Fights, racist speech and leaks: 9 controversial revelations by Prince Harry about the royal family

Since Prince Harry stepped down from functions within the British monarchy in 2020, he has revealed several controversies about the royal family.

In April 2021, alongside his wife Meghan Markle, the Duke of Sussex gave a bombastic interview to Oprah Winfrey . In the conversation, he revealed personal issues, such as the use of drugs and alcohol to deal with the death of his mother, Diana, and situations that happened inside Buckingham Palace.

In 2022, Harry and Meghan launched a series on Netflix, which had the best debut for a documentary in the history of the platform, where they told about the beginnings of their relationship and criticized the behavior of the press and the royal family.

Earlier this year, Harry will release a memoir called “Spare”, “What’s left” in Brazil, on the 10th of January. The title references a childhood nickname of the Duke of Sussex.

Even before the launch, journalists who had prior access to the work revealed controversies reported by Harry involving his family.

Recall nine revelations Harry made about the royal family

“Lack of understanding”

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry revealed that he and Meghan stopped working as members of the royal family because they asked for help and didn’t get it.

“Lack of support and lack of understanding” was the reason they decided to back off, according to the Duke of Sussex.

In the same interview, Meghan said she told members of the royal family that “it wasn’t working for anyone”.

Racism

One of the most bombastic revelations – which was actually made by the Duchess of Sussex – was about racist comments from members of the royal family about Archie, son of Harry and Meghan.

Meghan told Oprah that there was concern within the royal family over her baby’s skin tone, and Harry condemned his relatives for not criticizing colonial sayings in media coverage.

During the pregnancy, an unnamed family member reportedly raised the question of how dark Archie’s skin would be.

“This was brought to me by Harry. These conversations, the family had with him,” Meghan added, declining to reveal who was involved in the discussions. “That would be very harmful for them.”

“This conversation, I will never share,” said Harry. “At the time, it was weird, I was a bit shocked.”

When Winfrey asked if the prince could share the questions posed during the conversation, he declined, noting: “I don’t feel comfortable sharing this.”

financial cut

Another revelation was the financial cut made by the royal family after Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal duties.

“My family isolated me financially,” he said. “But I have what my mother left me and without that we wouldn’t have been able to do this. [deixar a realeza]”.

The two said they suggested moving to a country in the Commonwealth of Nations (a union of countries that are subject to the United Kingdom, “Commonwealth” in English) and continuing to support the monarchy when necessary, but ended up settling in the United States after its security has been removed.

Due to the change in status, your protection has been revoked. At the time, the question of who would provide the couple’s security was widely publicized, being a deciding factor in their decision to move from Canada, where they temporarily remained, to California.

leak stories

Already in the Netflix series, Prince Harry said that the British royal family regularly leaks stories about each other.

He accused royal aides of being part of media attacks. That is, they not only did not try to avoid negative press coverage, but actively encouraged it.

“It is a dirty game. There are leaks, but there are also planted stories,” said Harry. “So if the communications team wants to remove a negative story about your director, they will negotiate and give you something about someone else.”

A former senior adviser to Prince William would have been responsible for providing evidence of a legal action that Meghan took against the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which published a letter she wrote to her father – with whom she does not have a good relationship, as reported in the series.

“I’d rather be trashed in the press than get into this game or this negotiation thing,” said Harry. “Seeing my brother’s office copy the exact same thing we promised the two of us would never do is heartbreaking.”

Popularity causes tension

Also in the documentary series, Prince Harry said that the arrival of new wife Meghan “stole the spotlight” from the royal family, which bothered them.

The Duke of Sussex recalled Meghan’s appearance at a public event attended by royals including Queen Elizabeth II, which resulted in a photo of Meghan splashed across the front page of the Telegraph.

“When someone who is getting married, who is supposed to be ‘a supporting act’, is stealing the spotlight or doing a better job than the person who was born to do it, it upsets people, it changes the balance,” says the prince about newspaper headlines about the couple’s growing popularity.

brother’s disapproval

Harry also revealed that William, now heir to the throne, yelled at him when there was talk of Harry stepping down from his royal role.

“It was terrifying to have my brother yelling at me, and it was my dad saying things that just weren’t true, and my grandma was sitting silently and kind of taking it all in,” he said.

For the prince, the saddest part “was the division created between me and my brother, so that now he is on the side of the institution. I understand. Part of it, I understand. This is his heritage.”

William’s aggression

According to journalists from The Guardian who had access to his new book, “Spare” which will be released on January 10, Prince Harry accused his brother, William, of physically assaulting him during an argument over his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2019.

The fight would have happened after a conversation between the brothers, in which William would have called the Duchess of Sussex “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”, according to The Guardian.

“The confrontation escalated until William ‘grabbed me by the collar, ripped my collar and…threw me to the ground,’” reported The Guardian.

Harry claimed his brother attacked him after he offered him water and tried to cool down a heated verbal exchange, according to The Guardian.

“He lowered the water, called me another name and then came to me. Everything happened so fast. Very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripped my collar and threw me to the ground. I landed in the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I stood there for a moment, stunned, then I got up and told him to leave,” according to the article, quoting the work.

According to The Guardian, the Duke of Sussex said in the book that his brother encouraged him to fight back, but he refused to do so.

William reportedly left but later returned, “looking remorseful” and apologised, according to the Guardian article, citing the book.

Nazi fantasy

Page Six, an English magazine, revealed another account of Harry in his new book.

According to the publication, Harry would have revealed that William and Kate encouraged him to wear the Nazi costume – which caused so much controversy at the time – at a party in 2005.

A photo of him wearing a soldier’s suit with a swastika was on the front page of one of the UK’s leading newspapers, The Sun.

According to the magazine, the Duke of Sussex said he had two options for the party: a pilot outfit and a Nazi soldier.

“I called William and Kate, asked them what they thought. Nazi uniform they said,” Harry wrote.

Use of drugs

According to Sky News, in “Spare” Harry said that his father, King Charles III, sent him to a drug rehabilitation center for a day in his teens.

In 2002, aged 16, he faced allegations of alcohol and marijuana consumption, which led to the monarch ruling.

In the book, according to the broadcaster, Harry would have also admitted to having used cocaine at the age of 17.

“Of course I was using cocaine at that time. At someone’s house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line and, since then, I ate some more”, would have written Harry, according to the publication.

*With information from Angus Watson, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Max Foster and Rob Picheta of CNN and from Reuters