Prince Harry's third interview reveals how his grandmother, the Queen, felt about his decision to step down as a senior royal. Photo / AP
Prince Harry's third interview reveals how his grandmother, the Queen, felt about his decision to step down as a senior royal. Photo / AP
It may be the third time Prince Harry has sat down with a major news outlet in the space of 24 hours but yes, there is still more of the rebel prince’s story to tell ahead of the release of his memoir, Spare this week.
Speaking to US breakfast show Good Morning America (GMA), the Duke of Sussex revealed grave concerns for the next generation of royals, shed some more light on Camilla and said his grandmother, the late Queen’s hands were tied when it came to aiding him and his wife, Meghan Markle.
And he shared that while she never appeared angry about his decision to step down as a senior royal, she was certainly saddened by the move, reports the Telegraph.
What’s more, he believes she was actually powerless to do anything about it. He says she likely felt that it was senior palace aides who made the calls on such a matter.
“She knew what was going on. She knew how hard it was. I don’t know whether she was in a position to be able to change it,” he told interviewer Michael Strahan.
Prince Harry during an interview with Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan in Los Angeles to promote his memoir Spare. Photo / AP
Of what seemed to the world to be a shock announcement that he and his wife were relinquishing their roles, Harry says his grandmother knew full well what was coming.
“I had many, many conversations with her both in the UK over the years and in the run-up to the point of this change, so it was never a surprise to anybody, least of all her,” he said.
A major factor in the royal couple’s decision to leave was the treatment of Markle, details of which were aired in the recent Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan.
The duke’s latest interview saw him voice concerns for the same thing happening to his own children, Archie, 4, and Lilibet 1, along with the next generation of royals and their future partners. Ostensibly he was referring to his brother William’s children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte.
“Because who’s to say that someone else doesn’t fill my shoes and that their partner, whether it’s a husband or a wife or boyfriend or a girlfriend, doesn’t get treated exactly the same as Meghan did?”
And while the Sussexes took a major move to remove themselves from such treatment and are clearly making their own way in the world, Harry told GMA he and his wife could return to “support the commonwealth” in time.
“If there was something in the future where we can continue to support the Commonwealth, then that’s of course on the table”.
However, he ruled out the possibility of the pair ever returning to the UK and their roles as working royals.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in Wellington, New Zealand, during a tour of commonwealth nations. Photo /Getty Images
“Even if there was an agreement or an arrangement between me and my family, there is that third party that is going to do everything they can to make sure that that isn’t possible,” he said, in an apparent reference to the British press.
He went on to say the British media used his wife’s race against her.
“My wife is not visibly black but that’s who she is,” he said.
“The way that they speak about her, the way that they treat her is incredibly relatable to everybody else of colour.”
A major talking point in the prince’s two previous interviews has been his rift with his brother, William, and revelations of an alleged physical attack on Harry.
Strahan asks the duke about a quote from his memoir in which he described William as both “beloved brother and arch nemesis”.
“There has always been this competition between us, weirdly,” he tells Strahan, who also asks if he believes he bears any responsibility in the breakdown of the brothers’ relationship.
Harry replies: “Without question. Sure.
“But what people don’t know is the efforts that I’ve gone to to resolve this privately, both with my brother and with my father.”
He admits his mother, Princess Diana, would be heartbroken over the demise of her sons’ relationship. But, says Harry: “I don’t think that we can ever have peace with my family unless the truth is out there.
“There’s a lot that I can forgive, but there needs to be conversations in order for reconciliation, and part of that has to be accountability.”
Another bombshell from his ITV and CBS interviews was the revelation that Harry saw his stepmother Camilla as a “villain” and “dangerous” in her abilities to work the media in her favour.
Prince Harry has revealed much about Queen Consort Camilla in his string of bombshell interviews to promote his memoir, Spare. Photo / Getty Images
He told GMA the Queen Consort had sacrificed him on her “personal PR altar.”
“She had a reputation to rehabilitate,” he said.
While he admitted he hadn’t spoken to her in a long time, he would be “perfectly pleasant” when he was in her company.
““I love every member of my family ...
“She’s my step-mother. I don’t see her as an evil step-mother, I think she’s someone who married into this institution and done everything she can to improve her own reputation, her own image, for her own sake.”
Following Prince Harry’s latest interview, the Telegraph reveals Strahan and the ABC were contacted by the law firm representing Buckingham Palace.
ABC had reached out to Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace for a response to Harry’s comments and after the interview aired the Palace got in touch allegedly asking to consider exactly what was said and “the context in which it appeared”.
Strahan said the law firm asked to be given “a copy of the entire interview which we do not do” as a matter of policy.
Prince Harry’s fourth and final interview is on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
