By Rory Tingle and David Averre For Mailonline and Caroline Graham for The Mail on Sunday
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Prince Harry has said he would ‘like to have my father and brother back’ as he launched a publicity blitz for his memoir today.
The Duke of Sussex was interviewed by ITV’s Tom Bradby and CBS News’ Anderson Cooper before the release of Spare next week with short trailers for both programmes dropping.
Speaking to Mr Bradby in a clip where no questions can be heard, Harry says ‘it never needed to be this way’ and refers to ‘the leaking and the planting’ before adding ‘I want a family, not an institution’.
He also says, in an apparent reference to the royals, ‘they feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains’ and that ‘they have shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile’.
Harry’s fresh attacks on the Royal Family threatens to further damage his relationship with William, which sources say is already ‘hanging by a thread’.
In a preview clip released today before the full interview is broadcast later this week, the Duke of Sussex tells ITV’s Tom Bradby ‘it never needed to be this way’
The royal, 38, also spoke to US TV personality Anderson Cooper for his popular interview programme, 60 Minutes, with both interviews taking place at a ranch in Montecito.
A trailer shows Cooper asking why Harry had not communicated his grievances against the Royal Family in private rather than going public, to which the royal replies: ‘Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife.
Mr Bradby, a former royal correspondent who now presents ITV News At Ten, is a friend of the Sussexes and previously interviewed them for a documentary about their 2019 Africa tour.
He famously asked Meghan about her mental health, with the duchess thanking him and saying ‘not many people have asked if I’m ok’.
In their recent Netflix series, Meghan said the interview marked a turning point.
The 2019 interview in which Mr Bradby asked Meghan about her mental health
She said: ‘There is only so much you can take on your own, so you end up saying, ”Something has to change”. It was a huge turning point.
‘It was when we started having harder conversations about what needs to happen for us to be able to continue to make this work.’
Mr Bradby first got to know Harry when he worked with him on a documentary about Lesotho when the prince was on his gap year after leaving Eton.
The journalist went on to attend his 2018 wedding to Meghan.
‘The family motto is never complain and never explain – it’s just a motto.’
He adds: ‘They [Buckingham Palace] will feed or have a conversation with a correspondent, and that correspondent will literally be spoon-fed information and write the story, and at the bottom of it, they will say they have reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.
‘But the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting.
‘So when we’re being told for the last six years, ”we can’t put a statement out to protect you”, but you do it for other members of the family, there becomes a point when silence is betrayal.’
The clips appear to confirm reports that Harry will use his memoir to reveal details about disagreements between him and his brother the Prince of Wales, 40.
It comes after the duke claimed in his Netflix documentary that William broke a promise to never to leak stories or brief against one another after witnessing the fallout of such actions in their father’s office.
Mr Bradby, a former royal correspondent for ITV, is a friend of the Sussexes and previously interviewed them for a documentary about their 2019 Africa tour.
He first got to know Harry when he worked with him on a documentary about Lesotho when the prince was on his gap year after leaving Eton.
The journalist went on to attend his 2018 wedding to Meghan.
Filmed in California, where the duke now lives, ITV said Mr Bradby’s show Harry: The Interview will go into ‘unprecedented depth and detail’ about his life in and outside the Royal Family.
Meanwhile, Mr Cooper is said to have won Harry’s trust through his stance on issues close to his heart like mental health.
The 55-year-old, who is also a star of the CNN network, has campaigned to promote better mental health and hosts a podcast called All There Is. He has spoken about losing his brother Carter to suicide.
The 23-year-old fell to his death from the family’s 14th-floor Manhattan apartment in 1988. Mr Cooper also has war experience, having reported from Afghanistan, where Harry completed two tours of duty.
A television source said: ‘Mr Cooper has won Harry’s trust. This would be a coup for Mr Cooper and fits well with Harry’s campaign to promote mental health. It is a prime-time Sunday show which hosts foreign leaders and presidents. It’s the one that all the politicians and decision-makers watch.’
Mr Bradby first got to know Harry when he worked with him on a documentary about Lesotho when the prince was on his gap year after leaving Eton
The royal, 38, also spoke to US TV personality Anderson Cooper for his popular interview programme, 60 Minutes
Harry tells Mr Cooper: ‘The family motto is never complain and never explain – it’s just a motto’
Recently 60 Minutes featured exclusive interviews with US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In 2020 Mr Cooper interviewed Afua Hirsch, the British author and former Guardian journalist who features in the Sussexes’ Netflix programme, and who made a damning verdict on the Commonwealth as ‘Empire 2.0’.
In the discussion with Mr Cooper after Harry and Meghan announced they were leaving their royal duties, Ms Hirsch described the Firm as ‘Ground Zero for Britain’s troubled history of colonialism and race’.
She added that she was ‘always concerned about Meghan Markle’s wellbeing’ when joining the family. Appearing sympathetic to the couple’s plight, Mr Cooper told Ms Hirsch: ‘The notion of being hounded by the Press is going to have such strange, weird echoes for Prince Harry given what happened to his mom.’
Mr Cooper has also joked about getting a wave from Harry during his wedding to Meghan in May 2018. He told viewers: ‘I was at the Royal Wedding, covering it for CNN.
‘Our correspondent Max Foster said, “You should wave at Harry because Harry is going to look up at the bright lights and I bet he’ll wave at you.” The carriage makes a turn. I start waving. Harry looks up at the tower, we make eye contact and he waves. I almost died.’
Harry’s upcoming autobiography is said to be so cutting of his brother William that the pair may not be able to reconcile their differences following its release on January 10. Spare will reportedly see King Charles III escape severe criticism.
But it is so tough on the Prince of Wales that insiders fear the sibling relationship, which has been strained considerably since Harry and Meghan announced they were relinquishing their royal duties, will not recover.
A trailer shows Mr Cooper asking why Harry had not communicated his grievances against the Royal Family in private rather than going public, to which he replies: ‘Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife’
Harry’s upcoming autobiography is said to be so cutting of his brother William that the pair may not be able to reconcile their differences
A source 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 it had expected, but it’s tough on William, in particular, and even Kate gets a bit of a broadside.
‘There are these minute details, and a description of the fight between the brothers. I personally can’t see how Harry and William will be able to reconcile after this.’
Harry’s tell-all tale was written with JR Moehringer, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who previously penned the biography of US tennis star Andre Agassi.
The Duke of Sussex will personally narrate the audiobook version of the memoir and will donate some of the work’s proceeds to charity.
The book will be published just weeks after he and his wife Meghan released their Netflix series detailing their relationship and split from the Royal Family, while reports have emerged that Meghan is also planning to publish her own bombshell memoir.
According to one source, the Duchess of Sussex ‘is contemplating getting entirely candid about her time in the Royal limelight… and leaving no stone unturned’.
In 2021 the couple reportedly signed a four-book deal with publishers Penguin Random House.
The clips appear to confirm reports that Harry will use his memoir to reveal details about disagreements between Harry, 38, and his brother the Prince of Wales, 40
Prince Harry’s book, Spare, is due to be released on Tuesday, January 10
Prince Harry is said to have received a $20million (£17million) advance for Spare.
Meghan has already released her children’s book The Bench with the same publisher, and it is rumoured that the couple are working on a ‘wellness’ book.
Now it is believed the mystery fourth book will be the duchess’s autobiography.
A bestselling memoir would put Meghan in a well-trodden American political tradition, amid much speculation that she may have ambitions for elected office, given her outspoken views on women’s rights and other issues.
A Hollywood agent told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I would find it surprising if Meghan didn’t publish her own story, to be honest. Spare is clearly Prince Harry’s chance to tell his story, but hers is equally compelling. I mean, how many actresses end up marrying a prince?’
The source added: ‘If she’s harbouring political ambitions it would make even more sense,’ pointing out that Presidents Clinton, Obama and Trump all wrote books setting out their beliefs before launching bids for the White House.
The Duchess, a Democrat, has become close to America’s ‘political royalty’, the Kennedy family, and was honoured last month alongside her husband with an award from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights non-profit organisation.
The Duchess of Sussex, pictured with her husband, is planning to write her own autobiography which will leave ‘no stone unturned’ about life as a royal according to sources in Hollywood
A bestselling memoir would put Meghan in a well-trodden American political tradition, amid much speculation that she may have ambitions for elected office, given her outspoken views on women’s rights and other issues
The organisation’s leader Kerry Kennedy – niece of former US president John F. Kennedy – said the Sussexes received the award for their stand against ‘structural racism’ within the Royal Family.
Meghan is also good friends with feminist icon Gloria Steinem who is still closely involved in liberal politics. A friend of Ms Steinem’s said: ‘Meghan has strong views very much in alignment with Gloria’s in terms of social justice and women’s rights. Gloria is encouraging her to make her voice heard.’
But some have warned that the Sussexes may be in danger of overexposure.
One senior Hollywood executive said: ‘We’ve had the Oprah Winfrey interview, then the Netflix series and now we’ve got Harry’s book. You have to ask if the world really needs to hear Meghan’s story right now? If I was advising her I would caution against releasing a book too quickly because there is a very real danger that people will start experiencing “Sussex fatigue”.
‘There comes a point where people might feel they’ve heard the same stories too many times. They have to change the narrative at some stage and focus on the future rather than past transgressions.’
Meanwhile, Harry’s book has been billed as being written with ‘raw, unflinching honesty’.
The duke’s autobiography, Spare, will be released on January 10.
A Hollywood agent told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I would find it surprising if Meghan didn’t publish her own story, to be honest. Spare is clearly Prince Harry’s chance to tell his, but hers is equally compelling. I mean, how many actresses end up marrying a prince?’
The agent added: ‘If she’s harbouring political ambitions it would make even more sense,’ the source added, pointing out that Presidents Clinton, Obama and Trump all wrote books setting out their beliefs before launching White House bids’
Cooper pictured with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and brother, Carter in 1976
As a CNN anchor and host of CBS’s 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper, 55, is one of America’s most prominent broadcast journalists.
As well as co-anchoring the 2016 presidential debates he’s carried out sit-down interviews with some of the world’s most prominent politicians, from Joe Biden to Emmanuel Macron.
Born in Manhattan, he is the son of railway heiress Gloria Vanderbilt – making him a member of one of America’s most storied family dynasties which gained unimaginable wealth during America’s ‘Gilded Age’.
Despite an estimated net worth of $200million, Mr Cooper only inherited around $1.5million from his late mother’s estate after she spent most of her fortune while she was alive.
He’s previously vowed to take a similar approach with his son, Wyatt, due to a belief that it is wrong to pass on large amounts of money.
Mr Cooper regularly campaigns on mental health issues and has spoken openly about losing his brother Carter to suicide.
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
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