Prince Harry sat down for several explosive interviews ahead of the release of his memoir, Spare, two of which aired today.
The first is a 90-minute talk with ITV, and the second a tell-all with CBS' 60 Minutes. During the chats, the Duke of Sussex speaks further about the tensions that arose between himself, Prince William, and Princess Kate when Duchess Meghan joined the family. He also accuses step-mother Queen Camilla of having an agenda to better her image, and addresses his hopes for his future relationship with the royals.
See below for the biggest revelations.
The downfall of the fab four
Harry, who spent years attending royal engagements as a trio with brother William and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, tells ITV presenter Tom Bradby that when he married Meghan Markle, he hoped the four would form a great, easy new unit.
"I thought that the four of us would bring me and William closer together, we could go out an do work together," he says. "Before it was Meghan, whoever it was gonna be, I always hoped that the four of us would get on—but very quickly it became Meghan versus Kate."
Unconscious bias in the family
Harry says William and Kate acted in ways that made Meghan feel unwelcome. And while he insists his family is not racist, he says they do have "unconscious bias," and showed that when Meghan entered the family. When they saw her, Harry says they saw an "American actress, divorced, biracial."
The prince reiterates those claims in his talk with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, saying the royals saw his wife as an "American, an actress, divorced, Black, biracial, with a Black mother."
But he insists during the chat that the British press was responsible for most of the racist attacks on Meghan.
"What Meghan had to go through was similar in some part to what Kate and what Camilla, went through," the duke says. "But then you add in the race element, which was what the press—British press jumped on straight away."
"I went into this incredibly naive. I had no idea the British press were so bigoted. Hell, I was probably bigoted before the relationship with Meghan," he continues.
Camilla planted stories
In his book, Harry admits he and William begged father King Charles III not to marry Camilla, Queen Consort, after Princess Diana's death, and in his ITV interview, the Duke of Sussex accuses his stepmother of plotting with the U.K. media to better her imagine in order to get into the royal family.
"...She began to play the long game," Harry says, per an audiobook reading of the memoir aired in the ITV interview. "A campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the crown, with Pa’s blessing, we presumed."
Harry says positive stories about Camilla began to appear in all the British papers—most notably ones about her private conversations with William. Those stories, the prince says, contained "accurate details, none of which had come from Willie, of course. They could only have been leaked by the one other person present."
He adds that Camilla is one of the senior royals who've chosen to get "into bed with the devil" in order to "rehabilitate" their image.
The duke also brings up his stepmother in his 60 Minutes sit-down, saying that "she was the third person in the marriage" between King Charles and Princess Diana, and he thought Charles marrying her would cause "more harm than good."
He wants to reconcile with his family
"I love my father, I love my brother, I love family," Harry says, nonetheless adding that he doesn't know if he will attend his father's coronation, as "the ball is in their court" now.
"I don’t think my father or brother will read the book, but what they have to say to me and what I have to say to them will be in private, and I hope it can stay that way," Harry says to ITV.
He also tells 60 Minutes that the reason he is speaking out about his brother, father, and family, is to set the record straight, not to offend them or paint them as enemies.
"My brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years," Harry says.
He also wants to stand by his wife, who many have accused of pulling him away from his family and royal upbringing.
"None of anything that I've written, anything I've included is ever intended to hurt my family," the prince says. "But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers."
Rosa Sanchez is the senior news editor at Harper's Bazaar, working on news as it relates to entertainment, fashion, and culture. Previously, she was a news editor at ABC News and, prior to that, a managing editor of celebrity news at American Media. She has also written features for Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue, Forbes, and The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets.
