Will any of the royal family react publicly to the duke’s memoir? The betting would be on Prince William
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.
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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.