Prince Harry sat down for some explosive interviews ahead of the release of his memoir, To spare, which finally went on sale on January 10.
On Sunday, his much-anticipated 90-minute talk with ITV and his story with CBS 60 minutes finally aired. On Monday, his chat with good morning america also premiered, and on Tuesday, his performance premiered The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired.
In the interview, the Duke of Sussex spoke further about the tension that arose between himself, Prince William, and Princess Kate when Duchess Meghan joined the family. He also accused Queen Camilla’s stepmother of having an agenda to improve her image and conveyed her hopes for her future relationship with the royals.
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See below for the biggest revelations.
Meghan vs Kate
Harry, who spent years attending royal engagements as a trio with brother William and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, told ITV presenter Tom Bradby that when he married Meghan Markle, he hoped the four would form a great new unit. and easy.
“I think the four of us will bring me and William closer, we can go out and work together,” he said. “Before Meghan, whoever that was, I always hoped the four of us would hit it off, but very quickly it became Meghan versus Kate.”
Subconscious bias in the family
Harry said William and Kate acted in a way that made Meghan feel unwanted. And while he insists his family is not racist, he says they have a “subconscious bias” and pointed that out when Meghan entered the family. When they saw her Harry said they saw an “American actress, divorced, biracial.”
The prince repeated the claim in his conversation with Anderson Cooper 60 minutes, said the royals saw his wife as “American, an actress, divorced, Black, biracial with a Black mother.”
But he insisted during the chat that the British press was responsible for most of the racist attacks against Meghan.
“What Meghan is going through is similar to what Kate and Camilla are going through,” the duke said. “But then you add an element of race, which is the press—the British press jumped right in.”
He continued, “I had this really naïve thing. I didn’t know the British press was so rabid. Hell, I may have been a zealot before… the relationship with Meghan.”
The prince also told Stephen Colbert that at one point, he became “obsessed” with reading bad news about Meghan’s wife to try to understand where the criticism was coming from.
Camilla planted the story
In his book, Harry admits he and William begged their father, King Charles III, not to marry Camilla, Empress, after the death of Princess Diana, and in his ITV interview, the Duke of Sussex accused his stepmother of conspiring with the British media to improve his image to into the royal family.
“He started playing the long game,” said Harry, based on an audiobook reading of the memoir that was shown in an ITV interview. “A campaign devoted to marriage and eventually the crown, with Pa’s blessing, we presume.”
Harry said that before Charles and Camilla’s wedding, positive stories about Camilla started appearing in all the British newspapers—especially stories about her private conversations with William. The stories, said the prince, contained “accurate details, none of which came from Willie of course. It could only have been leaked by the one other person present.”
He added that Camilla was one of the senior royals who had chosen to “copulate with the devil” to “rehabilitate” their image.
Duke also brings up his stepmother 60 minutes sat down saying, “He was the “villain” and “third person” to the marriage between Charles and Diana, which is why he and William thought Charles marrying Camilla would cause “more harm than good.”
He took drugs to cope with the death of his mother
The prince said he started drinking heavily and using drugs, including cocaine, in his early 20s. He also tried psychedelics as a therapy to deal with the death of his mother.
“The war didn’t start in Afghanistan. It started in August 1997,” Cooper said, repeating the duke’s thoughts, in 60 minutes.
Cooper also brought it up To spare, Harry mentioned having done psychedelics, including ayahuasca, psilocybin, and mushrooms.
Harry replied “I wouldn’t recommend people do this recreationally. But do it with the right people if you’ve had a lot of loss, grief or trauma then these things have a way of working as medicine.”
“What did they show you?” Cooper asks, with the duke explaining that they are helping him through his “woes”.
“For me, they clean the windshield, the windshield, the woes of loss,” he said. “They took away the notion I had in my head that… I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her. When really, all she wanted was for me to be happy.”
The queen’s reaction to her departure from the kingdom
Harry told GMAMichael Strahan, “My grandmother and I have a very good relationship,” adding that he did not react negatively to her decision to step down as senior royal in January 2020.
He said his and Meghan’s departure “never came as a surprise to anyone, least of all her,” the queen.
“He knows what’s going on, he knows how hard it is,” he continued, speaking of his late grandmother. “He never told me he was angry. I think he was sad that it got to that point.”
He checked the facts Crown
The prince confessed to Colbert, “Yeah, I actually watched Crown.“
And when asked if he fact-checked, the prince said, “Yes, actually.” He added, “Another reason why it’s so important that history is right.”
You can watch the full interview here (skip to the 37:26 timestamp to watch what Harry has to say Crown).
She didn’t think she and William would be estranged if Princess Diana were alive
“If your mother was alive, did you ever think about how she would handle this moment?” Colbert asked Harry during their conversation, referring to his estrangement from the Prince of Wales.
“We’re not getting to this moment,” Harry replied. “It’s impossible to say where we will be now—where the relationship will be now—but there is no way my brother and I will be the same distance.”
He wants to make peace with his family
“I love my dad, I love my brother, and I love family,” said Harry, adding that he did not know if he would 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 say to me and what I say to them will be private, and I hope it stays that way,” Harry told ITV .
He also told 60 minutes that the reason he talks about his brother, father, and the rest of his family is to set the record straight, not to offend or paint them as enemies. Although she hasn’t spoken to William or King Charles in a long time, she said she looks forward to him and his brother “being able to find peace” in the near future.
“My brother and I love each other. I love him very much. There has been a lot of pain between us both, especially the last six years,” said Harry.
He also stands by his wife, who many have accused of pulling him away from his family and royal upbringing.
“None of anything I write, anything I include is meant to hurt my family,” said the prince. “But it gives a complete picture of the situation as we grew up, and it also takes away from the idea that somehow my wife was the one who destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”
He would not return to being a senior noble
Harry told 60 minutes that despite his willingness to reconcile with members of his royal family, he does not see himself ever returning as a full-time senior member of the royal family.
He also told GMA“I don’t think that will ever be possible,” but insisted that if there is a way he and Meghan can “continue to support the Commonwealth, then that is, of course, on the table.”
He added that even if he decided to return and his senior royal family members — King Charles and Prince William — agreed, the British press would make life impossible for him and Meghan.
“I don’t think that-you know, even if there is an agreement or arrangement between me and my family, there are third parties who are going to do everything they can to make sure that’s not possible,” he said. “It didn’t stop us from going back, but it made it unsustainable, and that’s very sad, because it basically ruined the relationship between us.”
Harry explained many times in interviews and in his memoirs how the media had a lot to do with the breakdown of his relationship with his brother and father.
Rosa Sanchez is the senior news editor at Harper’s Bazaar, working on news related to entertainment, fashion and culture. Previously, he was news editor at ABC News and, before that, 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.
