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LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry has defended his decision to publish a memoir exposing rifts in Britain’s royal family, saying it was an attempt to “own my story” after 38 years of being “spinned and distorted” by others.
Harry spoke to Britain’s ITV and CBS’s “60 Minutes” to promote his book “Spare,” which has generated inflammatory headlines detailing personal emotional turmoil and bitter family feuds.
In interviews broadcast on Sunday, Harry accused members of the royal family of getting “into bed with the devil” to get favorable tabloid coverage, claimed his stepmother Camilla, the Queen’s wife, leaked private conversations to the media and said his family was “complicit” in his wife Meghan’s “Pain and Suffering”.
Harry said Camilla needed to rebuild her image with the British people after her long-term relationship with his father and that he was one of the victims of her efforts to get better tabloid coverage.
“It made her dangerous because of the connections she was building in the British press,” he told CBS. “There was an open willingness on both sides to exchange information.” And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there would be people or bodies left on the streets.
He repeated his claim on ITV that there had been “concern” within the royal family about the skin color of his unborn child after he married biracial American actress Meghan Markle, and said the British monarchy should address attitudes your to the race.
Harry and Meghan first mentioned the incident during an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. They did not identify the family member who expressed concern.
Harry said the episode was an example of unconscious bias, not racism, adding that the royal family needed to “learn and grow” to be “part of the solution, not part of the problem”.
“Otherwise unconscious bias then falls into the category of racism,” Harry said. He said that “especially when you are a monarchy – you have a responsibility and quite rightly people hold you to a higher standard than others”.
He said a recent incident in which a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II asked a black British woman where she was “really” from was a “very good example of the institutional environment”.
“Standby” explores Harry’s grief over his mother’s death in 1997 and his long-simmering resentment of being a royal “back-up”, overshadowed by “heir” older brother Prince William. He recounts arguments and a physical altercation with William, reveals how he lost his virginity (in a field), and describes his use of cocaine and cannabis.
He also says he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan – a claim criticized by both the Taliban and British military veterans.
Harry told ITV that he had only cried once since his mother’s death – at her funeral. He said he felt guilty for showing no emotion as he and William greeted crowds of mourners outside Kensington Palace, Diana’s London home.
In the book, Harry blames his family’s tight-lipped ethic, saying he had “learned too well…the family maxim that crying is not an option”. The Associated Press purchased a Spanish copy of the book ahead of its worldwide release on Tuesday.
“There were 50,000 bouquets of flowers for our mum and we were shaking hands with people, smiling,” Harry told ITV journalist Tom Bradby. “I’ve watched the videos haven’t I, I’ve gone through everything backwards. And the wet hands we were shaking, we couldn’t understand why their hands were wet, but all were the tears they were wiping.
“Everyone thought and felt as if they knew our mother, and the two people closest to her, the two people she loved the most, could not show any emotion at that moment.”
Harry told 60 Minutes that it took him more than a decade to accept that his mother was dead. He and his brother often discussed the idea that she had gone into hiding and would reappear later.
“I had high hopes,” he said.
It wasn’t until he read the police report on his mother’s death, saw photos from the scene, and later – at the age of 23 – followed the same route in the Paris tunnel where his mother died when her driver crashed while avoiding paparazzi, her death became a reality, he said.
“Spare” is the latest in a series of public statements by Harry and Meghan since they left royal life and moved to California in 2020, citing what they saw as racist media treatment of Meghan and a lack of support from the palace. It follows an interview with Winfrey and a six-part Netflix documentary released last month.
In the ghost-written memoir, Harry, 38, details the couple’s acrimonious split with the royal family in early 2020 after their request for a part-time royal role was rejected.
Harry contrasted the withdrawal of taxpayer-funded security for the couple with the case of his uncle, Prince Andrew, who was removed as working royal because of his friendship with US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Last year, Andrew settled a lawsuit from a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her while she was traveling with financier Epstein when she was 17. Andrew paid an undisclosed amount as part of the settlement but did not admit wrongdoing.
Harry claimed no one had considered removing Andrew’s guard despite the “disgraceful scandal”.
The TV interviews are just two of several given by Harry that will put more pressure on the royal family. He also appeared on Good Morning America and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Royal officials have not commented on any of the allegations, although allies have rejected the allegations, largely anonymously.
Veteran British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby, a biographer and friend of King Charles III, said on Saturday that Harry’s revelations were of the type “you would expect … from a B-list kind of celebrity” and that the king would be hurt and disappointed by them.
In the 60 Minutes interview, Harry denied that his description of his brother’s “alarming baldness” and fading resemblance to their mother as they age was crude and said his book was not intended to hurt his family.
Although he said he hasn’t spoken to his father or brother in a while, he hopes to find peace with them. Harry told ITV he wanted a reconciliation with the royal family but “the ball is in their court”.
“They have shown absolutely no desire for reconciliation,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Brian Meli contributed to this story from Los Angeles.
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