Prominent female leaders like Jacinda Ardern, Greta Thunberg, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Gloria Steinem are set to be featured in Prince Harry and Meghan Markles’ newest Netflix docuseries, Live to Lead.
Riding the wave of their recent Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, the couple have shared the trailer for their new series, featuring interviews with leaders around the world reflecting on their legacies and, as Netflix puts it, sharing messages of “courage, compassion, humility, hope and generosity”.
Netflix says the show “highlights the fundamental values, daily disciplines and guiding principles that leaders employ to motivate others and create meaningful change.”
The trailer opens with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg giving viewers the motivational message to “find a way” if there’s something you really want.
Other world leaders interviewed include New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, climate activist Greta Thunberg, feminist icon and social justice activist Gloria Steinem, social justice attorney and advocate Bryan Stevenson, South Africa’s national rugby union team captain Albie Sachs and social inequality campaigner Siya Kolisi.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle executive produced the show and appear frequently in the trailer with Harry saying the docuseries was “inspired by Nelson Mandela, who once said ‘What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived’.”
To which Meghan adds: “It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
The seven-part series will premiere on 31 December 2022. It’s directed by Geoff Blackwell, who featured each of the show’s interviewees in his I Know This to Be True book series, and is co-produced by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Blackwell says he and Ruth Hobday, his co-founder of media company Blackwell & Ruth, proposed creating the series while working on a book of Nelson Mandela’s prison letters with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“This [show] started in response to the relentless news cycle that we are all confronted with; the climate crisis, mass shootings, human suffering, and certain political leaders using tactics of divide and conquer and spreading misinformation to serve their own interests,” says Blackwell.
Details of the new show were announced just days after the last three episodes were released of “Harry & Meghan”, a docuseries detailing the couple’s decision to walk away from their senior royal roles due to bullying by William and the British press, as well as their lived experience since then.
Tens of millions of people have viewed “Harry and Meghan”- their autobiographical Netflix series- and reactions to the show have come in droves, with many commentators such as Jeremy Clarkson making openly misogynist comments towards Meghan.