" was what Meghan responded with.
Shortly after, former professional tennis player and friend of Meghan's, Jill Smoller was interviewed. She spoke about sitting next to Meghan, "diagonal to the Royal Box" at Wimbledon in 2016.
While talking to each other about dating, Smoller points directly to Prince Harry and says to Meghan, "What about him?"
Smoller says she found out the next day that Meghan and Harry were going on a date.
Harry was late to his first date with Meghan
Meghan talked about how she was sitting alone in the restaurant waiting for Harry, initially thinking his ego would allow him to let a girl "sit around waiting for a half hour".
Luckily, in walked "a hot sweaty, red ball of mess," Harry recalls — burying all worries Meghan had about him.
The story became Netflix's official promotion of the first episode on its Twitter account.
The date was obviously a success, as they met again the next day.
But this time, it was Meghan who was late.
Marry someone who 'fits the mould'
Almost at the 20-minute mark, Harry talks about how for many people in the royal family, "especially the men", there is a pressure to think with your head, rather than your heart.
"There can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mould, as opposed to somebody who perhaps you are destined to be with," he said.
Harry then says his late mother, Princes Diana "certainly made most of her decisions, if not all of them, from her heart".
'The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution'
We start to hear Harry speak more about his mother.
"I don't really have any early memories of my mum. It's almost like, internally I blocked them out," he said.
"The majority of my memories are being swarmed by paparazzi.
“I was trying to balance the whole experience of being a young boy who was trying to deal with the loss of his mum without much support or help or guidance, it didn’t seem right, it didn’t seem fair," he said.
Later in life he was photographed "lashing out" at a photographer while leaving a nightclub one morning.
Multiple different clips of Diana being followed and photographed by crowds of photographers begin to play.
Harry reminds the audience that his mother was, "one of the most influential and powerful women in the world". But it's what he says after this that draws grim comparisons to the present.
"The moment she left the institution, she was by herself," he said.
Speaking about how he witnessed his mother fall deeper into isolation, Harry says it was a look at, "the pain and suffering of women marrying into this instituion".
He even recalls thinking to himself, "How could I ever find someone willing and capable to withstand my baggage".
Harry has a Sosotho name meaning 'warrior'
At 18 years old, Harry travelled to Lesotho in South Africa and met Prince Seeiso.
He spoke about how Prince Seeiso had also lost his mother.
"It wasn’t long until we became like brothers," Harry said.
After this first trip, Harry travelled back to Lesotho every year, earning him a Sosotho name "Mahale", which translates to "warrior".
"I went to Africa sometimes three months at a time. I’ve got a second family out there and a group of friends that literally brought me up.”
A trip to Botswana after two dates
Africa was such a large part of Harry's life that Meghan said she agreed to travel to Botswana with Harry, during her summer off from filming Suits, after having only met twice before.
As she was boarding the flight, Meghan recalls thinking about what would happen if "they didn't like each other", and were left to be "stuck in a tent in the middle of the bush for five days".
When she arrived in Botswana, it was the first time her and Harry had seen each other in a month.
The first thing he did?
He handed Meghan "a chicken sandwich".
“There were no distractions, no cell phone signal, no mirrors, no ‘how do I look?" Meghan said.
"Thankfully we really liked each other."
Halloween party and public exposure
Wrapping up the first episode of the series is Harry and Meghan's story about how their secret relationship was exposed to the entire world — but not without some Halloween spirit.
On the night before the first story about their relationship was published, Meghan and Harry reveal they attended a Halloween party, wearing costumes where, "no one would know" who they were, according to Harry.
The pair dressed up as pilots and wore headpieces, allowing them anonymity.
Also present at the party were Harry's cousin, Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.
Harry and Meghan say the Halloween party was their chance, "to make the most of the last night of their privacy".
The first episode concludes with the story of their relationship breaking, with a look ahead into the media’s coverage of Meghan.
Volume Two, with episodes 4 to 6, will air on Netflix on December 15.
