Prince Harry denies on TV any ‘intentions’ to ‘harm’ the royal family

He says he has no intention of “hurting” his family. Prince Harry defended his memoir on television on Sunday, calling it “essential”. The first excerpts from the text threaten to split the royal family four months before the coronation of King Charles III.

“After 38 years of watching my story being told by so many people with deliberate distortion and manipulation, I felt it was time to take my story back and tell it myself,” the Duke of Sussex said in this post in an interview with the British channel ITV. broadcast two days before the official release of his book The Substitute.

“I love my father, I love my brother, I love my family and always will. Nothing I wrote in this book was done with the intent to harm or harm them,” he insisted, assuring that he hoped for “reconciliation” subject to the establishment of “duties”, in particular for his departure to California . (USA) with wife Meghan Markle in 2020.

Harry considers his memoir “essential” to establish “historical facts”, adding that he now feels “relieved”. But according to excerpts from the book leaked to the press after the text was mistakenly put up for sale Thursday in Spain, the prince spares almost no one, in particular his brother Wilhelm, the heir to the throne, already scarred in the Harry and Meghan documentary series. aired on Netflix in December.

“Beloved brother and sworn enemy”

The Duke of Sussex, 38, calls William “a beloved brother and sworn enemy” and accuses him of knocking him to the ground during a 2019 row over Meghan, whom Harry married a year earlier. He also accuses his brother and his wife Kate of having “stereotypes” towards Meghan, the mixed-race American actress who “created an obstacle” to fully accept her into the family. More generally, he describes his long rivalry with William and how they fought as children. William also allegedly ignored Harry at school and even tried to get him to shave off his beard before he marries Meghan.

He also repeats his accusations against some members of the royal family, whom he considers “accomplices” of articles hostile to him and his wife. Harry notably also attacks his father’s wife, Camilla, now Queen Consort, claiming that some of the details of private conversations released to the media “could have been revealed” only by her.

Asked about an interview given to American journalist Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Harry denies accusations of racism by the royal family over one of its members questioning the color of their unborn child’s skin. – Not. This was reported by the British press,” he denied, saying instead of “unconscious bias”.

He had not spoken to his father Charles III “for a long time”.

Buckingham Palace, the seat of the British royal family, has so far kept official silence about this avalanche of revelations. But denials and comments began to appear in the British media. The Sunday Times quotes people close to Prince William as saying he is “sad”, “burning up inside”, but “silent for the sake of his family and country”. In an interview with American CBS, Harry clarified that he and William no longer speak to each other and that he hasn’t spoken to his father “for quite some time.”

Harry leaves him to question his intentions. “A lot can happen” but “the ball is on their side,” he told ITV. “I don’t think silence is going to make things better,” he adds, adding that he hopes to “talk” to his family, although he “doesn’t think his father or brother would read the book.”

Many passages also testify to the trauma left by the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a traffic accident in Paris in 1997. On ITV, Harry admits that he “only cried once, at his funeral” and talks about his discomfort when he had to shake hands with his brother, who came to meditate at that time in front of Kensington Palace in London. The ITV program, in particular, includes some excerpts from the audio version of the book read by the prince himself, for example, the one where he tells how his father announced his mother’s death to him.

For now, he is not demanding a new investigation into his mother’s death.

Harry describes the day of the funeral as he walked behind the coffin. “The clatter of bridles…the pounding of hooves on the concrete and sometimes…the gravel underfoot and the screams of the crowd,” he recalls. “But otherwise, complete silence is what will remain forever (heavy) in my memory.” Harry says he read a secret government file on his mother’s death, which his private secretary cut from photos of the accident. He also explains that as an adult he drove through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, where he tragedy struck. “There are many things that remain unexplained,” he said. “But I’ve already been asked if I want to start (…) another investigation. At the moment, I don’t see the point.”

In the British press since Thursday, reactions have alternated between disbelief at the intimacy of some of the anecdotes told by Harry, such as his loss of virginity, drug use, and outrage at what is seen as a direct attack on the royal family. Harry’s admission that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his missions in Afghanistan caused a huge outcry.