Harry interview: Royals ‘trashed us to the point we had to leave’
Prince Harry claims he and Meghan fled Britain because they feared for their lives, and that the situation was ‘encouraged’ by his family.
Prince Harry claims he and his wife Meghan had fled Britain because they were in fear of their lives, and that the situation had been “encouraged” by other members of the royal family “all designed to trash my wife and myself”.
In an hour-long British interview Harry appears completely obsessed with the British media, saying that that “heinous, horrible things” were planted by the palace about himself and Meghan to complicit journalists, even insisting that the media had not sought his point of view.
He said that on the day the Queen died would have been a really good opportunity to bring the family together, but instead “it was just a really horrible reaction from my family members”. In what was reported at the time, the staged walkabout with William, and Kate was for show. Harry said of that time: “They were on the back foot, the briefings, the leaking, the plotting”.
He appeared forlorn saying: “We are here to celebrate the life of granny and mourn her loss, and can’t we come together as a family? I don’t know how how we change that.”
In his first of a handful of handpicked interviews to promote his book Spare, for which he was paid $US20million, and which he claims was “essential”, Harry deflects much questioning by ITV journalist Tom Bradby, saying that divisions with the rest of the family are all because of the British tabloid media with its cronyism, racism and lies.
“I hope what I say to my father and brother remains private,” Harry told Bradby, with a straight face and refusing to send a message to his family who may be watching.
Harry sensationally claimed: “For last six years the level of planting and leaking from other members of the family means in my mind they have written countless books, millions of words, all designed to trash my wife and myself to the point I had to leave my country.”
He added: “The distorted narrative is we wanted to leave to make money. We were dedicated to a life of service, as proven by everything we are doing now, with the work we do.
“The proposal was very much on the table, publicly, which is that we can’t cope in this situation, we want to put our mental health first, we asked for help and support at the time but I didn’t understand how complicit the family were in that pain and suffering that was happening to my wife.
“And the one group of people who could help and stop this from happening were the very people who had have encouraging it to happen.”
In other revelations Harry said William didn’t try to dissuade him from marrying Meghan but that “he aired some concerns very early on”.
Harry said that William told him “It is going to be very hard for you”, but he added “I still don’t understand what part he was talking about, maybe he predicted what the British press reaction was going to be’’.
Harry also says Meghan and Kate “never got on” and believes Meghan was the victim of “stereotyping” because she was an “American, divorced, biracial actress”.
Harry referred to the allegations of racism aired in the Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021, as being “unconscious bias” and appeared to justify conversations in the family about what the baby of a mixed race couple would look like as being commonplace from “the white side”.
He also supported one of the Queen’s closest confidantes, Lady Susan Hussey, in the row about her asking a London charity worker Ngozi Fulani where she was really from.
Harry said: “Meghan and I love Susan Hussey. She thinks she’s great. And I also know that what she meant – she never meant any harm at all.”
Harry insisted that despite his breaking of confidences of those closest to him in the book – including accusing his step mother Camilla of leaking private conversations – that he would like to get his father and brother back.
However he said of Charles and William: “At the moment I don’t recognise them, as much as they probably don’t recognise me. But that is a symptom of the problems, we are not talking family relationships, we are talking about an antogonist, the press, specifically the tabloids who want to create as much conflict as possible. The saddest part of that is that certain members of my family and those that work with them are complicit in that conflict.”
Harry said he was the happiest he has ever been but that being in a happy place infuriates people. “Just by leaving (the UK), that embarrasses people,’’ he said.
“Circumstances back there haven’t changed, “ he said, insisting “I feel safe here, I am happy, my family is happy, it is difficult going back, I am in such a good head space now.”
In the Anderson Cooper interview, shown on the American version of 60 Minutes, Harry divulged that that on the day the Queen was dying he had asked William how he and Kate was getting up to Balmoral.
But he then found a couple of hours later all the royal families that were based in the Windsor area – William, Prince Edward and Sophie and Prince Andrew – were jumping on a plane together that had 12 or 14 seats.
“I wasn’t invited,’’ said Harry.
Asked if he was speaking to William, Harry replied “currently no, but I look forward to us being able to find peace”. He said he hadn’t spoken to Charles “for quite a while, no, not recently”.
When pressed about revealing conversations of family members in the book and breaching privacy, Harry became defensive and said “this all started with them briefing daily (the British tabloid press) with lies to the point my wife and I had to run away from my country”.
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