CNN
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Prince Harry told CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday that he hadn’t spoken to his brother Prince William “for a while” in the second of two major interviews ahead of Monday’s release of his memoir, “Spare.”
The Duke of Sussex told Anderson Cooper he was not speaking to the Prince of Wales “at the moment”, “but I hope to have peace,” he said. It follows an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby on what is likely to be an explosive week for the British royal family with the release of Harry’s memoir.
Prince Harry also told Cooper that he hasn’t spoken to his father, King Charles III, “in a while,” adding that “the ball is very much in his court” when asked about the possibility of a family reconciliation following Harry’s high profile. disclosure
Buckingham Palace has repeatedly refused to comment on the content of Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir, which has been the subject of leaks since last week detailing some of his controversial claims. CNN has not seen a copy of the book but has requested an advance copy from publisher Penguin Random House.
His most recent interviews have covered topics ranging from the death of his mother, the Princess of Wales, his frustrations with the British press, his treatment of his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the subsequent rift with his family. his marriage
The interviews set the stage for a string of revelations that are expected to be made public on Monday, as Prince Harry pushes back against what he calls “the establishment”, giving a revealing look at the estranged family.
Despite the fractured relationship between the two brothers, Prince Harry told Cooper that he loved William “from the bottom of my heart”.
“My brother and I love each other. I love him dearly,” said the Duke of Sussex. “There’s been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially over the last six years.”
He added that nothing he wrote was “intended to hurt my family.”
Prince Harry said, “But we give the full picture of the situation as we grow up and also dispel the idea that my wife is the one who destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”
The book’s title “Spare” is a reference to “heirs and spares”, a saying in the United Kingdom that one must have a child to obtain a noble title. Harry was next in line to the British throne after William until William’s children were born – he is now fifth in line.
The strained relationship between the brothers is a common theme in leaked excerpts from the book and Harry’s media interviews, which revealed a deep rift between the siblings.
Prince Harry’s claims of falling out with the Prince of Wales in 2019 over his wife were perhaps the most provocative revelations, as he described in an excerpt from his memoirs on ITV on Sunday.
Prince Harry said his brother never tried to dissuade him from marrying Meghan, but expressed some concerns and told him, “‘It’s going to be really hard for you,'” Prince Harry recalled during an interview with Bradby.
“To this day I still don’t understand what part he was talking about,” added Prince Harry. “Perhaps he anticipated the reaction of the British press.”
In the interview and excerpts from his memoirs shared by ITV, the Duke of Sussex addressed how the relationship between Buckingham Palace and media outlets has fueled strife within his family.
“We’re not just talking about family relationships, we’re talking about an adversary, which is the British press, especially the tabloids who want to create as much conflict as possible,” Prince Harry told Bradby. “The saddest part of it is that some of my family members and the people who work for them are involved in that conflict.”
He also noted that the “leaks” and “plantings” of “royal sources” to the press were “not an unknown person, the palace specifically briefing the press, but covering their tracks by remaining anonymous.”
Prince Harry added that he thought it was “quite shocking to people. Especially when you realize how many palace sources, palace insiders, senior palace officials, how many quotes are being attributed to those people, some of the most disgusting, horrible things have been said about me and my wife, the palace completely condones it because it is. Coming from the palace and those journalists have been literally spoon-fed that narrative without ever coming to us, never looking the other way or questioning it.”
Prince Harry echoed those sentiments with CBS’s Cooper, saying that even at the young age of 12, he resented the British media.
“It was clear to us when the British press played a small part in our mother’s grief and I had a lot of anger that, fortunately, I never expressed to anyone,” he said. “But I drank too much. Because I wanted to numb the feelings, or distract myself from whatever I was thinking about. And I would, you know, resort to drugs too.”
In both interviews, Prince Harry talked about how his mother was hounded by the paparazzi, while his father said that Princess Diana had died from injuries sustained in a car accident.
“I really wonder how many hours he’ll be awake. And as a parent, how do I break it onto my two sons that I have to sit for him for hours, call his friends, try to get him to exercise?
Harry said he never thought he would have to do that himself.
“I don’t want history to repeat itself. I don’t want to be a single dad. And I certainly don’t want my children to go through life without a mother or a father,” Prince Harry told ITV’s Bradby.
Diana died in a Paris tunnel crash in 1997. Prince Harry was 12 years old at the time. He told Cooper that his memories of the later days are hazy, but remembers seeing crowds of mourners outside Buckingham Palace.
“I think it’s weird, because I see William and me laughing,” he said. “I remember the guilt I felt… the people we were meeting were showing more emotion than we were showing, maybe more than we thought.”
Prince Harry told Cooper that he “refused to accept that she was gone” and believed “for many years” that she had decided to disappear.
The Duke of Sussex said he only cried when his mother’s coffin was lowered into the ground. “I actually cried for the first time… there was never another,” he said.
Prince Harry recalled the events surrounding the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at Balmoral Castle on September 8. The Duke was at a charity event in London when the palace announced that the Queen was under medical care.
“I asked my brother – I said, “What are your plans? How do you and Kate get up there?” And then, a few hours later … all the family members who live in the Windsor and Ascot area were jumping on a plane together, a 12, 14, maybe 16-seater,” he said. “I wasn’t invited. .”
He remembered the time he spent with the Queen in her bedroom after her death.
“I was so happy for her. Because she had ended her life. She had completed life and her husband was waiting for her. And they are both buried together,” Prince Harry said.
The Duke of Sussex also told ITV’s Bradby about his decision to write the book, “After 38 years of my story being told by so many different people, it felt like a good time to be able to tell my own story with deliberate spin and distortion. To tell it for yourself. I’m really grateful that I have the opportunity to tell my story because it is my story.”
Prince Harry pointed out that he had tried to resolve his concerns privately with his family over the past six years.
“There was never any need to get to this point. I’ve had conversations, I’ve written letters, I’ve written emails and everything is just, ‘No, you, this is not happening. You, you’re imagining it,” he said. “It’s really hard to take. And if this had stopped, if I had fled my country with my wife and my son in fear of my life, it might have turned out differently. It’s difficult.”
Duke said he “wants reconciliation but needs some accountability first,” in reference to his family.
Prince Harry has previously blamed the constant media intrusion as a serious strain on him and his wife, which eventually led to his decision to step down as a member of the Royal Family in 2021.
In a six-part Netflix documentary released last month, the couple said the press attacks, the lack of action from the palace to stop them and the couple’s growing suspicion that the royal family was really feeding the media pushed Meghan into a dark place.
Prince Harry told ITV’s Bradby: “When all the evidence is collected you can’t continue to tell me I’m delusional and paranoid, because I was really scared of what was going to happen to me.
“And then we have a 12-month transition period and everyone doubles up. My wife shares her experience. And instead of backing down, both institutions and tabloid media in the UK doubled down,” he added.
Still, Duke said, “amnesty is a 100% possibility.”
“There will probably be a lot of people who, after watching the documentary and reading the book, will go, How do you forgive your family for what they did? People have already told me this. And I said forgiveness is a 100% possibility because I want my father back. I want my brother back. At the moment, I don’t know them any more than they know me,” Prince Harry said.
On Monday, Duke’s interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahn will air on the ABC show, followed by a half-hour special on ABC News Live in the evening. And most importantly, Duke will appear on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after his book is released on Tuesday.
