AFP, published on monday 09 january 2023 at 03h01
No intention of “hurting” his family: Prince Harry defended his memoirs on television on Sunday, calling them “necessary”, the first extracts of which threaten to see the royal family further torn apart four months before the coronation of King Charles III .
“After 38 years of seeing my story told by so many people with intentional distortions and manipulations, it felt like the right time to reclaim my story and tell it myself”, justifies the Duke of Sussex in this interview with the British channel ITV, broadcast two days before the official publication of his book “The Substitute”.
“I love my father, I love my brother, I love my family and I will always love them. Nothing I wrote in this book was done with the intention of hurting or harming them. do harm”, he insisted, assuring that he hoped for a “reconciliation” on the condition of establishing “the responsibilities”, in particular on his departure with his wife Meghan Markle for California in 2020.
Harry considers his memoirs “necessary” to establish “historical facts”, adding that he now feels “relief”.
But according to the extracts from the book which have leaked to the press since the text was put on sale by mistake on Thursday in Spain, the prince spares almost no one, in particular his brother William, heir to the throne, already scratched in the “Harry & Meghan” docuseries aired on Netflix in December.
– No racism –
The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex calls William a ‘beloved brother and sworn enemy’ and accuses him of knocking him to the ground during a 2019 row over Meghan, whom Harry married the year previous.
He also accuses his brother and his wife Kate of having had “stereotypes” towards Meghan, a mixed-race American actress, who “created an obstacle” to fully welcome her into the family.
He also reiterates his accusations against certain members of the royal family whom he deems “accomplices” of articles hostile to him and his wife.
Harry notably also attacks his father’s wife, Camilla, now queen-consort, claiming that certain details of private conversations published in the media “could only have been leaked” by her.
Asked about the interview given to American journalist Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Harry denies accusing the royal family of racism because one of its members questioned the skin color of their unborn child.
“No, I didn’t. The literary press said that,” he refuted, referring instead to “unconscious bias.”
Buckingham Palace has so far remained officially silent on this avalanche of confidences, but denials and comments have begun to emerge in the British media.
The Sunday Times quotes people close to Prince William as saying he is “sad”, “burning inside”, but “remaining silent for the sake of his family and the country”.
In an interview with CBS, Harry clarified that he and William were not currently speaking to each other and that he had not spoken to his father “for quite a while”.
– “The ball in their court” –
Harry leaves him doubting his intentions. “A lot can happen by then” but “the ball is in their court,” he said in his interview with ITV.
“I don’t think staying silent is going to make things any better,” he adds, adding he hopes for a “conversation” with his family, even though he “don’t think his dad or brother will read the book.”
Many passages in the book also testify to the trauma left by the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a road accident in Paris in 1997.
In his interview with ITV, Harry admits to having “cried only once, at his funeral”, and recounts his discomfort when he had to, with his brother, shake hands with people who came to meditate at the time. in front of Kensington Palace in London.
The ITV show includes some excerpts from the audio version of the book, read by the prince himself, such as the one where he tells how his father told him of his mother’s death.
In the British press, since Thursday, reactions have alternated between disbelief at the intimacy of certain anecdotes told by Harry, such as his loss of virginity, his drug use, and indignation at what is considered a frontal attack on the family. royal.
In particular, Harry’s confidences in the fact that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his missions in Afghanistan caused a huge outcry.