Is Prince Harry hellbent on breaking ties with the Royal family? What is the goal of this tenacious display of placing his immediate kin in a bad light for all the world to see?
Today marks the publication of the world’s most-awaited book Spare, the ghostwritten memoir of the Duke of Sussex.
A searing, yet poignant narrative, Spare shows in vivid detail Prince Harry as the orphaned and grieving boy, the anxious teenager, the wartime combatant, and the hapless member of the Royal family.
Explored in vivid detail throughout the book is Harry’s desire to be a different kind of prince — the kind who ventilates his feelings, eats fast food, and someone who wouldn’t want to hide beyond a puritanical facade.
But why does he feel so “pained” by the other members of the family to the point that he seems hellbent on destroying them?
Hellbent Harry
In Anderson Cooper’s 60 Minutes interview, Prince Harry voiced out that when he introduced Meghan Markle to his family in 2016, his father was initially fond of her. But his brother, Prince William, was cynical.
“Right from the beginning, before they even had a chance to get to know her,” Harry said. “And the U.K. press jumped on that. And here we are.”
When Cooper asked where the wariness came from, Prince Harry explained that it originated from Meghan’s being an American, a film star, and a divorced woman who is biracial with a Black mother.
“Those were just four of the typical stereotypes that is— becomes a feeding frenzy for the British press,” Prince Harry said.
According to the troubled prince, “They felt as though it made them look bad. They felt as though they didn’t have a chance or weren’t able to do that for their partners…. What Meghan had to go through was— was similar in some part to what Kate and what Camilla went through— very different circumstances. But then you add in the race element, which was what the press— British press jumped on straight away. I went into this incredibly naïve. I had no idea the British press was so bigoted. Hell, I was probably bigoted before the relationship with— with Meghan.”
Meghan Markle was or is at the bottom of this tense family drama when Prince Harry said – “My brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything I’ve written, anything that I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family. But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”
Sibling rivalry
In the book, Prince Harry’s story is dominated by his enmity with his elder brother Prince William.
Prince Harry confirmed that Prince William (when they were younger) did tell him that they should pretend that don’t know each other.
“Yeah, and at the time it hurt. I couldn’t make sense of it. I was like, “What do you mean? We’re now at the same school. Like, I haven’t seen you for ages, now we get to hang out together.” He’s like, “No, no, no, when we’re at school we don’t know each other.” And I took that personally. But yes, you’re absolutely right, you hit the nail on the head. Like, we had a very similar traumatic experience, and then we– we dealt with it two very different ways.”
Prince Harry says King Charles pleaded with them to make up, as the King said after the funeral of Prince Philip in 2021: “Please, boys — don’t make my final years a misery.”
Until today, the Duke of Sussex is distressed by his status as royal “spare” behind William, who is heir to the British throne.
The “wicked stepmother”
During the interview, Prince Harry confided that he and William both “pleaded” with their father not to marry his long-term paramour Camilla Parker-Bowles, worried that she would become a “wicked stepmother.”
Asked why they don’t want her, Prince Harry thought it wasn’t necessary. “We thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person, that– surely that’s enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to? We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her. So, at the time, it was, “Ok.”
Prince Harry thinks Camilla is “dangerous,” because of the connections that she was forging within the British press.
Media as villain
Prince Harry has never forgiven the media for Diana’s death in a car crash while being pursued by photographers.
As he shares aching words about his father and brother, his real anger is directed at the British media, and at those within the royal circle who collaborated or otherwise stood aside.
While King Charles remains indifferent to the press, the rest of the family is obsessed with media coverage. He despairs over what he calls the “endless string of false stories” about him, the racist caricatures of his wife and of the press’ unnerving knowledge of his whereabouts and private correspondence.
Hellbent on destroying the monarchy?
Like his great-great uncle, the reviled Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor, the Sussexes have fallen out of favor in Britain for their so-called ‘inappropriate behavior.’
But those who compare Prince Harry with his uncle say that while the Duke of Windsor let his people down by being irresponsible, he and his wife did not seek the spotlight in any meaningful way. Nor did they exist, as the Sussexes seem to, hell-bent to destroy the monarchy.
Hellbent? Not really.
Based on the 60 Minutes interview, it is obvious that despite what the British people and the world say of Prince Harry’s “evil objective” of “smearing” the name of the Royal family, he is actually just another Royal who wants to live differently.
Bill Gates responds to questions about him owning 275,000 acres of farmland