Telling his truth — no matter what. Prince Harry has asserted that he isn’t afraid of the consequences of speaking out against the royal family.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, shed light on his decision to write Spare, his debut memoir, in a handful of televised interviews leading up to the book’s release on Tuesday, January 10. “I don’t see how honesty is burning bridges,” he told ITV’s Tom Bradby in a sit-down that aired in the U.K. on Sunday, January 8. “I don’t know how staying silent is going to make things any better.”
Harry explained that he wanted to flip the narrative that has been presented about him and wife Meghan Markle. “[After] 38 years of having my story told by so many different people with intentional spin and distortion, [I] felt like [this was] a good time to own my story and be able to tell it for myself,” he said. “I don’t think that if I was still part of the Institution that I would have been given this chance to.”
The Archewell cofounders tied the knot in May 2018. Nearly two years later, the couple announced their plans to step down from their senior royal roles. Harry and Meghan, 41, moved to California in mid-2020, where they’re raising son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 19 months.
The duo’s exit divided the public — and the royal family. In his book, Harry writes candidly about his estrangement from his father, King Charles III, and brother Prince William. However, he insisted on Sunday that he meant no harm through the “cutting” stories he shared.
“You know, my brother and I love each other. I love him deeply,” he told Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. “There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything I’ve written, anything that I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family. But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”
Despite their differences, Harry asserted that he hopes to reconcile with his family across the pond. “I don’t think that we can ever have peace with my family unless the truth is out there,” he said during a Good Morning America segment during the Monday, January 9, episode. “There’s a lot that I can forgive, but there needs to be conversations in order for reconciliation, and part of that has to be accountability. … I just hope that there’s a way that we can have a conversation that is trusted within that conversation that isn’t then spilled to the British press.”
The Invictus Games founder clarified that it was “very hard” to leave his position within the palace — but he has no regrets. “If [my family] can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world,” he added on Monday. “I genuinely believe that, and that’s kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn’t happen, then that’s very sad.”
Scroll down for a recap of the biggest takeaways from Harry’s TV interviews: