Four months to the day of the coronation of King Charles III, Prince Harry is accused Friday of wanting to destroy the British royal family after the sensational revelations in his memoirs which seem to forever distance any reconciliation within the Windsors. The monarchy remains silent in the face of the flood of staggering confidences and accusations, sometimes bordering on the sordid, which leaked before the dreaded publication of Harry’s book. The Alternatewhich is due out on January 10, was mistakenly put on sale a few hours Thursday in Spain and its content goes even further than feared.
‘No one spared in Harry’s brutal mission to tear down the family,’ headlines the tabloid The Daily Mirror. The Sun accuses the exiled prince in California of having “thrown his own family under a bus for millions of dollars”. Nothing “can justify the destructive and vengeful path he has chosen”. the DailyMail curry Harry who chose to “spit as much poison as possible” and his “despicable” book.
“The worst” is “the way William is portrayed”
The media seem to have trouble selecting the most shocking excerpts, there are so many in this book of more than 500 pages. The most destructive undoubtedly concerns his brother William, the heir to the throne, whom Harry qualifies according to the extracts published in the press “of sworn enemy”. The Duke of Sussex accuses William of knocking him to the ground during a 2019 row over Meghan, whom Harry had married the previous year.
For royal family expert Richard Fitzwilliams, “the worst part” in the book is “the way William is portrayed”. “Someone who betrayed his trust. (…) Someone who actually assaulted him. It is not a very flattering portrait for a future king”.
In his memoirs, the prince delivers personal confidences without filter: he admits having taken cocaine, having killed 25 Taliban during his missions in Afghanistan, describes his loss of virginity, tells of having consulted a woman who would have allowed him to enter in spiritual contact with his mother Diana, who died in 1997 in a car accident in Paris. He also explains that he opposed with William the remarriage of their father with Camilla, now queen-consort, fearing that she would be an “ugly stepmother”.
Wanting “reconciliation” with his family
Despite all that is written in The Alternate, Harry said again in his interview with ITV, a new extract from which aired on Friday morning, wanting “reconciliation” with his family. “But first,” you have to establish responsibilities, he says. “The assumed truth at the moment is that there is only one side to this story. (…) But there are two sides to every story”. Already in the docuseries Harry & Meghan broadcast on Netflix in December, the 38-year-old prince explained that he wanted to give his side of the story, on his shattering break with the British monarchy in 2020 which led to his departure with Meghan for California. In an excerpt from an interview to be aired Monday in the United States, Harry admits that his mother would be “sad” to see the relationship between her two sons.
So far Buckingham Palace has not reacted. The Sun cites sources close to Charles III and William who are said to be saddened by the claims in the book.
“On the one hand, when something isn’t denied, people start to believe it. On the other hand, the royal family has a real problem: how to manage this situation?, summarizes the expert Richard Fitzwilliams. The Sussexes control the agenda because the palace cannot easily fight back. This book “is so destructive as the coronation draws near,” he laments. Until a few weeks ago, many thought that Harry could be present alongside his family for this historic event. This no longer seems to be an option.