In the run-up to the release of his memoir “Spare,” Prince Harry has been busy promoting the tell-all, including by granting an interview on ITV News with journalist Tom Bradby aired on Jan. 9, 2022. In the discussion, Harry opened up about the trials and tribulations detailed in his book about his life in the British royal family, including his attacks against the press for its intrusive practices and accusations against senior members of the family of colluding with them.
Ever since officially leaving the royal family, Prince Harry has made it his mission to be transparent with the public about the difficulties he and his wife, Meghan Markle, experienced within the institution. Among them was their Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021 and in 2022, the release of their Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” chronicling the pair’s romantic journey and experiences under intense public scrutiny. This has been followed by “Spare,” Harry’s memoir whose title originates from claims the prince learned that after he was born, his father, King Charles III, had told his mother, Princess Diana, shortly after his birth that she had “given me an heir and a spare.”
Harry’s memoir, released on Jan. 10, 2023, comprised a plethora of explosive allegations. Among them were that he was in denial through much of his childhood about the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in 1997 and that it was his brother, Prince William, and his wife, Kate Middleton, who had encouraged him to wear the infamous nazi uniform for a costume party in 2005. Read on to find out more about what Harry told ITV and who he believed was the true “villain” of the royal family.
Prince Harry (2016), (Anthony Harvey/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)
Prince Harry’s sit-down with Bradby for ITV News unveiled a host of bombshells and revelations about the British royal household and Harry’s experiences within its hallowed halls. Among them were insights into Harry’s relationship with Prince William and Kate, as well as their frosty behavior towards his wife, Meghan. He told Bradby while the pair had been fans of Meghan’s TV show “Suits,” they held reservations about her as she was an “American actress, divorced, biracial.” When pressed by Bradby to state whether William and Kate “almost from the get-go” did not “get on” with Meghan, Harry agreed.
“The idea of the four of us being together was always a hope for me. Before it was Meghan, whoever it was going to be, I always hoped that the four of us would get on. But very quickly, it became Meghan versus Kate,” Harry remarked, adding his brother had also told him prior to his wedding to Meghan that “he aired some concerns very early, and said ‘this is going to be really hard for you’ and I still to this day don’t truly understand which part of what he was talking about. Maybe he predicted what the British press’s reaction was going to be.”
In “Spare,” Harry claimed he came to physical blows with William in an argument about Meghan. He told Bradby that William “wanted me to hit him back, but I chose not to. But again, so much of the relationship between me and William and the way it played out was because of the narrative – the distorted narrative – that was being pushed through the British press. And some people within his office were feeding him utter nonsense.”
Prince Harry’s Memoir “Spare” (2023), (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images News/Getty Images)
In the ITV interview, Harry’s most scathing criticism was reserved for the British press, but he also launched a broadside against members of the family who used the media to further their own agendas. In questioning Harry on his relationship with his father, King Charles III’s wife, Queen Consort Camilla, Bradby was told some revelatory claims.
“You say that your interests were sacrificed on her PR altar?” Bradby asked. Harry responded with a shake of the head, adding, “Those certain members have decided to get into bed with the devil, right? To rehabilitate their image. But the moment that that rehabilitation comes at the detriment of others – me, other members of my family – then that’s where I draw the line.”
This sentiment echoed Harry’s previous description of Camilla as a “villain” in an interview with American journalist Anderson Cooper on Jan. 8, 2023. In the “60 Minutes” episode, Harry said, “(Camilla) was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image,” adding:
“That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. And there was open willingness on both sides to trade of information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen Consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”
He also told Cooper both he and his brother had urged their father not to marry her. “We thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person, that – surely that’s enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to?”
However, Harry remained optimistic there was a way back, saying any moves toward reconciliation were “in his family’s court.”
