Prince Harry is known to be the traditional rebellious younger brother of a future king whose family has practically disowned him. His rebellious streak was conspicuously evident by his unconventional behaviour that ultimately ended in marrying a mixed-race American woman Meghan Markle.
His break-up with the British royal family manifested in his moving to North America clearly dissociating himself with his roots and family.
The bitterness he felt about his royal connections worsened after he married and it erupted when he and his wife gave a highly controversial interview that created quite stir. He opted out of his royal duties in 2020 and moved to California with his wife and family. He did come to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth but was not given a prominent position in the official line-up.
The book is a curious commentary on the estranged relationship between Harry and his older brother. In an interview Harry said his brother William was his ‘archnemesis’, adding that there has always been this competition between them. But these two brothers who seemed once very close, have completely distanced themselves both literally and figuratively from each other.
The last time they were seen together was at their grandmother’s funeral on 19 September 2022 but the two seemed to be simply indifferent to each other. As members of the congregation and the Royal family, it appeared impossible they could have sat any further away from each other. Harry is now dishing the dirt as to why. Though he may know the reasons for this estrangements but his attempt to cast aspersions on his family may cause more harm to him.
For the moment it is quite clear that the royal family does not need him and instead of accepting this harsh reality he has opened a box that may permanently cast him off from his former privileged status.
The painful aspect of the episode is that the brothers have not always been this way and once upon a time were inseparable. William was reported to be very caring about Harry who, in turn greatly admired him. But the way things worked out in their lives have made them to part ways with Harry taking a step that may be very difficult for the royal family to swallow. The matter of fact is that they live on different continents and disagree about important issues in life including family, the monarchy and the media.
Harry is clearly disappointed in this relationship and his book is a big tacit plea for making up with his brother and the royal family but the way he has taken for this purpose may close the doors on him probably forever. But the brothers have not always been this way and once upon a time were inseparable. Their mother was a very strong glue in grooming their relationship but when she took her independent course of action, then it became very difficult for Harry to adjust to new and harsher realities of the cloistered royal world.
To many observers Harry was bent upon embarrassing British royal family and wrote his autobiography that is rated to be very untimely as he is just 38 years old. Titled as duke and duchess of Sussex, Harry and his wife have frequently cashed in on their royal connections with several lucrative contracts for tell-all books and programmes. His autobiography, Spare, outlines long-standing grievances and bitterness at the heart of the Royal Family including a claim that he and his brother urged their father not to marry Camilla. He dragged his older brother by mentioning that both of them begged their father not to marry Camilla over fears she would be their wicked stepmother. Harry claimed that he and his brother had separate meetings with Camilla before she officially joined the family. There is no detail given on when the meeting took place or how old Prince Harry was at the time.
But one of the most striking claims from Harry was how he was physically attacked by Prince William in an argument over Meghan.
Prince Harry claimed his brother grabbed his collar, ripped his necklace and knocked him to the floor at his London cottage. The scuffle was sparked by comments made by William about Meghan. Harry said that his brother was critical of his marriage to Meghan Markle and that Prince William described her as difficult, rude and abrasive. He added that William was parroting the press narrative as the confrontation between the brothers escalated and Harry described that he set down a glass of water, called him another name, then came at him and grabbed him by the collar, ripping his necklace and knocking him to the floor.
The book is full of revelations such as how heir to the throne Prince William allegedly pushed Harry to the ground in a 2019 row to how he lost his virginity, took drugs and killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan prompted both condemnation and derision. The Afghan government is livid about the comments in the book about killing of Afghan citizens and has issued condemnation using very tough language. Among them are Harry’s claims that William and Kate howled with laughter after seeing him dressed in a Nazi uniform for a party. Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have both said they will not comment however it is reported that the royal circles are very angry about the indiscretions contained in the book. Prince Harry described how his sadness over the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when Harry was 12 years old, led to him seeking help from a woman who claimed to have powers.
Harry’s memoir has been mauled by British media and commentators who called it vengeful and calculated implying that it was a deliberate act to embarrass the royal family. The ghostwritten tome; rated to be the biggest royal book since Harry’s mother Princess Diana collaborated with a journalist for the book Diana: Her true story in 1992, was called a calculated, despicable and a work of malice. The media comments added that having made the idiotic decision to go public about his rift with the royal family, Harry was no doubt under enormous pressure; to spew out as much poison as possible but it has cast him in an appalling light and whatever he intended, it makes people to sympathise not with him but the royal family.
A section of the press however mentioned that while people sympathised with Harry over the trauma of losing his mother as a child and having to grieve in the public eye but neither can justify the destructive, vengeful path he has chosen, throwing his own family under the bus for millions of dollars. They also point out to the countless discrepancies in his claims and urged him to listen to friends who have urged him to stop for his own good. It was stated that the book had moved beyond issues of awkward public interest into the washing of dirty linen in public.
The British media quoted sources close to his father King Charles III as saying he had been saddened by the book.
