Will the Royals Play in Harry's Polo Documentary Series?

The wayward prince walks a fine line in filming "The Sport of Kings" for Netflix

Less than twenty-four hours after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle announced their new Netflix series about the “grit and passion” of professional polo, they surfaced last Friday at the tony Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida. It was, said The Palm Beach Post headline, a “surprise stop.” Trailed by a Netflix camera crew, Harry played in an exhibition match before some 300 invited guests to raise money ($1,600 a ticket) for Sentebale, the charity that the prince co-founded in 2006 to help children and young people in Africa. The documentary series, which has been quietly in the works since last summer, promises to “pull the curtain back” on the exclusive sport, “capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level.”

Thirty-nine-year-old Harry is expected to feature prominently on horseback with his championship polo-playing friend, forty-seven-year-old Argentinian Nacho Figueras, who has also worked as a model for Ralph Lauren. In Wellington, Harry’s Royal Salute Sentebale team defeated Figueras’s Grand Champions 3-1, and afterwards Meghan presented the trophy that she and Harry sealed with a kiss. The next day, Harry and the Netflix crew turned up to film more polo action at the US Open quarterfinal.

Meghan Markle giving Prince Harry a smooch after the trophy presentation at Wellington, Florida on April 12, 2024

While the series will cover the contemporary polo scene—mostly unknown to the average television viewer—it could be much enriched by showing how Harry’s own family has been involved with polo for more than a century. Whether Harry could venture there is open to question, though. Ever since his and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, their controversial Netflix series about their acrimonious departure from the royal family in 2020, and Spare, Harry’s accusatory memoir published last year, he and his older brother, Prince William, have barely spoken, and his relations with his father, King Charles III, became tense and wary.

Still, there is plenty of film footage available in the public domain to offer a comprehensive picture of the sport, even if Harry’s father and brother would be unavailable to share their reminiscences. Revisiting Prince Charles’s years as a polo player could also summon memories of his broken marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, which might be too painful for Harry to explore. Yet offering perspective on Prince Philip and Prince Charles at the very least could be an opportunity for Harry to mend fences, especially with his father.

“A wild and wildly expensive game”

The Guardian once described polo as a “wild and wildly expensive game of hockey on horses played by toffs.”  Tracing its origins to Persia in the 6^th Century BC, polo migrated to India, where maharajas took up the sport. British army officers stationed there imported it to Britain in 1865 for the aristocratic class to enjoy.  Polo entered the royal family early in the 20^th century when King Edward VII became a fan, although he didn’t play. His son King George V took to the field, as did his sons Edward (the future King Edward VIII), Albert (the future King George VI), Henry, and George, who performed with varying levels of ability and enthusiasm. Prince Philip and Prince Charles in turn became avid players, and Princes William and Harry followed.

In doing my research for Elizabeth the Queen and Prince Charles, I was fortunate to interview men and women who knew the polo scene and had well-informed and perceptive observations about Philip, Charles, William and Harry—their importance to polo and how the sport affected their lives, for good and sometimes ill. Romances and marital breakups played out on the sidelines. Royal men took to the polo fields to escape the press as well as the pressures of their public roles. Diana, the Princess of Wales, hated the game, which had a recurring role in her tempestuous marriage to Prince Charles.