Memoirs of Prince Harry in "Spare" and communication with his mother 0:41
(CNN) --
Prince Harry has added more allegations about the inner workings of the British royals ahead of the publication of his memoir "Spare," due out Tuesday, setting the stage for an explosive week for the family. real as they browse their highly publicized revelations.
In two interviews with the British and American networks ITV and CBS, respectively, the Duke of Sussex spoke of the death of his mother, the Princess of Wales;
her disdain for the British press;
his anger at her treatment of his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the subsequent fallout to his family since they were married.
Speaking to 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 his campaign to "rehabilitate" his image.
He said he had not spoken to his brother Prince William, not his father King Charles III, for "a while," adding that "the ball is in his court" when asked about it. the possibility of reconciliation.
Buckingham Palace has repeatedly refused to comment on the content of Prince Harry's upcoming 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 Penguin Random House.
Harry's interviews come hours before his memoir is due to be published on Tuesday at midnight London time (7pm Eastern time on Monday), as Prince Harry continues to reject what he calls "the institution", revealing his perspective on life within the royal family.
advertising
Prince Harry says 'appalling and horrible' stories have been pushed from the palace to build pressure
The words that would have led to physical aggression between William and Harry 5:35
Prince Harry and Camilla, Queen Consort
Speaking to CBS's Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry said that both he and his brother, Prince William, had asked the now King Charles III not to marry Camilla.
“We didn't think it was necessary.
We thought it was going to cause more harm than good and if they were together now, that would surely be enough."
But he said the brothers finally accepted 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 branded a "villain" by the press for her role in the collapse of her parents' marriage and needed to "rehabilitate her image".
“That made her dangerous because of the connections she was forging within the British press.
And there was an open will on both sides to exchange information.
And with a family based on the hierarchy, and with her, on her way to becoming queen consort, she would have been affected by that," Prince Harry said.
The CBS interview included a reference to Harry's memoir when he reportedly wrote about being "sacrificed" on Camila's "personal PR altar."
Prince Harry added Monday that he hasn't spoken to Camila in "a long time" but added in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America that he doesn't see her as "an evil stepmother."
When asked about his relationship with his father's second wife, King Charles III, Harry replied: "We haven't spoken in a long time."
But she added: "I love each member of my family, despite the differences, so when I see her, we are perfectly nice to each other."
“She is my stepmother.
I don't see her as an evil stepmother.
I see someone who married this institution and has done everything possible to improve her own reputation and her own image, for her own good,” she continued.
By way of explanation, the Duke told Cooper: “If you are led to believe, as a family member, that being on the cover, having positive headlines, positive stories written about you, will enhance your reputation or increase the chances that the British public accepts you as monarch, then that's what you're going to do."
Camilla married the then-Prince Charles in 2005, eight years after the death of his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales.
The two had been romantically involved on and off for decades, and Diana once referred to Camila as the third person in her marriage.
ANALYSIS |
The silence of the royal family is deafening before the leak of Prince Harry's new book
King Charles III and Camilla, the queen consort, wave as they leave Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland. Credit: Andrew Milligan/Pool/Getty Images
Prince Harry's relationship with Buckingham Palace and the British press
In the interview and in excerpts from his memoir shared on ITV, the Duke of Sussex referred to the British press as an "antagonist" who wanted to "create as much conflict as possible."
“The saddest thing about that is that certain members of my family and the people who work for them are complicit in that conflict,” he added.
He claimed that the “leak” and “planting of stories” by “a real source” to the press “is not from an unknown person, it is the palace specifically informing the press, but covering its tracks by not being identified. ”.
Prince Harry added that he thinks "that's pretty shocking to people."
"Especially when you realize how many palace sources, palace insiders, high-ranking palace officials, how many quotes are attributed to those people, some of the most heinous and horrible things have been said about me and my wife, completely tolerated by the palace because they come from the palace, and those journalists have been literally fed that narrative without ever coming to us, without seeing or questioning the other side."
Prince Harry echoed those sentiments with CBS's Cooper, adding that even at the young age of 12, he resented the British media.
"It was obvious to us as children the part of the British press in our mother's misery and I had so much anger inside me that I thankfully never expressed it to anyone," he said.
“But I resorted to drinking a lot.
Because I wanted to numb the feeling, or I wanted to distract myself from… whatever I was thinking.
And I, you know, would also turn to drugs."
Harry compares Meghan to Diana and criticizes the "unconscious bias" of royalty in a Netflix documentary
Prince Harry's grief after his mother's death
In both interviews, Prince Harry spoke about how the paparazzi went after his mother, recalling the traumatic night his father told them Princess Diana had died from injuries sustained in a car accident.
“I really think about how many hours I had been awake.
And the compassion that I have for him, as a parent who has to sit with that for many, many hours, calling his friends, trying to figure out, how the hell do I tell my two kids this?"
Harry said that he never wants to be forced to do the same.
"I don't want history to repeat itself.
I don't want to be a single parent.
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 died in 1997, when the car she was traveling in crashed inside a Paris tunnel.
Prince Harry was 12 years old at the time.
Harry told Cooper that his memories of him in the days that followed are hazy, but he remembers seeing the crowds of people outside Buckingham Palace who came to offer their condolences to him.
“I think it's weird, because I see William and me smiling,” he said.
“I remember the guilt I felt… The fact that the people we were meeting were showing more emotion than we were showing, maybe more emotion than we were feeling.”
Prince Harry told Cooper that he "refused to accept that she was gone" and for "many years" believed she had decided to disappear.
The Duke of Sussex said he only cried once as his mother's coffin fell to the ground.
“That was the first time I really cried…there was never another time,” he said.
The death of Queen Elizabeth
Prince Harry also recalled the events surrounding the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on September 8, 2022 at Balmoral Castle.
The duke was at a charity event in London when the palace announced that the queen was under medical supervision.
“I asked my brother – I said, 'What are your plans?
How are you and Kate going to get there?
And then a couple of hours later… all the family members who live in the Windsor and Ascot area were jumping on a plane together, a plane with 12, 14, maybe 16 seats,” he said.
"I was not invited."
He recalled spending time with the queen in her bedroom after her death.
“I was very happy for her.
Because she was done with life.
She had completed her life and her husband was waiting for her.
And the two are buried together," Prince Harry said.
Prince Harry's relationship with his brother William
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 dearly," the Duke of Sussex said.
"There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially in the last six years."
He added that nothing he has written "is intended to hurt my family."
"But it gives the full picture of the situation as we grew up, and it also squashes the idea that somehow my wife was the one who destroyed the relationship between these two brothers," Prince Harry said.
Asked in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America if he felt he bore any responsibility for the breakdown of his relationship with his brother Prince William, Prince Harry replied: "No doubt, I'm sure."
"But what people don't know is the effort I've made to resolve this in private, both with my brother and with my father," he added.
OPINION |
Why Prince Harry Can't Stop Sharing Too Much
Prince Harry claims to have been assaulted by his brother 0:41
The book's title of "Spare" is a reference to the phrase "an heir and a spare", a saying in the UK 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 now he is the fifth in the line of succession.
The strained relationship between the brothers has been a common theme in leaked excerpts from the book and in Harry's media interviews, which revealed deep divisions between the brothers.
Perhaps the most incendiary revelation to emerge was Prince Harry's claim of a falling out with the Prince of Wales during an argument over his wife in 2019, as he described when reading an excerpt from his memoir on ITV on Sunday.
Prince Harry said his brother never tried to talk him out of marrying Meghan, but he expressed some concerns, telling her: “'This is going to be very hard for you,'” Prince Harry recalled during his interview with Bradby.
"I still to this day don't really understand what part he was talking about," Prince Harry continued.
"Maybe he predicted what the reaction of the British press was going to be."
The decision to write the book and the consequences for the family
The Duke of Sussex also told ITV's Bradby about his decision to write the book, saying: "It's 38 years of my story told by so many different people, with intentional twist and distortion.
It seemed like a good time to tell my own story and be able to do it myself.
In fact, I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to tell my story because it is my story to tell.
Prince Harry noted that for the past six years he has tried to resolve his concerns with his family in private.
“It was never necessary to get to this point.
I've had conversations, I've written letters, I've written emails, and it's all just, 'No, this is not what's happening.
You're imagining it,'” she said.
“That is really hard to accept.
And if it had stopped, the moment I fled my home country with my wife and son in fear for our lives, then maybe this would have turned out differently.
It's hard".
The duke said he wants "reconciliation, but first there must be some responsibility" regarding his family.
Harry previously blamed constant media intrusion as a critical stressor for him and his wife that ultimately led to their decision to step down as members of the royal family in 2021.
In a six-part Netflix documentary released last month, the couple said the press attacks, the palace's inaction to prevent them and the couple's growing suspicions that the royal house was actually feeding the media Meghan was pushed into a dark place.
"You can't keep telling me I'm delusional and paranoid when all the evidence is piling up, because I was genuinely terrified of what was going to happen to me," Prince Harry told ITV's Bradby.
“And then we have a 12-month transition period and everything doubles.
My wife shares her experience.
And instead of backing down, both the institution and the tabloids in the UK stepped up the narrative of her,” she added.
Still, the duke said, "forgiveness is 100% a possibility."
“There are probably a lot of people who, after seeing the documentary and reading the book, will say, how could you forgive your family for what they've done?
People have already told me that.
And I said that forgiveness is 100% possible because I would like to get my father back.
I would like to have my brother back.
At the moment, I don't recognize them, as much as they probably don't recognize me," Prince Harry said.
prince harry
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/YDCG6AGH6HOM3WMF3R7G7W3E7I.jpg)