THE FIRST TWO of four TV interviews by the UK’s Prince Harry have been aired.
The royal has been on the promotion circuit for his controversial autobiography Spare which has garnered huge amount of attention from the British press in the leadup to its release.
The book, which is due to be released tomorrow, includes references to Harry using cocaine at the age of 17 and killing 25 people while fighting in Afghanistan.
Here are the most noteworthy quotes from his talks with Tom Bradby on ITV and Anderson Cooper on CBS’s 60 Minutes programme:
– Harry accuses royal family of ‘getting into bed with the devil’ to improve image
He told Bradby: “After many, many years of lies being told about me and my, 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 in the bed with the devil.”
– Charles told Harry ‘I should have got you the help you needed years ago’
In an extract of his memoir which was read by Harry during the interview, the duke said his father, the UK’s King, blamed himself for his son’s struggles, telling him: “I should have got you the help you needed years ago.”
He says his “Pa” was “never made” for single parenthood but had tried, and told Bradby he will “always love” his father.
– Harry saw photographs of Diana ‘slumped on the back of the seat’ after crash because he was ‘looking for evidence’
The duke said he was “eternally grateful” for seeing photographs of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales after she was killed in a car crash.
“I think 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, because at that point I was still pretty numb to the whole thing. That was, again, my body, my sort of nervous system just kind of shut down and said like, let’s not go there.”
– Harry accuses royal family of ‘horrible reaction’ on day Queen died
Speaking about the day of the Queen’s death, the duke told Bradby: “The day that she died was just a really, really horrible reaction from my family members.”
Harry spoke of how his family was “on the back foot” when the late monarch died in September, and told the presenter he witnessed “leaking and planting”.
– Duke warns Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘horrific’ article about Meghan incites violence
Harry said Jeremy Clarkson’s “cruel” article in the Sun newspaper about his wife Meghan encourages people around the world to believe it is an acceptable way to treat women.
He said: “When we’re talking about accountability… the Jeremy Clarkson article… what he said was horrific and is 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.
– Royal family ‘complicit’ in conflict with British press
Harry told Bradby: “A symptom of one of the problems where we’re not just talking about family relationships, we’re talking about an antagonist, which is the British press, specifically the tabloids who want to create as much conflict as possible.
“The saddest part of that is certain members of my family and the people that work for them are complicit in that conflict. ”
– Camilla’s relationship with the British press made her ‘dangerous’
The duke told Anderson Cooper the Queen Consort was “the villain, she was a third person in the marriage” and “needed to rehabilitate her image”.
“The need for her to rehabilitate her image… that made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press,” he said.
“And there was open willingness on both sides to trade information and with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”
– Harry was “not invited” on family plane to Balmoral Castle to see ailing Queen
In his interview with Cooper, Harry said he was “not invited” onboard a plane taking other members of the royal family Balmoral Castle, ahead of the Queen’s death.
“I asked my brother…’what are your plans, how are you and Kate getting up there?’” he said.
“And then a couple of hours later all of the family members that live within the Windsor and Ascot area were jumping on a plane together, a plane with 12, 14 maybe 16 seats.
“You are not provided on that plane?” Cooper asked him.
“I was not invited,” Harry replied.
He added that by the time he had reached Balmoral the Queen was already dead.
– William told Harry ‘when we’re at school we don’t know each other’
Harry said that his brother the Prince of Wales told him to pretend “we don’t know each other” when they were at school together.
He told Cooper: “At the time it hurt.
“I couldn’t make sense of it. I was like we went to the same school… I haven’t seen you for ages now and we get to hang out together.
“He said ‘no no, when we’re at school we don’t know each other’.”
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