No intention of ‘harming’ his family: Prince Harry defended his memoir as ‘necessary’ on TV on Sunday, first excerpts of which were published four months before the coronation of King Charles III. threaten to further tear the royal family apart.
• Also read: Prince Harry on TV to defend his sensational royal family memories
• Also read: Prince Harry ‘isn’t very mentally stable’
• Also read: Taliban leader criticizes Prince Harry
“After 38 years of watching my story being told by so many people with deliberate distortions and manipulations, it felt like the right time to reclaim my story and tell it myself,” the Duke of Sussex said Interview with the British broadcaster ITV two days before the official publication of his book “The Substitute”.
“I love my father, I love my brother, I love my family and I always will. Nothing I have written in this book has been done with the intention of hurting or harming them,” he insisted, assuring that he hopes for a “reconciliation” on condition that “responsibilities” are established, particularly with his Departing with his wife Meghan Markle for California in 2020.
Watch an excerpt of the interview in English in the following video:
Harry believes his memoir is “necessary” to establish “historical facts” and adds that he is now “relieved”.
But according to excerpts from the book, which have been leaked to the press since the text was mistakenly put up for sale in Spain on Thursday, the prince spares almost no one, particularly his brother William, the heir to the throne, who has already scratched his fingers, “Harry & Meghan” documentaries began airing on Netflix in December.
The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex has called William a “beloved brother and sworn enemy” and accused him of throwing him to the ground during a 2019 argument over Meghan, who Harry married the year before.
He also accused his brother and wife Kate of having “stereotypes” towards Meghan, a mixed-race American actress, who “created a barrier” to welcoming her fully into the family.
He also reiterates his allegations against certain members of the royal family, whom he considers “accomplices” to articles hostile to him and his wife.
Harry also specifically attacks his father’s wife, Camilla, now the Queen consort, claiming that certain details of private conversations that have been published in the media may have “just leaked” from her.
When asked about the 2021 interview with American journalist Oprah Winfrey, Harry denies accusing the royal family of racism because one of their members questioned the color of their unborn child’s skin.
“No I haven’t. That’s what the British press said,” he contradicted, speaking more of “unconscious bias”.
Buckingham Palace has so far remained officially silent on this avalanche of confidences, but denials and comments are beginning to appear in the British media.
The Sunday Times quotes people close to Prince William as saying he is “sad”, “burning inside” but “silent for the sake of his family and the country”.
In an interview with CBS, Harry clarified that he and William aren’t currently on speaking terms and that he hasn’t spoken to his father in “quite a while.”
Harry makes him doubt his intentions. “A lot can happen before then,” but “the ball is in their hands,” he said in his interview with ITV.
“I don’t think silence is going to make things any better,” he adds, adding that he’s hoping for a “conversation” with his family, although he “doesn’t think his father or brother will read the book.”
Many passages in the book also testify to the trauma left by the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a traffic accident in Paris in 1997.
In his interview with ITV, Harry admits he ‘cried only once at his funeral’ and recounts his unease at having to join his brother to shake hands with people who came to meditate outside Kensington Palace in London .
The ITV show includes some excerpts from the audio version of the book read by the prince himself, such as the one where he recounts how his father told him about his mother’s death.
Since Thursday, reactions in the British press have ranged from disbelief at the intimacy of certain anecdotes Harry told, such as his loss of virginity and drug use, to outrage at what is seen as a frontal attack on the Royal family.
In particular, Harry’s confidence in the fact that he had killed 25 Taliban fighters in his operations in Afghanistan caused a huge outcry.