Suits creator Aaron Korsh has said the royal family requested changes to the show’s script after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry went public with their relationship.
Markle, who first began dating Prince Harry in 2016, played attorney Rachel Zane in the legal drama for seven seasons. She exited the show in 2018 prior to their royal wedding in the same year.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Korsh recalled how one particular line of dialogue was cut at the royal family’s request after Markle and Harry’s relationship came to light.
“I remember one was a particular line of dialogue and, look, I’ll just say what the line was,” Korsh said. “My wife’s family, when they have a topic to discuss that might be sensitive, they use the word, ‘poppycock.’ Let’s say you wanted to do something that you knew your husband didn’t want to do, but you wanted to at least discuss it, and in just discussing it, you wouldn’t hold him to anything he said, you’d be like, ‘It’s poppycock.’
“So in the episode, Mike and Rachel were going to have a thing, and as a nod to my in-laws, we were going to have her say, ‘My family would say poppycock.’ And the royal family did not want her saying the word.
“They didn’t want to put the word ‘poppycock’ in her mouth. I presume because they didn’t want people cutting things together of her saying ‘cock’. So, we had to change it to ‘bullshit’ instead of ‘poppycock,’ and I did not like it because I’d told my in-laws that [poppycock] was going to be in the show. There was maybe one or two more things, but I can’t remember.”
Korsh explained that he wasn’t sure how the royal family were receiving the scripts. “I was aware that they were reading them because I got the feedback,” he added. “But I don’t remember the process by which they got them.”
Suits came to an end in 2019 after nine seasons. The show, which also starred Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams, received a spin-off in the same year centred around character Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres), which was later cancelled after one season.
All nine seasons of Suits are available to stream on Netflix UK.
