Prince Harry has accused Queen Consort Camilla of leaking royal stories and private conversations to the British media to repair her reputation. The prince made the allegations during several interviews to promote his new book “Spare,” which talks about his life story and brings readers behind the palace walls.
In interviews aired on January 8 and 9, Prince Harry accused several royal family members of getting in bed with tabloids to gain favorable media coverage for themselves. He singled out his stepmother Camilla, saying she desperately attempted to repair her image with the people after her affair with his father, King Charles III, which made his mother, Princess Diana, miserable for most of their marriage.
During his interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Prince Harry said that the connections she forged with British media made her dangerous, noting that both she and the press were willing to trade information.
The Duke of Sussex did interviews with ITV and 60 Minutes on CBS, which aired on Sunday, January 8, and then did another interview with Good Morning America on Monday, January 9. The interviews were to promote his new memoir, “Spare,” which was released on Tuesday, January 10.
Some of the bookshops in the UK opened their doors at midnight to sell the highly anticipated book, which has generated headlines since its announcement with claims of battles within the royal family.
In the interviews and in their Netflix documentary “Harry and Meghan,” which aired in December, Harry repeatedly blamed the British media for his and Meghan’s uncomfortable stay in the UK. He also said that the media contributed greatly to the rift between him and his brother Prince William.
While speaking to Good Morning America, the Prince said that the tabloids always pitched him and his brother against each other and did the same with Meghan and Kate Middleton.
While Harry was unapologetic about taking on a fight with the British media by launching lawsuits against some of them, he also criticized the royal family.
He brought up the claims he and Meghan made during their 2021 Oprah interview that someone in the royal family had raised concerns about how their child’s skin color would turn out. Although he said the royal family was not racist, he accused them of being unconsciously biased.
Harry said that the family needed to learn and grow from their mistakes so they could stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution. If not, unconscious bias was likely to become racism.
In his book, Harry explores the grief that overcame him after his mother’s passing and his resentment about his role as a “spare” heir. He also writes about a physical altercation with William and talks about how he lost his virginity and used cocaine and marijuana.
Harry said he gunned down 25 Taliban fighters, a claim that earned him criticism from British military veterans and the Taliban.
“Spare” discusses the particularly sensitive topic of Camilla being the third person in Princess Diana and King Charles’ marriage. Harry said that during Camilla’s wedding to his father, he had complex feelings about Camilla becoming his stepmother.
