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Prince Harry added to his claims about the inner workings of the British royals ahead of the publication of his memoir Spare on Monday, setting the stage for an explosive week for the estranged family as they navigate his sweeping revelations.
In two interviews with the British and American networks ITV and CBS, the Duke of Sussex spoke about the death of his mother, the Princess of Wales; his contempt for the British press; his anger at the treatment of his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the subsequent problems with his family after their marriage.
Speaking to CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Prince Harry accused Queen Consort Camilla of leaking stories about the family to the British media as part of a campaign to “rehabilitate” her image. He said he had not spoken to his brother, Prince William, and his father, King Charles III, for “some time”, adding that “the ball is very much in their court” when asked about the possibility of a reconciliation.
Buckingham Palace has repeatedly refused to comment on the content of Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir, which has been the subject of leaks with some of its most controversial claims. CNN has not seen a copy of the book, but has requested an advance copy from publisher Penguin Random House.
The interviews came hours before the publication of his memoir on Monday, as Prince Harry continues to defy what he calls “the establishment” by revealing his perspective on life in the royal family.
Speaking to CBS’s Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry said that both he and his brother, Prince William, had asked the king not to marry Camilla.
“We didn’t think it was necessary. We thought it would do more harm than good, and that if he was with him now, that was surely enough.
But he said the brothers eventually came around to the idea: “We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her.
However, the Duke of Sussex added that Camilla was “dangerous” because she had been cast as a “villain” by the press for her role in the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and needed to “rehabilitate her image”.
“That made her dangerous because of the connections she was building in the British press. And there was an open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to becoming Queen Consort, there will be people or bodies left on the street because of that,” Prince Harry said.
The CBS interview included a reference to Harry’s memoir when he wrote about being “sacrificed” on Camilla’s “personal PR altar.”
By way of explanation, the Duke told Cooper: “If you’re led to believe, as a family member, that being on the front page, having positive headlines, positive stories written about you will improve your reputation or increase your chances of being accepted as a monarch from the British public, then that’s what you’re going to do. ”
Camilla married Prince Charles in 2005, eight years after the death of his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. The two have been romantically involved for decades, and Diana once referred to Camilla as the third person in their marriage.
In the interview and in extracts from his memoir shared by ITV, the Duke of Sussex called the British press an “antagonist” who wanted to “create as much conflict as possible”.
“The saddest part of this is that some members of my family and the people who work for them are complicit in this conflict,” he added.
He stated that the “leaking” and “planting” of a “royal source” to the press “is not an unknown person, it is the palace that specifically informs the press but covers its tracks by remaining unnamed.”
Prince Harry added that he thought it was “quite shocking to people. Especially when you realize how many palace sources, palace insiders, senior palace officials, how many quotes are attributed to these people, some of the most vile, horrible things have been said about me and my wife, completely justified by the palace because that is coming from the palace, and these journalists have literally been spoon-fed this narrative without ever coming to us, without ever seeing or questioning the other side.
Prince Harry echoed those sentiments with CBS’ Cooper, adding that even at age 12, he resented the British media.
“It was obvious to us as children the involvement of the British press in our mother’s misfortune and I had a lot of anger inside me which thankfully I never expressed to anyone,” he said. “But I resorted to a lot of alcohol. Because I wanted to take the feeling away or I wanted to distract myself from how…whatever I was thinking. I would also resort to drugs.”
In both interviews, Prince Harry spoke about how his mother was hounded by paparazzi, recalling the traumatic night his father said Princess Diana died from injuries sustained in a car crash.
“I’m really thinking about what time he was awake. And the compassion I feel for him as a parent who has to sit with this for many, many hours, calling his friends, trying to figure out how the hell do I communicate this to my two sons?’
Harry said he never wanted to find himself having to do the same.
“I don’t want history to repeat itself. I don’t want to be a single father. And I certainly don’t want my children to have a life without a mother or a father,” Prince Harry told ITV’s Bradby.
Diana was killed in 1997 when the car she was traveling in crashed into a Paris tunnel. Prince Harry was 12 years old at the time. He told Cooper that his memory of the days that followed was hazy, but he remembered seeing the crowd of people outside Buckingham Palace who came to offer their condolences.
“I think it’s weird because I see William and I smiling,” he said. “I remember the guilt I felt… The fact that the people we were dating were showing more emotion than we were showing, maybe more emotion than we were even feeling.”
Prince Harry told Cooper that he “refuses to accept that she’s gone” and for “years” he believed she had decided to disappear.
The Duke of Sussex said he only cried when his mother’s coffin sank into the ground. “It was the first time I really cried … there’s never been another time,” he said.
Prince Harry also recalled the events surrounding the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8 at Balmoral Castle. The Duke was at a charity event in London when the palace announced that the Queen was under medical observation.
“I asked my brother – I said, ‘What are your plans? How are you getting on with Kate?’ And then, a few hours later … all the family members who live in the Windsor and Ascot area got on a plane together, a 12-, 14-, maybe 16-seater plane,” said he. “I wasn’t invited.”
He recalled spending time with the Queen in her bedchamber after she died.
“I was really happy for her. Because she was done with her life. She had completed her life and her husband was waiting for her. They are both buried together,” Prince Harry said.
Despite the fractured relationship between the two brothers, Prince Harry told Cooper that he loved William “deeply”.
“My brother and I love each other. I love him very much,” said the Duke of Sussex. “There’s been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially over the last six years.”
He added that nothing he wrote was “intended to hurt my family.”
“But it gives a full picture of the situation when we were growing up and also rejects the idea that somehow my wife is the one who destroyed the relationship between these two brothers,” Prince Harry said.
The book’s title, “Spare,” is a reference to “heir and a spare,” a UK proverb that refers to the need to have a child to inherit an aristocratic title. Harry was next in line to the British throne after William until William’s children were born – he is now fifth in line.
The strained relationship between the brothers is a common theme in leaked excerpts from Harry’s book and media interviews, which reveal deep divisions between the siblings.
Perhaps the most incendiary revelation to emerge was Prince Harry’s claim of a fight with the Prince of Wales during a row over his wife in 2019, as he described while reading an extract from his memoirs on ITV on Sunday.
Prince Harry said his brother never tried to dissuade him from marrying Meghan, but expressed some concerns and told him: “It’s going to be really hard for you,” Prince Harry recalled during his interview with Bradby .
“To this day, I don’t really understand what part of what he was talking about,” Prince Harry continued. “Perhaps he anticipated the reaction of the British press.”
The Duke of Sussex also told ITV’s Bradby about his decision to write the book, saying: “38 years of my story being told by so many different people, with deliberate twists and turns, it felt like the right time to tell my own story and to be able to say that about myself. I’m actually very grateful to have had the opportunity to tell my story because this is my story to tell.”
Prince Harry has indicated that he has spent the past six years trying to resolve his issues with his family privately.
“It should never have come to this point. I’ve had conversations, I’ve written letters, I’ve written emails, and it’s all just “No, you, that’s not happening.” You, you imagine,” he said. “This is really hard to accept. And if it had stopped by the time I fled my home country with my wife and son, fearing for our lives, then maybe it would have turned out differently. This is difficult.”
The Duke said he wanted “reconciliation, but first there must be some responsibility” regarding his family.
Prince Harry previously blamed the constant media intrusion as a critical stressor for him and his wife, which ultimately led to their decision to step down as working royals in 2021.
In a six-part Netflix documentary released last month, the couple said the attacks in the press, the palace’s lack of action to prevent them and the couple’s growing suspicions that the royal household was actually feeding the media had pushed Meghan into a dark place .
“You can’t just keep telling me I’m delusional and paranoid when all the evidence has been piled up because I was genuinely horrified at what was going to happen to me,” Prince Harry told ITV’s Bradby.
“And then we have a 12-month transition period and everyone doubles. My wife shares her experience. And instead of backing down, both the establishment and the tabloid media in the UK doubled down,” he added.
Still, the Duke said “forgiveness is a 100% possibility.”
“There are probably a lot of people who, after watching the documentary and reading the book, will go, how could you ever forgive your family for what they did? People have already told me that. And I said forgiveness is a 100% possibility because I would like to have my father back. I would like to get my brother back. I don’t recognize them right now and they probably don’t recognize me,” Prince Harry said.
On Monday, the Duke’s interview with “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan will air on the ABC show, followed in the evening by a half-hour special on ABC News Live. And to top it all off, the Duke will appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after his book is released.
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