Prince Harry unleashes on the Royal Family again on ITV
‘It never needed to be this way’: Prince Harry says his family have shown ‘no willingness to reconcile’ as he unleashes round after round of criticism on the Royals in bombshell ITV interview
- Duke of Sussex giving first primetime TV interview with his friend Tom Bradby
- It will see Harry discuss his mother Diana and the continuing rift with his family
- HARRY INTERVIEW LIVE: Follow MailOnline’s liveblog for all the latest updates
Prince Harry today insisted his family had ‘shown no willingness to reconcile’ as he launched another series of barbs at them in a tell-all TV interview.
Speaking in a 90-minute sit-down on ITV with his friend, Tom Bradby, the Duke of Sussex said he had ‘written letters and sent emails’ to his relatives but had been told ‘no, you are imagining it’.
He adds: ‘I want reconciliation, but first there needs to be some accountability. You can’t just continue to say to me that I’m delusional and paranoid when all the evidence is stacked up,
‘I was genuinely terrified about what’s gonna happen to me. And then we have a 12-month transition period, and everyone doubles down. My wife shares her experience. And instead of backing off, both the institution and the tabloid media in the UK doubled-down.’
Prince Harry sat down tonight for her first primetime interview to promote his memoir, Spare
Harry was not paid for tonight’s interview, which saw him alternate between answering questions from Bradby and reading sections from his memoir.
As he once again twisted the knife on his closest family members, the Duke –
- Recalls the moment Prince Charles sat down on the side of his bed to tell him, ‘Darling boy, mummy’s been in a car crash’;
- Says there’s ‘a lot unexplained’ about Diana’s death but there is ‘no point’ in having an official inquiry;
- Remembers the ‘guilt’ he felt walking outside Kensington Palace and smiling after Diana’s death because he was ‘unable to show emotion’;
- Says there was ‘absolutely no way’ he would have let William walk behind their mother Diana’s coffin alone;
- Says he and his brother joked ‘at least we know the way’ while during the Queen’s funeral procession along the Mall;
Prince Harry told Bradby there was ‘absolutely no way’ he have let his brother walk behind his mother Princess Diana’s coffin alone.
The brothers famously had to walk together behind Diana’s coffin as it made its way to Westminster Abbey on the day of her funeral in 1997.
Speaking on tonight’s interview, the Duke of Sussex said that after the ‘decision was made’ for the pair to walk along the route: ‘There’s absolutely no way that I would let him do that by himself.’
He added: ‘And there’s absolutely no way that he would let me do that by myself. It was, if it was role reversal.’
The ITV interview with Bradby is part of a publicity blitz for his bombshell memoir Spare, which is being released on Tuesday but was leaked at the end of last week.
Harry also spoke movingly of his memories of the sound of the horses’ ‘bridles chinking’ as the procession made its way down The Mall, along with the sounds of ‘gravel underneath the foot and the wails from the crowd.’
But he said the ‘otherwise complete silence’ will ‘stick with me forever.’
Prince Harry says he felt ‘guilt’ walking outside Kensington Palace following Princess Diana’s death and reveals he and Prince William ‘were unable to show emotion’ when they met mourners
Speaking of the decision to get him and Prince William to walk behind their mother’s coffin, Harry said: ‘…there was a lot of conversations that happened around times like that, of which I wasn’t part of, and William wasn’t part of, he was probably more part of it than I was.’
Harry also said that when he and his brother again walked the same route to Westminster Abbey together for the funeral of the Queen in September last year, they joked about knowing the way.
But he added that whilst the Queen had ‘finished life’ and there was ‘respect and recognition for what she had accomplished’, Diana was ‘taken away far too young.’
‘Just recently I was, we, my brother and I were walking the same route, and we sort of joked to each other and said, at least we know the way,’ he said.
‘Um, but otherwise it was very similar. The only difference was the levels of emotion. Because our grandmother had finished life.
‘There was more, I think, of a celebration and respect and recognition to what she had accomplished. Whereas our mother was taken away far too young.’
Earlier in the interview, in a clip shared by ITV before the programme aired, Harry revealed he only cried once over the death of his mother.
The Duke of Sussex said he felt like he was ‘unable to show any emotion’ in public after her death in 1997, and that he had only shed tears when she was buried.
The 38-year-old told Bradby he felt ‘some guilt’ as he greeted crowds who gathered to pay their respects to his mother outside Kensington Palace.
Speaking of only crying once, Harry said: ‘I cried once, at the burial, and you know I go into detail [in Spare] about how strange it was and how actually there was some guilt that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace.
‘There were 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother and there we were shaking people’s hands, smiling…
‘And the wet hands that we were shaking, we couldn’t understand why their hands were wet, but it was all the tears that they were wiping away.’
He added that everyone knew ‘where they were or what they were doing the night my mother died’.
‘Everyone thought and felt like they knew our mum, and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment,’ he said.
The interview with Bradby is the first of four broadcast appearances over the coming days, with the duke also speaking to Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS News on Sunday night, Michael Strahan of Good Morning America on Monday and Stephen Colbert on the Late Show on CBS on Wednesday morning UK time.
Prince Harry pictured with his brother Prince William and father Prince Charles at the funeral of Princess Diana
Harry, pictured here with his mother in Spain in 1987, told ITV’s Tom Bradby he had cried only once over Diana’s death
Harry speaks often about the loss of his mother in his new memoir, which was released early by mistake in Spain last week.
It is set to officially hit the shelves on Tuesday.
In the book, which was ghost-written by Pulitzer-winning author J.R. Moehringer, he writes about how his father, who was then the Prince of Wales, sat him down on a bed before breaking the news.
He says Prince Charles called him ‘my dear son’ before telling him his mother was unlikely to survive head injuries sustained in the crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
He paints the picture of an emotionally distant father, saying that Charles was ‘not good at expressing his emotions’.
He wrote: ‘What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry. Not a tear. My father did not hug me.’
The Duke also recalls asking to go and visit his mother while she was in the hospital.
However, he says his father explained she ‘hasn’t recovered any more’, before saying he stayed in his room on his own until the following morning.
He recalls that he and his brother William were forbidden from watching the TV so they didn’t see news of the car crash.
The Duke of Sussex speaks often about his mother in his new memoir Spare, which is released in the UK on January 10
Harry adds that for a time he believed Diana had faked her own death and she was ‘running away’ to escape her ‘miserable’ life.
The Duke says his 13-year-old self had wondered if it was a ‘trick’, writing in the book: ‘Her life’s been miserable, she’s been hounded, harassed, lied about, lied to. So she’s staged an accident as a diversion and run away.’
He later admitted this was not the case, but said he returned to the theory as a source of comfort.
Harry also admitted to trying to get closure by returning to the scene of his mother’s death.
The Princess of Wales was killed along with her partner Dodi Fayed when their driver Henri Paul crashed their car in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris in 1997.
An inquest would later return a verdict of unlawful killing, blaming Paul, who was drunk at the time and also died in the crash, as well as the paparazzi following the vehicle.
Harry says he got his chauffeur to drive him at 65mph – the speed at which the crash happened – through the tunnel repeatedly to experience how her final journey would have felt.
He recounts the driver was shocked when he asked him if he knew the tunnel were his mother had died, and asked him to drive him through it.
The royal reveals he barely felt anything when he entered the tunnel, writing it was: ‘The bump that supposedly sent Mummy’s Mercedes veering off course.’
He also recounts how he counted the lights and the pillar inside the tunnel as his car whizzed through, but was shocked at how short the tunnel actually was when he emerged.
Harry recalled imagining the tunnel was a dangerous route, but was surprised to learn it was a ‘no-frills tunnel’.
He recounts speaking to William about the tunnel where their mother had died after he had made the journey through it himself.
The pair then agreed to travel through it once more, together, after which Harry says they talked about their mother’s accident for the first time.
Following an investigation into Diana’s death, Harry described the final report as ‘an insult’ and ‘a shambles’ which he believed was inaccurate.
Harry claimed his brother invoked their mother’s memory during an argument over his interview with Oprah (pictured)
Prince Harry (centre) stands between his brother and father as the hearse carrying his mother’s coffin prepares to leave Westminster Abbey following her funeral service
In the memoir Harry claims his brother invoked their mother’s memory during an argument over his interview with Oprah.
The Duke wrote that William got heated as they spoke after the funeral of their grandfather Prince Philip in 2021.
Harry claims was trying to address bullying allegations made against Meghan, but his father and brother ‘weren’t listening.’
Prince William ‘lunged at Harry, grabbed his shirt and used shocking secret code phrase about Diana’ during row over Oprah Winfrey interview as the pair tried to hold peace talks in front of Charles moments after Prince Philip’s funeral
The California-based royal went on to allege that William was ‘really steaming’ and grasped at him as he tried to walk away.
‘I waved a hand, disgusted, but he lunged, grabbed my shirt. ‘Listen to me, Harold,” Harry wrote in his book, according to The Sun.
‘I pulled away, refused to meet his gaze. He forced me to look into his eyes. ‘Listen to me, Harold, listen! I love you, Harold! I want you to be happy.”
Harry claims he replied: ‘I love you too…but your stubbornness is extraordinary!’
The Duke reportedly tried to pull away, but William allegedly ‘grabbed him again’ and ‘twisted him’ so the pair could maintain eye contact.
William then evoked the brother’s so-called ‘secret code’ and swore on Princess Diana’s life that his intentions were genuine, Harry penned.
He writes that William said: ‘Harold, you must listen to me! I just want you to be happy, Harold. I swear I swear on Mummy’s life.’
Harry continued: ‘He stopped. I stopped. Pa stopped. He’d gone there.
‘He’d used the secret code, the universal password. Ever since we were boys those three words were to be used only in times of extreme crisis.’
The Duke claimed his brother ‘wasn’t quite ready to accept defeat’ and claimed to be ‘properly sick and ill’ over the tensions between the pair.
William allegedly reiterated: ‘I swear to you now on Mummy’s life that I just want you to be happy’.
Harry claims his ‘voice broke’ and he ‘softly’ told William: ‘I really don’t think you do.’
The elder brother then allegedly hugged Harry and said: ‘I love you’
Who is Tom Brady? Friend of Harry’s who’s relationship with William has soured amid fallout from Megxit
BACKGROUND & EDUCATION
Bradby was born in Malta where his father served in the Royal Navy.
After a short time on the island his family moved back to Britain, and he was privately educated at £20,000-a-year Westbourne House School near Chichester before attending Sherborne School in Dorset.
The famous public school charges £42,000 a year for boarders.
It was founded in 1550 but traces its history back more than 1,300 years, with alumni including actor Hugh Bonneville and WWII codebreaker Alan Turing.
Bradby boasts some impressive family connections, with his great-grandmother winning an Olympic gold for tennis in 1908, while his godfather, Matt Bradby, won two caps with the England rugby team in the early 1920s.
Tom Bradby with his wife Claudia at Meghan and Harry’s wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018
In a 2017 interview with the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine, Bradby paid tribute to his family including his mother, Sally, who was a tennis coach.
‘My father Dan was in the Navy and was an honourable man who strove to do the right thing,’ he said.
‘My mum, Sally, was a selfless force of nature. She died of cancer in 2012 aged 72 and my father was 83 when he died from a heart attack last year.’
CAREER
As host of ITV’s News at 10, Bradby is one of the UK’s most recognisable journalists. He joined ITN as an editorial trainee in 1980 and has served in a series of roles, including Ireland correspondent and Asia correspondent.
As royal correspondent, he presented coverage of the Golden Jubilee and the funerals of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.
He has hosted the News at 10 since 2015 and anchored major events including the Brexit referendum in 2016, the US election in 2020 and Queen Elizabeth’s funeral earlier this year.
Bradby also has a career as a fiction writer – publishing nine thrillers including Shadow Dancer, which in 2012 was made into a film starring Andrea Riseborough and Clive Owen.
Despite his high profile in the UK, Bradby is less well known in America, and has joked about being mistaken on Twitter for the American football legend Tom Brady.
Bradby speaking with Prince Harry in a trailer of a longer interview that will air later this week
PERSONAL LIFE
The journalist has been married to his jewellery designer wife Claudia since 1994 and they have three children, Jack, Louisa and Sam.
In a newspaper profile, he said his favourite drink is a Talisker whisky with ice, and he would choose Jerusalem and I Vow To Thee My Country as the hymns to be played at his funeral.
The journalist was signed off work for three months in 2018 after developing insomnia and what he describes as an addiction to the sleeping pill zopiclone.
Bradby, who has worked for ITV News producer ITN for 30 years, told how Claudia had warned him he was close to a ‘very dangerous cliff-edge’ and urged him to see a psychiatrist. At his lowest he believed he would lose his family and job.
Speaking to former Downing Street director of communications Craig Oliver, for his podcast Desperately Seeking Wisdom, Bradby said: ‘One of the really nice things about [being open] is people feel able to come and talk to me about when they’re not feeling well.
‘And it just makes you realise, God, how many people out there are suffering and need help?’
ROYAL LINKS
Bradby 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’.
The Duke of Cambridge was once so close with Tom Bradby that he was chosen to conduct the November 2010 engagement exclusive interview with him and Kate Middleton
In their recent Netflix series, Meghan said the interview marked a turning point. 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.’
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. He also went to William and Kate’s wedding, but has since admitted his relationship with the Prince of Wales has suffered amid the fallout from Megxit.
Bradby has said mental breakdown made him treat Meghan and Harry more sympathetically
Bradby’s ITV documentary in South Africa in 2019 also saw Meghan Markle tell him: ‘Not many people have asked if I’m okay’
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