Prince Harry Has Been ‘Destructive’ and the Royals Don’t Understand Why He ‘Wants to Blabber Everything on His Mind,’ Author Says
All eyes were on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle when they returned to England together in June 2022 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II‘s Platinum Jubilee.
Two years earlier, the Sussexes announced that were stepping down as senior royals. But before that decision was made public there were reports of some family tension. In fact, it was Harry who admitted as much when speaking about his relationship with Prince William during the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. While other members of the royal family surely weren’t pleased with the Duke of Sussex‘s admission then they certainly weren’t prepared for what he wanted to get off his chest next, and they have still no idea what he’ll say or do in the future. Now a royal author who has written about the situation is explaining that members of Harry’s family really just don’t understand why since moving across the pond he has continued to publicly bash them.
What Harry said about his family in the Oprah interview and during a podcast
On March 7, 2021, Harry and Meghan sat down for a primetime special with Oprah Winfrey. Some royal watchers noted that the pair seemed poised to try and take down the monarchy with allegations that hadn’t ever been brought up until they were broadcast on a major network in the U.S.
The duke claimed that Prince Charles cut him off financially and stopped taking his calls sometime after the Sussexes moved. Harry also said he believed his father and his brother were “trapped by the institution” and described his relationship with them as “space.”
But Harry wasn’t done yet. Following that sitdown with Oprah, the prince went on Dak Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast and criticized the Prince of Wales’ parenting. The Duke of Sussex suggested that Prince Charles had “suffered” in how he was brought up by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and that he then treated Harry “the way he was treated,” calling it “genetic pain.”
”I don’t think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on,” Harry said. “It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on.”
Author says the royals don’t understand why Harry continues to attack them after stepping down
While Harry and Meghan were in town for the Jubilee they were all smiles but many believe that there is still tension behind palace walls given the allegations the Sussexes made against The Firm.
Author Tina Brown, who has dined with Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the past and interviewed 120 people for her new book The Palace Papers, explained that Harry’s relatives do not understand the duke’s behavior and why he has taken so many shots at them from afar.
“Harry has not just had his say once. He’s going to keep having his say,” Brown told 60 Minutes Australia. “There’s a fear about trust. There’s a lot of mistrust right now.”
Brown added that the royals are “baffled” by how much Harry’s been talking about the family since he left saying: “There’s certainly a paradox of the man who kept saying all he wanted was privacy now can’t seem to stop talking … One of the things I heard constantly from within the royal family people is that ‘we don’t recognize Prince Harry. We don’t understand why he’s doing this. We just don’t understand it’ … It’s almost as if [Harry’s] suddenly liberated from all the constraints that he’s been in. He just simply wants to just blabber everything that’s on his mind. I think it’s very destructive.”
Are Prince Harry, Prince William, and Prince Charles speaking now?
Brown also claimed that the information she got from palace sources is that there has been “very little communication” between William and Harry over the last year and a half, adding that the “wounds of the Oprah interview were deep.” Shortly after that interview aired, journalist Gayle King said the Duke of Sussex told her that he did have phone calls with his brother and father but “those conversations were not productive.”
In April 2022, Charles and Harry met briefly at the urging of the queen when the duke stopped in the U.K. before heading to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games. That meeting though was reportedly tense and only lasted about 15 minutes. Moreover, during the service of thanksgiving for the queen at St. Paul’s Catherdral Harry and his wife, were seated in separate aisles and on the opposite side of the church as William and Charles.
There is some hope that the family may be trying to mend fences though. Express reported that on June 3, the Sussexes did pay Charles another visit as Harry and Meghan were seen leaving the Prince of Wales’ London residence.
