Prince Harry has aired a series of claims about members of the royal family in a number of interviews to promote his new memoir, ‘Spare’.
The claims relate to King Charles III (Australia’s head of state), his wife Queen Consort Camilla, and Prince Harry’s brother William and sister-in-law Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Here’s a short summary of what’s been said.
Media “feeding frenzy”
Prince Harry blamed the media for seeking to create “as much conflict as possible” between him and his family. He says the coverage led him to leave the country with his wife Meghan Markle “fearing for [their] lives”.
He accused his family of fuelling this coverage by leaking private information (providing it anonymously) to the press.
He said “certain members” of his family had “decided to get in the bed with the [the tabloids]”. He labelled Queen Consort Camilla a “dangerous” leaker who had left “bodies… in the street”.
Strained relationships
Prince Harry said his relationships with his father and brother had broken down as a result of the media coverage and that he no longer “recognised” them.
He described a physical altercation with Prince William in 2019, claiming his brother pushed him to the ground and called Markle “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”.
In a Netflix documentary last month, he described having his father and brother “scream and shout” at him.
“Silence is deafening”
Prince Harry also accused his family of remaining silent in the face of “cruel” public commentary about Markle.
He referred specifically to “deafening” silence after a newspaper column by Jeremy Clarkson last month in which Clarkson made graphic and explicit comments about his desire for Markle to be publicly humiliated. Clarkson later said he was “horrified” by the hurt his words had caused.
Personal revelations
Prince Harry’s memoir also includes a number of personal revelations. He described a 2005 incident where he dressed as a Nazi for a costume party as “one of the biggest mistakes of [his] life”, adding Prince William and his wife Kate had encouraged the costume.
He also detailed his two military tours of Afghanistan with the British army in 2007-2008 and 2012-13. Prince Harry said he had killed 25 people, but added he “didn’t think of [them] as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, bad people eliminated before they could kill good people.”
Future of the monarchy
The royals have not responded publicly to Prince Harry’s comments, but an anonymous friend of Prince William told the Sunday Times he was “burning” with anger.
Prince Harry says he “genuinely” hopes for “reconciliation” with his family. He also said he still believed in the importance of the monarchy.
However, he ruled out ever returning to perform any royal duties, implying the media would make his return “unsurvivable”. He would not confirm whether he planned to attend his father’s Coronation ceremony in May.
