Prince Harry sat down for an interview with ITV to promote his memoir Spare and the allegations contained within his book – and the jaw-dropping chat aired yesterday (Sunday January 8) evening.
Here are some of the most shocking revelations and claims about the royal family from the Prince Harry interview with Tom Bradby.
Prince Harry on viewing photos of the fatal crash involving his mother Diana
Harry detailed how an aide did not permit him to view certain paparazzi images.
He also claimed both he and William have separately been driven through the Paris tunnel, at the same speed, where their mother died.
Harry reflected: “To this day, I will remain eternally grateful for [the aide] showing me what he believed I needed to see, but removing the stuff he knew I didn’t need to see.
“I don’t know where I would be now if I saw the stuff I wanted to see. Demanded to see.”
Asked what had been removed from his view, Harry explained about the aide’s actions: “He took out the more descriptive photographs. I saw the photographs of the reflection of all the paparazzi in the window. And that still hurts.
“I saw the back of [his late mother’s] blonde hair slumped on the seat. There were other photographs that probably show my mother’s face and blood. And I assume those were the ones that were removed. I’m grateful for that.”
‘I was also looking for something to hurt’
Harry continued: “At that point I was looking for evidence that it actually happened, that it was true. But I was also looking for something to hurt. As at that point I was still pretty numb to the whole thing. My body, my nervous system shut down.”
And on being driven through the Paris tunnel, Harry added: “I don’t think I would have been able to cope with that as a teenager. Once I was in my twenties and happened to be there for the rugby World Cup. I was like: ‘Let’s do this.'”
Harry added: “It wasn’t a crazy thing to do at the time, to drive through the tunnel. But as you can imagine, by this point I was old enough to drive myself.
“And to sit in the back of a car and to be driven through the tunnel at the same speed, there was no danger of anybody losing control. Almost physically impossible to lose control unless you’re completely blinded at the wheel.”
Accusations about stories ‘being leaked’
Harry claimed “certain members of the family” had “decided to get into bed with the devil”.
He said: “I love my father, I love my brother – I love my family, I always do. Nothing of what I’ve done, in this book or otherwise, has any intention to harm them or hurt them.
“The truth is something I need to rely on. And after many, many years of lies being told about me and my family, there comes a point where… again, going back to the relationship between certain members of the family and the tabloid press, those certain members have decided to get into bed with the devil. To rehabilitate their image.
“If you need to do that, or you want to do that, or you choose to do that, that is a choice. That’s up to you. But the moment that rehabilitation comes at the detriment of others…me, other members of my family… then that’s where I draw the line.”
On William and Kate and a ‘barrier with Meghan’
Harry told Tom it was “fair” his brother and sister-in-law’s relationship with Meghan wasn’t perfect from the get go for “lots of different reasons”.
He said: “I had put a lot of hope in the idea of William and Kate and me and whoever. I thought that the four of us would bring me and William closer together, we could go out and do work together. Which I did a lot as the third wheel to them, which was fun at times, but also slightly awkward at times as well.
“I don’t think they were ever expecting me to get into a relationship with someone like Meghan, who had a very successful career. There was a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning. American actress, right? And that was playing out in the British press, in the media, at the time as well.
“So the fact I had that in the back of my mind and some of the things my brother and my sister-in-law, some of the ways they were acting or behaving definitely felt to me unfortunately that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really introducing or welcoming her in… American, actress, divorced, biracial… there’s all different parts to that and what that can mean.
“If you are, as a lot of my family do, if you are reading the press, the British tabloids, at the same time as living the life, then there is a tendency to where you can actually end up living in the tabloid bubble rather than the actual reality.”
Harry on ‘Kate making Meghan cry in bridesmaid row’ in interview
“There’s been over 25 versions of that story now,” Harry told Tom.
But the version mentioned by Tom suggested it was Meghan left in tears according to Harry’s book. And Kate arrived with flowers the next day to apologise.
Harry remarked: “What I still to this day don’t know is what point was it twisted?”
Asked why the story was not corrected, Harry replied: “It is a question for them.
“They were more than happy to put out statements for less volatile things. My understanding is the reason they didn’t want to come out and say it wasn’t true, would therefore lead to ‘if it wasn’t that, was it the other way round?’ When in fact you didn’t need to confess that it was the other way round.
“Tensions were high. But it wasn’t a case of ‘she did this.’ That’s not what this was about. But the Palace still could have come out and said: ‘This never happened.'”
‘Harry and William argued for a week, with William ordering Harry to shave his beard for his wedding’
Harry pondered: “I think a lot of it is to do with… I refer to it as ‘heir-spare’, but also older brother-younger brother, right? There’s a level of competition there.
“The difference for me, if there was a difference, as I explained to my grandmother, this beard that I’m still wearing felt to me at the time like the ‘new’ Harry. Almost like a shield to my anxiety. And I think William found it hard that other people told him to shave it off.”
Harry also chuckled as he recalled how he explained to the Queen why he needed to retain his facial hair.
“I don’t believe that Meghan is going to recognise me if she comes up the aisle and see me beardless. And I would feel very, very different,” he said.
Prince Harry interview allegations over ‘clear the air meeting’
Tom Bradby went on to say: “After the wedding there’s a kind of attempt at a make up session which you describe in great detail.”
He then described a passage from Spare in the voiceover.
Tom said: “At one stage Harry recounts a clear the air meeting involving him, William, Kate and Meghan. It seems to have gone so badly wrong that he describes Kate as gripping the edges of the leather chair so tightly that her fingers were white.
“Kate says she’s owed an apology from Meghan who previously put a moment of Kate’s forgetfulness down to so-called ‘baby brain’.
“According to Harry, Kate tells Meghan they’re not close enough to talk that way and William says: ‘That’s not what’s done here in Britain.’
“The meeting ends awkwardly, with a hug of sorts.”
Harry says William aired concerns over his relationship with Meghan
The Duke of Sussex said: “No, [William] never tried to dissuade me from marrying Meghan.
“He aired some concerns, very early on, and said: ‘This is going to be very hard for you.’
“And I still to this day don’t truly understand which part of what he was talking about.
“But maybe he predicted what the British press’ reaction was going to be.”
William ‘broke code’ at Philip’s funeral
In another part of the interview, Harry claimed that William ‘broke a code’ during a discussion after Prince Philip‘s funeral – something he also mentions in his memoir.
Harry claims in the book that William told Harry on the day of their grandfather’s funeral: “I just want you to be happy, Harold. I swear…. I swear on mummy’s life.”
Harry adds: “He’d gone there. He’d used the secret code. Every since we were boys, those three words were only to be used in times of extreme crisis.”
Speaking with Tom, Harry said: “It’s heartbreaking. This whole thing is incredibly said.”
Harry addresses Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘attack’ on Meghan
In the interview, Harry also spoke about Jeremy Clarkson’s recent comments about his wife.
In a column for The Sun, Jeremy said he was “dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.
Speaking to Tom, Harry said: “Not only is what [Clarkson] said horrific and hurtful and cruel towards my wife, but it also encourages other people around the UK and around the world, men particularly, to go and think that it’s acceptable to treat women that way.”
Harry denies ‘racism’ claim in interview
During the interview, Harry also denied that he and Meghan ever accused his family of ‘racism’ following their allegation in their Oprah interview.
During their Oprah chat in 2021, Meghan and Harry claimed a member of the family expressed ‘concern’ about their son Archie’s skin colour.
Tom said: “In the Oprah interview, you accuse members of your family of racism…” to which Harry replied: “No. The British press.”
Tom pressed: “She said there were troubling comments about Archie’s skin colour. Wouldn’t you describe that as essentially racist?”
Harry replied: “The difference between racism and unconscious bias… the two things are different.”
ED! has approached a representative for Buckingham Palace for comment.
Read more: Prince Harry’s most scandalous moments: Rehab, naked pictures and that Nazi uniform
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