Analysis
Prince Harry’s teasers trigger tsunami of outrage
as the Windsors await his book
Caroline
Davies
Will any of the royal family react publicly to the
duke’s memoir? The betting would be on Prince William
Tue 3 Jan
2023 15.19 GMT
As the
teasers for the teasers, the trailers released of the TV interviews in which
the Duke of Sussex promotes his memoir, Spare, were very short.
In one,
facing Tom Bradby, a coup for the ITV news anchor and erstwhile royal
correspondent whom he has known for about 20 years, Prince Harry says: “I would
like to get my father back, I would like to have my brother back.”
The clips
cut to him saying “it never needed to be this way”, and “I want a family, not
an institution”, as he claims it suited to paint him and his wife, Meghan, as
“villains”.
In another
clip, with Anderson Cooper, of CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Harry seizes on the
subject of royal correspondents, his bete noire, and their alleged collusion
with Buckingham Palace “in the briefing and leakings and planting of stories
against me and my wife”.
The clips
last one minute each, yet, predictably, have precipitated a tsunami of outrage.
Indefatigable columnists have drawn deeply on the well of indignant metaphor
and adjective; a well that surely must be close to running dry given the
surfeit of Sussex publicity that has bookended this Christmas.
“Watch out
Windsors, bitter Harry’s heating up his tureen of spleen again,” read one
headline, while others described him as trashing his family, or being engaged
in a cynical money-making exercise with a story that had a “short shelf-life”.
From
Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace there has been silence, in public at
least, with sources clearly indicating no desire for tit-for-tat.
But, will
the royal family go spare over the book Spare when it is published on Tuesday?
The trailers for the two interviews, both of which are to be broadcast on
Sunday, revisit similar themes to those aired in the six-part Netflix
docuseries Harry & Meghan, which was streamed last month. Family fractures,
press intrusion, the charge of failing to protect the couple – apparently
levelled at both the institution and the family.
The royal
family’s mantra, according to Harry, is: “Never complain, never explain.” But
he says in the CBS clip that is “just a motto” and that behind the scenes a lot
of complaining does go on. He implies it manifests itself in “spoon-fed
stories” to a compliant press.
So far the
contents of the “candid” memoir remain unleaked. One unnamed source, said to
have knowledge of the book, told the Sunday Times: “Generally I think the book
[will be ] worse for them than the royal family is expecting. Everything is
laid bare. Charles comes out of it better than I had expected but it’s tough on
William, in particular, and even Kate gets a bit of a broadside.”
It’s not
that long ago that the palace PR machine pulled off something of a triumphant
coup with the one-time “fab four” of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan briefly
and smilingly reuniting for a Windsor walkabout in the immediate aftermath of
the queen’s death. Perhaps Harry’s book will pull back the curtain on that,
along with other narratives the public are fed daily about “the firm”.
If any of
the royals do react publicly, the bookies’ money would be on the Prince of
Wales. Harry has already alleged his brother screamed and shouted at him during
the Sandringham meeting that sealed the Sussexes’ departure from the UK and the
royal fold.
It was
William, baited by Harry and Meghan’s public suggestion that the royal family
was racist, who could not stop himself from replying when questioned by a TV
reporter, saying: “We are very much not a racist family.”
Perhaps
what will cut William most deeply, though, is his brother’s monopolisation of
the memory of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Harry has spoken many
times about the lasting psychological impact of her premature death on him.
Unfettered
by protocol, he has claimed her publicly, time and again, and there is every
expectation this will form a significant part of the book. ITV, in promoting
the interview, said Harry would speak about his personal relationships and
“never-before-heard details” surrounding her death. But Diana left behind two
young boys.
As for the
king, sources regularly claim that the door is always open to Harry and Meghan.
It would undoubtedly take a very profound rift for Charles not to invite his
younger son to his coronation on 6 May, or for Harry to decline the invitation.
Whether the publication of Spare could prove to be the catalyst for this – or
for some form of reconciliation – will only be evident once it has hit the
bookshelves.
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