King Charles’s younger son Prince Harry has been famously outspoken in recent years, but claims he also held a lot of information back to protect his father and brother
Prince Harry made a lot of revelations in his autobiography Spare, but he says he held back even more information about his brother.
The royal, who is estranged from the heir to the throne Prince William, shared many stories about his older sibling and his father, King Charles, in last year’s book. One damaging accusation was that William had been violent towards Harry at his London home in 2019.
The younger of Princess Diana’s son’s described a bitter confrontation which saw William reportedly call his new sister-in-law Meghan Markle ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’. The argument ended, according to Harry, when he ‘grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and… knocked me to the floor’.
Harry and his wife had already been extremely candid in TV interviews, including 2021’s famous sit down with Oprah Winfrey and the six-part Harry and Meghan Netflix series. But while Harry shared an even bigger number of stories about his famous family in Spare, he claimed he held lots back, too.
“It could have been two books, put it that way,” said the father-of-two, who now lives in California with Meghan and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, in an interview with The Telegraph. “And the hard bit was taking things out.
“There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.”
The information Harry did reveal has already led to an estrangement with his older brother and, according to an insider, has left his father ‘wary’ about meeting up too.
“It’s all very sad,” a friend of the monarch told The Times. “While it is true that the King is understandably wary about meeting with Harry, given the publicity circus that seems to surround all such visits, he did of course agree to see his son at the most vulnerable moment of his illness [in February] and at very short notice.
“While he was hardly going to roll out the red carpet the moment this Invictus trip was announced, with doctors advising him to focus on his treatment and recovery, the idea that he refused to find space in his diary… well, let’s say recollections may vary once again.”
Harry’s relationship with William seems harder to repair, as royal expert Tom Quinn told the Mirror. “It is as if Harry no longer exists,” he said. “There’s been no obvious criticism from either side but the silence from William is deafening.”
