(London) King Charles III. and his heir William appeared unfazed on Thursday in their first public appearances since the publication of Harry’s memoirs, a big gruesome unpacking for the British monarchy, which is enjoying a meteoric start in bookshops.
Posted at 12:57pm
Germain MOYON with Paul BARKER in Liverpool and Hugues HONORE in Paris Agence France-Presse
“Are you planning on commenting on Harry’s book one day?” a reporter asked William as he arrived for a visit to a hospital in Liverpool, north-west England.
The Prince of Wales didn’t react and greeted the attending public with a smile along with his wife Kate.
Just as true to the famous British motto of World War II, “Keep calm and carry on,” Charles III shrugged. shrugged off the scandal as he faced the public in a kilt near Balmoral.
PHOTO ANDREW MILLIGAN, Portal
Charles III
It was at this Scottish chateau that Elizabeth II died in September, and it was here in 1997 that he informed his children, William and Harry, of their mother Diana’s death in Paris, a scene recounted in Spare (Le Substitute) with a wealth of uncompromising detail.
In this memoir, Prince Harry, who has lived in exile in California since 2020, spares no one, although he claims he does not want to hurt anyone and wants reconciliation: neither himself, in his drug and alcohol-ridden youth, nor her father King Charles III. nor her brother William, nor her stepmother and now Queen Consort Camilla, or her sister-in-law Kate.
His “beloved brother and best enemy” is the most criticized. Portrayed as angry, William would never have loved his wife Meghan, whom he considered “ill-mannered and aggressive”, and knocked Harry to the ground in the dog bowl during an argument in 2019.
Buckingham Palace remains silent on these bad revelations as Charles III’s coronation on May 6th is approaching.
But the press reported on the Windsors’ dissatisfaction, citing anonymous sources, with several tabloids reassuring Thursday that Harry and Meghan were no longer welcome at the event with a global audience, already overshadowed by the estrangement.
“The family expects Harry and Meghan to find an excuse not to come,” a source told the Chron.
New prints in France
In Britain, the prince is often described as a spoiled child, and according to a YouGov poll conducted after the memoir was published, just 24% of Britons still have a positive opinion of the Duke of Sussex.
They are now even less popular with his wife Meghan than Prince Andrew, brother of Charles III, who was released from the monarchy after a sex scandal.
Just 21% of Brits think Harry’s main motivation is telling his side of his story, as he claims, while 41% think it’s the money.
“It looks a bit like an opportunity to make some money and keep talking about them (Harry and Meghan, ed.) in the press,” said Shannon Simons, an employee at the Liverpool Hospital that cares for William and Kate in an interview with AFP.
On the other hand, her colleague Stacey Oats expresses her sympathy for the California couple: “They’re a little more normal for the youngest, while the royal family is a little bit aging.”
“It’s pretty sad what they went through. I get the impression Harry hasn’t recovered from what happened to his mother,” the 35-year-old caregiver continues.
Despite hostility from much of the public, the memoir sold more than 1.4 million copies in English on day one in the UK, US and Canada, according to publisher Penguin Random House.
This is unheard of for an essay from this publishing giant.
The French translation, which started with a circulation of 210,000 copies, is the subject of a new circulation of 130,000 copies, Fayard Editions told AFP.
The publisher reports about 20% higher demand from booksellers than the first volume of Barack Obama’s Presidential Memoirs in 2020, A Promised Land.