The world is used to Netflix pumping out the dramas created by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
But the streamer is now laying bare the bleakness of royal life in a new documentary that exposes the strain, scrutiny and cultural clashes behind palace walls – thanks to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway.
The film, Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story, charts Märtha’s journey from royal duty to self-exile, culminating in her unconventional 2024 wedding to American shaman Durek Verrett, 50.
Directed by Tiger King‘s Rebecca Chaiklin and backed by full access to the couple, the documentary revisits 54-year-old Märtha’s decades-long struggle with her position, the racism her partner faced when entering the family and the deep unease their relationship sparked across the Norwegian court.
A source close to the production said: “This documentary strips away the fantasy. Märtha shows exactly how suffocating royal life can be, and how steep the cost is for anyone who dares to step outside tradition.”
Another insider added: “Meghan’s claims of institutional racism within the British royal family have nothing on this.”
The bleakness shown here comes from the rules – the unspoken ones are often the hardest. Märtha makes clear she spent years contorting herself just to survive inside the system.
Märtha, daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja, renounced her official royal role in 2022, saying she wanted “to create a clearer dividing line between her business activities and her role as a member of the royal family.”
20 years earlier, she had already relinquished the title “Her Royal Highness” to pursue a career in entertainment. In the documentary, she admits she found leaving her role behind “a bit sad.”
She added: “But that’s how everybody wanted it, and I’m good at accepting things I can’t change.”
Her fiancé added a new layer of tension. Verrett, a Hollywood-based shaman who has worked with Gwyneth Paltrow, Nina Dobrev and James Van Der Beek, recalls shocking racism he encountered at a royal dinner in Denmark.
He said: “One guy even said to me, ‘You see all the pictures on the walls? Your family comes from Africa, right?’ And I said ‘yes,’ and he goes, ‘Well, you know, all these people are the people who enslaved your family. How does that make you feel?’ Who says that?”
Märtha reflected: “When Durek walks into the room, he’s guilty from the start. It must be so exhausting.”
Verrett also said King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon “didn’t even know what racism was” until Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2021 Oprah interview forced a discussion on the issue. “I got a message from the King saying, ‘Do you feel that we’ve treated you the same way?'” Verrett said. “Finally, her parents listened to me, and the King said he has no tolerance for the way people have been treating me.”
The documentary also exposes the awkwardness of Durek’s first meeting with the King and Queen.
Märtha admitted: “I think my mom was a bit worried because to be with a shaman, that’s terribly out of the box.”
Verrett added: “When I met the Queen and King, they were just staring at me, and it was dead silence… they hated my clothes… it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, welcome to our family, we love you, we get you.’ It was like, ‘Why are you with this guy?'”
Märtha’s daughters Maud, 22, Leah, 20, and Emma, 16 – whom she shared with her first husband Ari Behn before his death in 2019 – initially thought Verrett was gay. “He has a lot of personality. We loved it, though,” Emma said.
Verrett described their story as “a story of resilience” and one meant to inspire viewers “to live their truth as they are, unapologetically.”
He added: “I think that’s a very important aspect that we wanted to share with the world, especially in today’s world.”
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