Prince Harry says the royal family’s “silence is betrayal.”
Ahead of the release of his memoir Save the British royal gave twointerviews, to Anderson Cooper for CBS’s 60 Minutes in the US and Tom Bradbyfor ITV in the UK, in which he talks about messy relations with his famousfamily.
In a clip from the CBS interview, which airs Sunday, Cooper brings upcriticism Harry has faced from people saying that he stepped down as a seniorroyal and moved to California with wife Meghan Markle, yet they continue topublicly air their grievances about the royal family, most recently in theirrecent Netflix documentary, Harry & Megan. King Charles’s younger soninsists he’s tried to handle things privately with no success.
“Every single time I tried to do it privately there have been briefings andleakings and planting of stories against me and my wife,” he said. “You know,the family motto is: ‘Never complain, never explain.’ But it’s just a motto.It doesn’t really hold.”
Harry said there has been “endless” complaining and explaining from the royalfamily through the media. He claimed that royal family members, through theirvarious press offices and spokespeople, plant stories about them in newspapersthrough unnamed sources. (According to Yahoo UK’s royal executive editor OmidScobie, “royal sources” are often “anonymous palace aides.”)
“They will feed or have a conversation with the correspondent and thatcorrespondent will … be spoon-fed information and write the story,” Harryclaimed. “At the bottom of [the article, it] will say they have reached out toBuckingham Palace for comment, but the whole story is Buckingham Palacecommenting. So when we’re being told for the last six years, ‘We can’t put astatement out to protect you.’ But you do it for other members of the family.It becomes — there becomes a point when silence is betrayal.”
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Meanwhile, Harry said in the ITV interview, which also airs Sunday, that “itnever needed to be this way,” but “the leaking and the planting” of storiesdrove a wedge.
“I want a family, not an institution,” he said. “They’ve shown absolutely nowillingness to reconcile. I would like to get my father back. I would like tohave my brother back.”
However, he said the royals “feel as though it is better to keep us somehow asthe villains.”
Prince Harry, right, with his father, King Charles, left, and brother, PrinceWilliam in 2017. (Photo: REUTERS/Philippe Huguen/POOL)
Bradby has known Harry for more than 20 years and interviewed him with Markleduring their 2019 trip to Africa, memorably asking Markle how her mentalhealth was amid the pressure of royal life.
Both new interviews with Harry took place in California, where he and Marklereside with their two children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, after leavingEngland. his book, Save , comes out on Jan. 10.
Save publisher, Penguin, described the memoir as “intimate and heartfelt.”Harry said in the book’s press release that he wrote it “not as the prince Iwas born but as the man I have become… My hope is that in telling my story –the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned – I can help show thatno matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think.” Hepromised an “account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.” Hedonated proceeds from Save to two different charities: $1,500,000 toSentebale and £300,000 to the WellChild charity.