Buckingham Palace issued ‘demand’ ahead of Prince Harry 60 Minutes talk

60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper has revealed the “demand” Buckingham Palace made before his Prince Harry interview went to air.

60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper claimed Buckingham Palace demanded to see his blockbuster sit-down with Prince Harry before the interview aired Monday (AEDT).

Cooper spoke with the Duke of Sussex ahead of the release of Harry’s memoir, Spare, about the death of Princess Diana, his rift with his brother, Prince William, and anger inside the royal family aimed at his wife, Meghan Markle.

At the end of the candid, half-hour interview, Cooper confirmed that 60 Minutes reached out to the palace for comment.

“Its representatives demanded that before considering responding, 60 Minutes provide them with our report prior to airing it tonight,” Cooper said.

He added that the CBS-owned program denied the palace the report before it aired — a standard practice among reputable journalistic platforms.

“It’s something we never do,” Cooper concluded.

Cooper asked Prince Harry about his tense relationship with his older brother, Prince William.

Cooper’s discussion with Prince Harry shed light on his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997, as well as his contentious relationship with his brother.

Harry, 38, was 12 at the time of his mother’s death when the car she was travelling in crashed in a tunnel in Paris. He explained how for years he was in disbelief that she had died, and that it was not until he was 20 that he viewed some of the images from the crash.

Cooper asked him why he wanted to see the photos, and the prince said it was for “proof.”

Harry also painted a picture of a massive sibling rivalry with his older brother, William, which boiled over when the younger prince married Markle.

Prince Harry detailed how the aftermath of his mother’s death impacted his life during the interview.

He detailed a 2019 incident in which Prince William, 40, “snapped” during an argument, in which he was verbally “coming for [Markle],” who wasn’t there at the time of the fight.

“And his frustrations were growing and growing and growing,” Harry recalled. “He was shouting at me. I was shouting back at him. … And he snapped. And he pushed me to the floor.”

Harry said he landed on a dog bowl during the “nasty experience,” which broke and cut his back, and noted that his brother apologised following the incident and asked him not to tell Markle. But later, Markle noticed the wound.

“It wasn’t pleasant at all,” Harry said of the 2019 argument.

This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission

Originally published as Buckingham Palace issued ‘demand’ ahead of Prince Harry 60 Minutes talk