Harry says his Spare memoir is 'essential for historical fact'
Prince Harry modestly declares his Spare memoir is ‘essential for historical fact and significance’ in 90-minute ITV interview to plug book
- Prince Harry said writing his autobiography was both ‘painful’ and ‘cathartic’
- The Duke of Sussex said book and Netflix show were always ‘look-back projects’
- He said he wanted his children to grow up know that ‘this is what happened’
Prince Harry has said his explosive memoir Spare is ‘essential for historical fact and significance’ in his first primetime interview plugging the book.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, said the process of writing the autobiography was ‘painful’ and ‘cathartic’ during his 90-minute bombshell sit-down with ITV’s Tom Bradby on Sunday night.
It comes after damaging extracts from the 416-page book were revealed this week following its accidental early release in Spain, including alleged physical altercations between William and Harry and criticisms of King Charles’ parenting.
Questioned on whether he was ‘looking back too much’ with his interview with Bradby and releasing his memoir, the Duke of Sussex said: ‘We always knew that these two projects, both the Netflix documentary and the book – one being our story and one very much being my story – they were look-back projects.
Prince Harry has said his explosive memoir Spare is ‘essential for historical fact and significance’ in his first primetime interview plugging the book
The Duke of Sussex, 38, said the process of writing the autobiography was ‘painful’ and ‘cathartic’ during his 90-minute bombshell sit-down with ITV’s Tom Bradby on Sunday night (pictured)
‘They were necessary, they were essential for historical fact and significance.
‘I don’t want my kids or other people of that age growing up thinking ‘Oh wow, this is what happens’, like no that’s not what happened. This is what happened.’
He added: ‘There are two sides to every story, so it’s been – it’s been a painful process – cathartic at times, but going back over old ground to be able to get these projects right has taken a lot of energy, and there’s a lot of relief now that both these projects have been complete.
‘Now we can focus on looking forward and I’m excited about that. So no, I’m not stuck in the past and I will never be stuck in the past.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Harry suggested his family has avoided accountability ‘on a lot of things’.
The broadcast, which began at 9pm, focused on Harry’s tumultuous relationship with his family who – in Bradby’s words – the Duke of Sussex took ‘a flame thrower to’ in the writing of his memoirs.
In the book, Harry writes how he and William begged King Charles not to marry the now Queen consort Camilla, who he feared could become their ‘wicked stepmother’, before suggesting she had plotted to take the crown and leaked stories to the press.
Prince Harry suggested his family has avoided accountability ‘on a lot of things’ during his 90-minute sit-down interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby on Sunday night (Pictured: King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla in 2018)
Speaking about what he wants from the book, Harry told Mr Bradby: ‘I want reconciliation, but first there needs to be some accountability’ (Pictured: Harry, Meghan, Charles and Camilla at the funeral of the late Queen)
‘It never needed to be this way’: Prince Harry says his family have shown ‘no willingness to reconcile’ as he unleashes round after round of criticism on the Royals in bombshell ITV interview
Prince Harry sat down tonight for her first primetime interview to promote his memoir, Spare
But Harry believes nothing in his book is ‘scathing’ towards any member of his family.
Speaking about what he wants from his family and book, Harry told Bradby: ‘I want reconciliation, but first there needs to be some accountability. You can’t just continue to say to me that I’m delusional and paranoid when all the evidence is stacked up, because I was genuinely terrified about what’s gonna happen to me.’
Referencing his decision to step down as a senior royal in 2019, he continued: ‘And then we have a 12-month transition period, and everyone doubles down. My wife shares her experience.’
He said that instead of backing off, ‘both the institution and the media doubled down.’
Bradby then addresses the claims Harry makes about his stepmother in Spare. Harry narrates the passage that reads: ‘Shortly after our private meetings with her [Camilla], she began to develop her long-term strategy, a campaign directed at marriage and with time, the Crown (with the blessing of our father, we supposed).
‘News stories started appearing in all the newspapers about her conversations with Willy, stories which recounted lots of small details, none of which came from my brother, of course.’
Harry says in the book that they could have only come from ‘the one person’ with intimate knowledge of the meetings, who could provide details with ‘pin point’ accuracy.
Charles had tried to win over his sons before asking the public to accept Camilla, the book claims. Harry then astonishingly says that meeting the future Queen Consort for the first time was like an ‘injection’. He later says that ultimately he and William approved of Camilla.
He writes: ‘I remember wondering… if she would be cruel to me; if she would be like all the wicked stepmothers in the stories’.
But Harry told Mr Bradby tonight: ‘There’s no part of any of the things that I’ve said are scathing towards any member of my family, especially not my stepmother. There are things that have happened that have been incredibly hurtful, um, some in the past, some current.’
He added: ‘No institution is immune to accountability or taking responsibility. So you can’t be immune to criticisms either.
The broadcast, which began at 9pm, focused on Harry’s tumultuous relationship with his family who – in Bradby’s words – the prince took ‘a flame thrower to’ in the writing of his memoirs
Prince Harry says he felt ‘guilt’ walking outside Kensington Palace following Princess Diana’s death and reveals he and Prince William ‘were unable to show emotion’ when they met mourners
‘And you talk about, you know, scrutiny and, you know, my wife and I were scrutinised more than, probably, anybody else. I, I see a lack of scrutiny to my family towards a lot of the things that have happened in the last year.’
He later said he had ‘made peace’ with everything that has happened but that he would still like his father and brother back, but that there had to be ‘accountability’.
Clips previously released by ITV of Harry: The Interview, also showed him describing feelings of guilt and revealing he had cried only once after the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
In a previously released trailer for the interview, Harry says he is publishing his memoirs because he does not know ‘how staying silent is ever going to make things better’.
The interview is the first of four broadcast appearances over the coming days, with the duke also speaking to Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS News on Sunday night, Michael Strahan of Good Morning America tomorrow and Stephen Colbert on the Late Show on CBS on Wednesday morning UK time.
In the interview with Bradby, Harry speaks about being unable to show any emotion when meeting mourners following the death of his mother in 1997.
He also admits to feeling ‘some guilt’ when walking among the crowds gathered outside Kensington Palace, saying the only time he cried was at his mother’s burial.
Harry also reveals how his father sat him down on a bed before breaking the news.
He says Prince Charles called him ‘my dear son’ before telling him his mother was unlikely to survive head injuries sustained in the crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
The prince paints the picture of an emotionally distant father, saying that Charles was ‘not good at expressing his emotions’.
In a passage read out on ITV, Harry says: ‘What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.’
In the book, the Duke recalls asking to go and visit his mother while she was in the hospital.
However, he says his father explained she ‘hasn’t recovered any more’, before saying he stayed in his room on his own until the following morning.
He recalled that he and his brother William were forbidden from watching the TV so they didn’t see news of the car crash.
In the memoir he said for a time he believed Diana had faked her own death and she was ‘running away’ to escape her ‘miserable’ life.
The Duke said his 13-year-old self had wondered if it was a ‘trick’, writing in the book: ‘Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to. So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away.’
He later admitted this was not the case, but said he returned to the theory as a source of comfort.
In the memoir, which was ghostwritten by Pulitzer-winning author JR Moehringer, Harry admitted to trying to get closure by returning to the scene of his mother’s death.
Prince Harry pictured with his brother Prince William and father Prince Charles at the funeral of Princess Diana
Harry, pictured here with his mother in Spain in 1987, told ITV’s Tom Bradby he had cried only once over Diana’s death
The Princess of Wales had been killed along with her partner Dodi Fayed when their driver Henri Paul crashed their car in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
An inquest would later return a verdict of unlawful killing, blaming Paul, who was drunk at the time and also died in the crash, as well as the paparazzi following the vehicle.
Harry says he got his chauffeur to drive him at 65mph – the speed at which the crash happened – through the tunnel repeatedly to experience how her final journey would have felt.
Harry recounted the driver was shocked when he asked him if he knew the tunnel were his mother had died, and asked him to drive him through it.
The royal revealed he barely felt anything when he entered the tunnel, writing it was: ‘The bump that supposedly sent Mummy’s Mercedes veering off course.’
He recounted how he counted the lights and the pillar inside the tunnel as his car whizzed through, but was shocked at how short the tunnel actually was when he emerged.
Harry recalled imagining the tunnel was a dangerous route, but was surprised to learn it was a ‘no-frills tunnel’.
He recounted speaking to William about the tunnel where their mother had died after he had made the journey through it himself.
The pair then agreed to travel through it once more, together, after which Harry says they talked about their mother’s accident for the first time.
Following an investigation into Diana’s death, Harry described the final report as ‘an insult’ and ‘a shambles’ which he believed was inaccurate.
Prince Harry (centre) stands between his brother and father as the hearse carrying his mother’s coffin prepares to leave Westminster Abbey following her funeral service
In the memoir Harry claims his brother invoked their mother’s memory during an argument over his interview with Oprah.
The Duke wrote that William got heated as they spoke after the funeral of their grandfather Prince Philip in 2021.
Harry claims was trying to address bullying allegations made against Meghan, but his father and brother ‘weren’t listening.’
Prince William ‘lunged at Harry, grabbed his shirt and used shocking secret code phrase about Diana’ during row over Oprah Winfrey interview as the pair tried to hold peace talks in front of Charles moments after Prince Philip’s funeral
The California-based royal went on to allege that William was ‘really steaming’ and grasped at him as he tried to walk away.
‘I waved a hand, disgusted, but he lunged, grabbed my shirt. ‘Listen to me, Harold,” Harry wrote in his book, according to The Sun.
‘I pulled away, refused to meet his gaze. He forced me to look into his eyes. ‘Listen to me, Harold, listen! I love you, Harold! I want you to be happy.”
Harry claims he replied: ‘I love you too…but your stubbornness is extraordinary!’
The Duke reportedly tried to pull away, but William allegedly ‘grabbed him again’ and ‘twisted him’ so the pair could maintain eye contact.
William then evoked the brother’s so-called ‘secret code’ and swore on Princess Diana’s life that his intentions were genuine, Harry penned.
He writes that William said: ‘Harold, you must listen to me! I just want you to be happy, Harold. I swear I swear on Mummy’s life.’
Harry continued: ‘He stopped. I stopped. Pa stopped. He’d gone there.
‘He’d used the secret code, the universal password. Ever since we were boys those three words were to be used only in times of extreme crisis.’
The Duke claimed his brother ‘wasn’t quite ready to accept defeat’ and claimed to be ‘properly sick and ill’ over the tensions between the pair.
William allegedly reiterated: ‘I swear to you now on Mummy’s life that I just want you to be happy’.
Harry claims his ‘voice broke’ and he ‘softly’ told William: ‘I really don’t think you do.’
The elder brother then allegedly hugged Harry and said: ‘I love you’.
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