Prince Harry reveals cause of rift with Prince William in ‘revealing’ trailer
Prince Harry has revealed the cause of the painful rift between him and Prince William in a trailer for his forthcoming autobiography.
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The Duke of Sussex is poised to attack his brother and complain how he was forced to play second fiddle, in a publicity blitz for his forthcoming explosive autobiography, Spare.
In a trailer billed as “revealing” and “explosive” Prince Harry is expected to open up about why he has not spoken to the Prince of Wales for more than three years in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes host Anderson Cooper.
In a separate interview to be broadcast in the UK on ITV the same day, Prince Harry has said: “I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back”, as a trailer for an upcoming TV interview was released.
Prince Harry also says: “I want a family, not an institution” and “they’ve shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile”.
In a series of clips released by ITV, which is airing the interview on 8 January, the duke says “It never needed to be this way” and refers to “the leaking and the planting”.
He also says “they feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains”.
“I would like to get my father back. I would like to get my brother back.”
In the trailer for the interview to air on 8 January, two days before the book is released, Prince Harry is not heard speaking but seen with a pained expression to emphasise a point.
Spare is expected to give details about disagreements between Prince Harry, 38, and Prince William, 40, and several pages are dedicated to his wife the Princess of Wales, while the King gets off lightly.
This comes after the duke claimed in his Netflix documentary that Prince William broke a pact to him never to leak stories or brief against one another after witnessing the fallout of similar actions in their father’s office.
Spare is the story of a troubled young prince estranged from his family, and ghostwritten by an author known for his expertise in fraught father-son relationships.
British Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said he did not see how the brothers’ relationship could ever recover.
“The book [will be] worse for the Wales’s than the royal family is expecting and after this I don’t see how Harry and William will mend their relationship, Harry has gone rogue,” he said.
“Everything is game, it seems but I understand Charles comes out of it better than expected, but it’s tough on William, in particular, and even Kate gets a bit of a broadside.”
The autobiography is ghostwritten by JR Moehringer, a Pulitzer prizewinning former journalist who also ghosted Andre Agassi’s best-selling autobiography.
Spare will be one of the biggest books of 2023: as soon as it was available to order, in October, it reached No 1 on Amazon both in the US and UK, and has remained near the top of the British charts ever since.
In the Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary last month, Prince Harry claimed his brother “screamed and shouted” at him during the crisis talks in January 2020 about the Sussexes leaving the UK.
Mr Cooper, 55, also a star of the CNN network, has campaigned to promote better mental health and hosts a podcast called All There Is. He has spoken about losing his brother Carter, 23, to suicide. Carter fell to his death from the family’s 14th-floor Manhattan apartment in 1988.
Mr Cooper also has war experience, having reported from Afghanistan, where Prince Harry completed two tours of duty.
Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle have lined up more projects for Netflix.
The $20 million deal the Sussexes struck with Penguin Random House is understood to be for four books in total. The others are currently thought to be a wellness-focused book by the duchess, a book about leadership and philanthropy, and potentially a Meghan Markle memoir too.
Mr Moehringer is understood to have approached a number of Prince Harry’s friends to research Spare, including his former flames, but many have declined to speak. A significant portion towards the end of the book is also understood to be given over to criticism of the media, especially the British tabloids.
The duke will give one major television interview to broadcasters on each side of the Atlantic. In the UK, Tom Bradby, who presents the ITV News at Ten and has known Harry for more than two decades, has landed the scoop.
Bradby, 55, is considered a safe bet having become close to both brothers while he was a royal correspondent in the 1990s. His documentary revealed Meghan Markle’s mental health turmoil. The interview is understood to have been recorded in California, and while its broadcast date is not yet confirmed, it is earmarked for next Sunday, two days before the book hits the shelves. ITV is tipped to trail the interview today.
Harry: The Interview airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on 8 January.
Originally published as Prince Harry reveals cause of rift with Prince William in ‘revealing’ trailer
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