CNN
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Prince Harry added to his allegations about the inner workings of the British royal family ahead of the publication of his memoir “Spare” on Tuesday, setting the stage for an explosive week for the estranged family as they navigate their highly publicized revelations.
In two interviews with British and American networks ITV and CBS, the Duke of Sussex spoke about the death of his mother, the former Princess of Wales. his contempt for the British press; His anger at his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the fallout with his family after their marriage.
Speaking on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Prince Harry accused Camilla, the Queen Consort, 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 a while”, 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 detailing some of his 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 come just hours before the publication of his memoirs at midnight London time on Tuesday (7 pm ET Monday), as Prince Harry pushes back against what he calls “the establishment” by revealing his views on life within the royal family. .
Prince Harry: I was probably a fanatic before my relationship with Meghan
Speaking to CBS’s Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry said he and his brother Prince William had urged the king not to marry Camilla.
“We didn’t think it was necessary. We thought it would do more harm than good and if he was now with his person, that – sure enough. ”
But his brothers finally came to this idea: “We wanted him to be happy. And we see how happy he is 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 collapse of her parents’ marriage and needed to “rehabilitate her image”.
“It made her dangerous because she was spoofing the British press. And there was an open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built in a hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen Consort, there would be people or corpses left on the streets,” Prince Harry said.
The CBS interview included a reference to Harry’s memoir when he wrote about being a “sacrifice” on Camilla’s “personal PR altar.”
By way of explanation, the Duke told Cooper: “If you are led to believe as a member of the family, the front page, the positive headlines, the positive stories written about you, your reputation will be improved or enhanced. The British people are likely to accept you as monarch, then you what will you do.”
Camilla married Prince Charles in 2005, eight years after the death of his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. The two were romantically involved for decades, and Diana once famously referred to Camilla as the third person in their marriage.
In interviews and in excerpts from his memoirs shared by ITV, the Duke of Sussex referred to the British press as “oppositional” that wanted to “create as much conflict as possible”.
“The saddest part of it is that some of my family members and people who work for them are involved in that conflict,” he added.
He said the “leaks” and “plants” of “royal sources” in the press were “not an unknown person, this palace specifically briefing the press, but covering their tracks by anonymity.”
Prince Harry added that he thinks “it’s very shocking to people. Especially when you realize how many palace sources, palace officials, senior palace officials, how many quotes are attributed to those people, some very disgusting, horrible things about me and my wife. That being said, the palace has completely forgiven because it is. Coming from the palace, and those journalists have literally spoon fed that story without coming to us, without looking at the other side or questioning.”
Prince Harry echoed those sentiments with CBS Cooper, saying even at age 12 he felt resentment toward the British media.
“The British press’s part in our mother’s grief was clear to us as a child and I had a lot of anger inside me that fortunately, I didn’t express to anyone,” he said. “But I started drinking a lot. Because I wanted to listen to the feeling, or distract myself from how I was thinking. And I would, you know, resort to drugs too.
‘A HUGE revelation’: These are some of the shocking revelations from Prince Harry’s book
In both interviews, Prince Harry spoke about how his mother was hounded by the paparazzi, recalling the traumatic night when his father died from injuries suffered in a car crash with Princess Diana.
“I really wonder how many hours he was awake. And the compassion I have for him, as a parent having to sit with him for hours, playing with his friends, trying to work, how the hell am I going to break this to my two sons?”
Harry said he never wanted to find himself doing that.
“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 go through life without a mother or a father,” Prince Harry told ITV’s Bradby.
Diana died in 1997 when the car she was traveling in crashed in a Paris tunnel. Prince Harry was 12 years old at the time. He told Cooper his memories of the days that followed were hazy, but recalled seeing crowds of people outside Buckingham Palace who had come to pay their respects.
“I find it strange, because I see William and me smiling,” he said. “I remember the guilt I felt … the people we met were showing more emotion than we showed, maybe more emotion than we realized.”
Prince Harry told Cooper that he “refused to accept that she was gone” and “a lot years” believed he had decided to disappear.
The Duke of Sussex said he only cried when his mother’s coffin hit the ground. “It was the first time I actually cried … there was never 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 the Queen was under medical supervision.
“I asked my brother – I said, “What’s your plan? How are you and Kate getting up there?” And then, a few hours later … all the family members who live in the Windsor and Ascot area jumped on a plane together, a 12, 14, maybe 16-seat plane,” he said. “I wasn’t invited.”
He remembered the time he spent in the Queen’s bedroom after her death.
“I was really happy for her. Because she had finished her life. She had finished her life, and her husband was waiting for her. And the two of them are buried together,” Prince Harry said.
Despite the rift between the two brothers, Prince Harry told Cooper that he “loved William deeply”.
“My brother and I love each other. I love him deeply,” said the Duke of Sussex. “There’s been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years.”
He added that nothing he wrote was “intended to hurt my family.”
“But it gives a fuller picture of what we were growing up in, and also defies the idea that somehow it’s my wife who’s destroying the relationship between these two brothers,” Prince Harry said.
The book’s title “Spare” is a reference to “heir and a spare”, a phrase in the United Kingdom that refers to the need to have a child in order to receive a noble title. Harry was next in line to the British throne until William’s children were born – he is now fifth in line of succession.
The strained relationship between the siblings has been a common theme in leaked excerpts from the book and Harry’s media interviews, which revealed a deep rift between the siblings.
Perhaps the most provocative revelation to emerge was Prince Harry’s claim that he clashed with the Prince of Wales during an argument about his wife in 2019, as he described when he read part of his memoirs on ITV on Sunday.
Prince Harry said his brother never tried to stop him from marrying Meghan, but expressed some concern and told her, “‘It’s going to be really hard for you,'” Prince Harry recalled in an interview with Bradby.
“To this day I still don’t understand what part he was talking about,” continued Prince Harry. “Maybe he predicted the reaction of the British press.”
The Duke of Sussex also told ITV’s Bradby about his decision to write the book, “38 years of my story being told by so many different people, it felt like a good time to tell my story with deliberate spin and distortion and to be able to tell it for me. I’m really grateful. That I have the opportunity to tell my story because it is my story.
Prince Harry pointed out that he had tried to privately resolve his concerns with his family over the past six years.
“It was never necessary to get to this point. I’ve had conversations, I’ve written letters, I’ve written emails, and everything is just, ‘No, you, this isn’t happening. You, you’re imagining it,'” he said. said “It’s really hard to take. And if it had stopped, to the point where I fled my country with my wife and my son in fear for our lives, then maybe it would have been different. It’s hard.”
Duke said he “wants reconciliation but first there needs to be some accountability,” regarding his family.
Prince Harry has previously blamed constant media intrusion as a significant strain on him and his wife, which ultimately led to his decision to step down as a working member of the royal family in 2021.
In a six-part Netflix documentary released last month, the couple’s press attacks, the lack of action from the palace to stop them and the royal family’s growing suspicion that the royals are really feeding the media pushed Meghan into a dark place.
Prince Harry told ITV’s Bradby: “You can’t continue to tell me that I’m delusional and crazy after all the evidence has been gathered, because I was really scared of what was going to happen to me.”
“And then we have a 12-month transition period and everyone doubles down. My wife shares her experience. And instead of retreating, both the organization and the tabloid media in Britain doubled down,” he added.
Still, Duke said, “a pardon is 100% likely.”
“There are probably a lot of people who, after watching the documentary and reading the book, will go, how can you forgive your family for what they’ve done? People have already told me. And I said that forgiveness is 100% possible because I want to get my father back. I want my brother back. At this point, I don’t know them any more than they know me,” Prince Harry said.
On Monday, Duke’s interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahan will air on the ABC program, a half-hour special on ABC News Live in the evening. And to top things off, Duke will appear on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after his book is released.
