Prince Harry wants nothing more than to restore contact with his family, he said (again) in TV interviews on Sunday to promote his book. The British royal takes part Reserve one remarkable anecdote after another and his family is not spared. According to critics, the chance of reconciliation seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Harry’s memoirs are in stores from Tuesday morning, but several passages have already leaked. One thing is certain: the prince does not mince words. William in particular has to pay for it. According to Harry, his brother physically assaulted him.
The book was finished in the summer, even before Queen Elizabeth’s death in September. It was expected that Harry would be a bit milder in interviews after the loss of his grandmother. “After Elizabeth passed away, Harry spent time with his family. You’d think he’d choose his words a little more carefully after that,” writes Sky News in an analysis.
“But that was absolutely out of the question. He continues to hang out the dirty laundry. And the worst part is that this overshadows the saddest story: the loss of his mother.”
Among other things, the prince speaks with little love about Camilla, the wife of his father Charles since 2005. “She was the enemy,” the prince told ITV. “She had to fix her image.”
I get why Harry is sharing this. But the way he does that, he smashes his own glasses.
Camilla, now queen consort, had an affair with (then) Prince Charles for years. That made her unpopular with the general public. Nor with Harry, it now appears. “It was dangerous because she wanted to get a white foot with the press. She was therefore open to exchanging information. And that could claim victims.”
According to the prince, his older brother William would do the same: deliberately share information about Harry, for example. In return, the media would spare William and write nothing negative about him.
Harry describes that relationship with the press as “making a pact with the devil”. “If you think you should do that to polish your image. Well, that’s a choice. But if you also discredit others… I would never do that myself.”
‘Terrible’ reactions after Elizabeth’s death
The British royal says that this also happened after his grandmother Elizabeth died. The family reunited shortly after her death. Harry expected them to mourn and reminisce. “But they reacted horribly to it. There was only talk of briefings, information was deliberately leaked to the press. I was like, aren’t we here to celebrate grandma’s life?”
Harry denies that he is out to put his family in a bad light. “Certainly not my stepmother,” says the prince. “I want to restore the bond, but I do think they should take responsibility for what they’ve done. If it’s up to me, I’ll forgive them everything. I want my dad back, I want my brother back. But for now that’s it not in it, because it remains silent from their side.”
Critics say it will stay that way for some time to come. “I understand why Harry is sharing this. But the way he does it makes him throw his own glasses,” says the British newspaper’s royalty reporter The Independent.
Even the most ardent royalty fans feel they’ve been given an information overload.
Harry also joined the American talk show 60 Minutes, where journalist Anderson Cooper dared to be a bit bolder than his British colleague from ITV. For example, he asked Harry to cry when he heard that his mother had died.
The prince then told how he dealt with Diana’s death in his twenties. He found it hard to cry about it at the time. “So I started drinking heavily, and also doing drugs. While watching videos of my mom online. Maybe that brought tears to my eyes.” Therapy helped him, as did his time in the military. “I was far away from the British press, I finally felt normal. And I had a purpose in life.”
“Even the most ardent royalty fans feel they’ve been given an information overload,” the British newspaper finds. The Telegraph. That is recognized by Sky News: “By now we have heard so much from Harry and Meghan that nothing they say is really surprising.”
The provisional last interview with the prince has not yet been: Tuesday evening he is on Stephen Colbert’s talk show.
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