Prince Harry has denied airing dirty laundry in his book, Spare, and said “my conscience is clear” during a new interview in Ukraine.
The Duke of Sussex’s comments came days after a private tea with King Charles III, which was seen as a positive sign for hopes of reconciliation.
“I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public,” Harry told The Guardian. “It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.”
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Why It Matters
No confirmation has emerged of what was discussed during Charles and Harry’s tea but the pervasive view among commentators has been that it is important for long-term hopes for peace that no details leak.
And none have, though the Guardian interview featured a defense of Spare‘s incendiary royal bombshells that included a description of Queen Camilla as “dangerous.”
What To Know
Harry spoke out during an interview with The Guardian that was predominantly about his visit to Kyiv to promote the work his Invictus Games Foundation is doing to help soldiers wounded in the war. The trip was a surprise addition to his four-day U.K. visit and the rest of the media were not told in advance for security reasons.
“I know that [speaking out] annoys some people and it goes against the narrative,” Harry said. “The book? It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.”
Guardian journalist Nick Hopkins wrote that “being called stubborn slightly rankles with him.”
“It’s not stubbornness, it is having principles,” Harry said. He repeated a mantra he has outlined before that “you cannot have reconciliation before you have truth.”
However, he must also have known that the royals are not free to speak their truth about a conflict that has now been running seven years.
For example, Prince William‘s perspective has been that Meghan Markle bullied palace staff at the private office the two couples shared at Kensington Palace.
We know that only because of leaks, which Harry has argued are immoral and aspects of his interviews. William has never given his account in his own words.
In Spare, Harry acknowledged that: “More than once a staff member slumped across their desk and wept.
“For all this, every bit of it, Willy blamed one person. Meg. He told me so several times and he got cross when I told him he was out of line.”
What Harry Said About Meghan
Harry described how Meghan told him telling the truth “is the most efficient way to live,” adding: “She said, ‘Just stick to the truth.’ It is the thing I always fall back on. Always.
“And if you think like that, who would be stupid enough to lie? It takes up too much time and effort.”
In March 2021, they told Oprah Winfrey they were married in secret by then Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in their back garden, prior to their May 2018 St. George’s Chapel wedding which had a global TV audience of millions.
The comment prompted Welby to clarify the St. George’s Chapel wedding was indeed the legally binding ceremony and he would have been “committing a serious crime” if he had signed the marriage certificate knowing it was not.
And a former spokesman for Elizabeth, Dickie Arbiter, asked for an apology after he was misquoted in Spare as saying Harry and Meghan could expect “no mercy” after they quit royal life.
The comment had in fact been said by journalist Sir Trevor Phillips as a warning about how conservative Brits might react to the couple’s exit. Arbiter did not get his apology and nor was the passage altered in the book.
Harry’s uncompromising, one sided view of notions like truth, lies and accountability may sound warning sirens about whether reconciliation is possible in the long-term.
Harry and Charles’ Relationship
Whatever risk Harry might have taken with the hard-line position in his Guardian interview, he did also make it clear his relationship with his father is important to him. Over the next year, “the focus really has to be on my dad,” he said.
It is slightly unclear what he means, as their professional lives are entirely separate and they live in different countries.
Hopkins, though, noted: “Harry won’t talk about his father, but he seems to suggest he wants, and needs, to see his father more often.”
It is not clear when his next visit to Britain would be, though he has a high-profile lawsuit against the Daily Mail and its sister titles set to go to trial early next year.
Assuming he does not settle out of court, he will likely have to testify in person in London. Making time to see his father alongside such a high-profile and controversial court appearance might be significantly harder to engineer than his 55-minute visit to Clarence House on Wednesday.
Harry gave his Guardian interview during a visit to Ukraine where he visibly welled up talking about the very real conflict with Russia and the very literal injuries inflicted on thousands of soldiers who have returned from the front lines.
He hopes his Invictus Games initiative will show those veterans a path to rehabilitation through sport, though some of his advice on the ground may have some relevance closer to home too.
“You will feel lost at times, like you lack purpose,” he said during a panel discussion at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, “but however dark those days are, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“You just need to look for it, because there will always be someone—a mother, father, sibling, friend, or comrade—there to pick you up.”
“Don’t stay silent,” he said. “Silence will hold you in the dark. Open up to your friends and family, because in doing so you give them permission to do the same.”
However, opening up for Harry, Charles and William may mean reopening old wounds.
Do you have a question about Charles and Camilla, William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
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