Prince Harry continued to defend — and explain — his reasons for leaving behind his royal family in a “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper on Sunday. Harry spared no detail as he described a royal past of drugs, “wicked” stepmothers, cruel paparazzi and the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Harry appeared on “60 Minutes” to discuss his upcoming memoir, “Spare.” The interview focused heavily on the loss of his mother, Diana, when he was just 12. It was a defining experience for Harry, but his royal upbringing made it difficult for him to grieve.
Despite Harry being a controversial figure recently, Cooper went fairly easy on him during the interview. The toughest question he threw at Harry was when he asked why he and his wife, Meghan Markle, had not given up their royal titles yet. Harry argued that there was no point.
He continued to dish on his complicated relationship with his brother, Prince William, and expressed a hope for a better relationship in the future.
The “60 Minutes” interview lasted for roughly 26 minutes — about half of which focused on Diana. Boiled down, here are the most notable revelations about the royal family, according to Harry.
Harry denied saying that members of the royal family were racist
Cooper asked Harry about his 2021 “Oprah” interview. During the interview, Harry and Markle shared that the royal family had discussions about “how dark” their son’s skin color would be, per CBS News.
Harry claimed that he and Markle do not believe those comments were “based on racism,” but rather “unconscious bias.”
“But I think that you speak to the majority — maybe not all — but the majority of mixed-race couples around the world, that the white side of the family would wonder, whether talking openly about it or amongst themselves, what their kids are gonna look like,” said Harry.
He claimed it was not him and Markle, but the British press, that labeled the the royal family as racist.
“The key word here was ‘concern,’ as opposed to ‘curiosity,’” he said. “But the way that the British press, what they turned it into, was not what it — not what it was.”
Harry believed his mother was still alive
Harry detailed the death of his mother, Diana. He said that for a long time, he did not accept that she was really gone.
“For a long time, I just refused to accept that she was gone. She would never do this to us, but also part of, maybe this is all part of a plan,” Harry said during the interview. “Then that she would call us and that we would go and join her, yeah.”
He believed his mother faked her own death as a way to escape the paparazzi, and it took him years to come to terms with his new reality. According to Harry, William had “similar” beliefs.
It wasn’t until Harry got “proof” of his mother’s death by reviewing the police report when he was 20 years old that he could truly accept the loss of his mother.
“Proof that she was in the car. Proof that she was injured. And proof that the very paparazzi that chased her into the tunnel we’re the ones that we’re taking photographs — photographs of her lying half dead on the back seat of the car,” Harry said.
Cooper asked Harry if he felt that he had all the answers about Diana’s death.
“Truth be known, no. I don’t think I do. And I don’t think my brother does, either. I don’t think the world does,” Harry said.
The public shed more tears for Diana’s death than Harry
Harry revealed that he did not shed tears over his mother’s death until her coffin was put in the ground and said, “There was never another time.” Harry was just 12 when his mother died.
Cooper shared footage of Willam and Harry greeting Diana’s mourners outside Kensington Palace. Both of the boys were smiling.
“I think it’s bizarre, because I see William and me smiling. I remember the guilt that I felt … people that we were meeting were showing more emotion than we were showing. … I talk about how wet people’s hands were,” Harry said.
He said people’s hands were wet from wiping their tears.
“I do remember one of the strangest parts to it was taking flowers from people and then placing those flowers with the rest of them,” Harry said. “As if I was some sort of middle person for their grief. And that really stood out for me.”
Harry turned to drugs to cope with Diana’s death
Harry said he turned to drinking and drugs as a means to cope with his mother’s death.
“I resorted to drinking heavily. Because I wanted to numb the feeling, or I wanted to distract myself,” Harry told Cooper. “And I would, you know, resort to drugs as well.”
He also shared that he took psychedelic drugs, such as ayahuasca and psilocybin, to help in his grieving process. But he does not recommend others do the same.
William and Harry did not want their father to marry Camilla
As previously reported by the Deseret News, Harry claimed that he and his brother, William, did not want their father to marry Camilla.
According to Harry, he and William did not see a marriage between their father and Camilla as “necessary.”
“We thought that it was going to cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person, that surely that’s enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to?” Harry said.
Harry claimed that Camilla needed to rehabilitate her image from the “villain” in the British press, and that the connection she was making with the British press made her “dangerous.”
“There was open willingness on both sides to trade of information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being queen consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that,” Harry said.
“If you are led to believe, as a member of the family, that being on the front page, having positive headlines, positive stories written about you, is going to improve your reputation or increase the chances of you being accepted as monarch by the British public, then that’s what you’re going to do,” Harry said.
The royal family planted stories about Markle
According to Harry, his family was mistrustful towards Markle from the start of their relationship. He said they disdainfully called her an “American actress” and never took time to get to know her.
“Right from the beginning, before they even had a chance to get to know her. And the U.K. press jumped on that. And here we are. … The fact that she was American, an actress, divorced, black, biracial with a black mother. Those were just four of the typical stereotypes that is — becomes a feeding frenzy for the British press,” Harry said.
Harry did not want ‘Spare’ to hurt his family
Harry said that he resorted to speaking publicly after his alleged private attempts went poorly — such as the physical fight between himself and William, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
“None of anything that I’ve written, anything I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family,” Harry said. “But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”
According to Harry, his relationship with William has been complicated for a long time. During high school, Willam ignored Harry.
“I couldn’t make sense of it. I was like, ‘What do you mean? We’re now at the same school. Like, I haven’t seen you for ages, now we get to hang out together.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no, when we’re at school we don’t know each other.’ And I took that personally.”