Prince Harry defends explosive memoir ‘Spare’ in television interviews
- British and American television airs Prince Harry’s first interviews on his memoir’s explosive revelations
- On Thursday, Harry’s book ‘Spare’ mistakenly went on sale in Spain five days before its official release
Prince Harry defended his decision to publish a memoir that lays bare rifts inside Britain’s royal family, saying it’s an attempt to “own my story” after 38 years of “spin and distortion” by others.
Harry spoke to Britain’s ITV and CBS’s 60 Minutes to promote his book, Spare, which has generated incendiary headlines with its details of private emotional turmoil and bitter family resentments.
In interviews broadcast Sunday, Harry accused members of the royal family of getting “into bed with the devil” to gain favourable tabloid coverage, claimed his stepmother Camilla, the queen consort, had leaked private conversations to the media and said his family was “complicit” in his wife Meghan’s “pain and suffering”.
Harry said Camilla had to rehabilitate her image with the British people after her long-time affair with his father and that he was one of the victims of her efforts for better coverage in the tabloids.
“That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press,” he told CBS. “There was open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being queen consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street.”
He repeated his claim on ITV that there was “concern” in the royal family about his unborn child’s skin colour after he married biracial American actress Meghan Markle, and said the British monarchy should address its attitudes to race.