Before the official publication of his memoirs, Prince Harry makes an offer to talk to his family. “The door is always open,” says Harry in a teaser for an ITV interview that the British broadcaster wants to broadcast in full this Sunday (10 p.m.CET). He hopes his family is willing to sit down and talk about everything.
Whether that will happen is questionable after the startling revelations that have already leaked out of Harry’s autobiography “Spare” (“Reserve”) in the past few days. According to reports, the 38-year-old is particularly violent against his older brother William. He is said to have physically attacked him several times. But the rest of the royals are not spared from allegations either. According to a report in the “Daily Telegraph”, his family blames Harry, among other things, for not being able to show any feelings after the death of his mother Diana in 1997.
In front of Kensington Palace, he and his brother William met mourning people and smiled, the newspaper wrote on Sunday, citing Harry’s descriptions. “Why were all these people crying when I wasn’t crying or had been crying myself?” the prince is quoted as saying. “I wanted to cry and I tried to because my mother’s life was so sad, but I couldn’t… not a tear.” That’s why he felt guilty, but probably couldn’t help it: “Maybe I had internalized the family maxim too much that crying is not an option – never.”
At several points in his autobiography, Harry reportedly describes how his once-close relationship with his older brother has deteriorated. William is said to have become physical during arguments: once he is said to have pushed Harry to the ground, and in another argument he grabbed his shirt several times.
The royal family is silent
The latter episode is said to have taken place during a walk by Harry with Charles and William after Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021. His brother is said to have been angry about the interview that Meghan and he had given talk show legend Oprah Winfrey shortly before. “I waved my hand in disgust, but he jumped on me and grabbed my shirt,” the Daily Mail newspaper quoted Harry’s memoirs as saying on Sunday.
The royal family has so far remained silent on the allegations. William is doing this “for the family and the country”, the “Sunday Times” claims to have learned from close friends of the British heir to the throne. In view of the revelations, however, a reconciliation between the brothers seems a long way off.
Speaking to broadcaster ITV, when asked if he wanted to attend his father’s coronation in May, Harry evaded: “A lot can happen before then.” In the same interview, Harry reveals he wishes William and his father “back”. The ball is now in the playing field of the palace.
A few hours after the ITV interview, another interview with Harry is to be broadcast on Monday night (1:00 a.m.CET) on US television. In excerpts from this conversation that have already been published, the prince is less forgiving: journalists were secretly fed negative information about him and his wife Meghan (41), requests from the couple for counterstatements to press articles were always rejected by the royal family. That’s why he decided to go public himself, Harry said. “There comes a point when silence becomes treason.”
“Exclusive Special” on Monday on RTL
In the interview, the prince also talks about racism to which his wife was exposed. He was naïve about how Meghan’s ethnicity would affect coverage of their relationship, says Harry at CBS.
In Germany, Harry’s conversation with the British broadcaster ITV will be shown on Monday (9 January) at 5 p.m. on RTL as part of the program “Exclusive Special: Harry – The Interview”.
Harry is also scheduled to appear on ABC’s Good Morning America show on Monday. All of the interviews accompany the release of his book, Spare, which is due to be available in bookstores from Tuesday (January 10). In Spain it was inadvertently available in some bookstores on Thursday. Since then, British media have been reporting on spicy details of the memoirs.
