Still family. King Charles III and Prince Harry’s relationship has been strained by the latter’s memoir Spare, but the ruler isn’t giving up on his son, according to royal expert Angela Levin.
“King Charles is a monarch, but he’s also a father,” Levin exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, February 7, while promoting her new book, Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort. “He loves Harry. He might not like what he’s doing, but he loves him and there’s a weakness there for him. He doesn’t want to lose him as a son.”
The Duke of Sussex, 38, didn’t hold back with his claims about Charles, 74, in his tell-all, which hit shelves in January. In one chapter, he alleged that a “gung-ho member” of his father’s team planted stories about him and his brother, Prince William, in 2019.
“[The team member] devised and launched a new campaign of getting good press for Pa and [Queen Consort] Camilla at the expense of bad press for us,” he wrote, noting that William, 40, was “seething” when he called to tell him about the alleged plant.
King Charles III and Prince Harry. Kate Green/WPA Pool/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
Elsewhere in the memoir, Harry referred to Camilla, 75, as “dangerous,” writing, “I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she’d be less dangerous if she was happy.”
The BetterUp CIO explained how exactly Camilla — who wed the king in 2005 — had posed a threat during his January 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper.
“Because of the need for her to rehabilitate her image. That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press,” the prince said, alluding to the alleged planting of stories. “And there was open willingness on both sides to trade off information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”
Levin, for her part, doesn’t agree with Harry’s characterization of his stepmother.
“She’s not a villain,” the biographer said. “She doesn’t seek attention. She doesn’t want to be in the center of the light going on. She’s very happy to be a background person and she’s not a plotter.”
The Diana’s Babies author added that despite the Archewell cofounder’s comments about the former Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla hasn’t completely written Harry off.
“Camilla is somebody who feels that, you know, give it time and it’ll all come round,” she said.
Both Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle — with whom he shares son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 14 months — have been outspoken about their experiences as members of the Institution since stepping back from their senior roles in 2020. The former military pilot has said that he believes he and the Suits alum, 41, deserve an apology from several members of the royal family, including his brother. (Harry also made his fair share of allegations against William in Spare, including a claim that the Prince of Wales physically attacked him in 2019 after allegedly calling Meghan “difficult” and “rude.”)
“I’ve had to make peace with the fact that we’re probably never gonna get genuine accountability or a genuine apology. My wife and I, we’re moving on. We’re focused on what’s coming next,” the memoirist said in the December 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.
According to Levin, Harry’s insistence on an apology could affect whether he and Meghan attend his father’s coronation later this year. (Although Charles immediately became king upon Queen Elizabeth II‘s death in September 2022, both he and Camilla will be officially crowned in May.)
“[The royal family] haven’t actually not invited him. They’ve just said ’It’s open, it’s welcome.’ But Harry’s insisting that he wants to sit down and have this long conversation. And if they apologize for one thing, I’m absolutely certain he’ll come up with another 350 [things] that he’s also annoyed about,” she said.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi