Prince Harry has told how his brother William and father King Charles conspired against him during his explosive exit from the royal family.
In an extract from his bombshell memoir Spare, seen for the first time today ahead of its global release next Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex told how he had a furious row with the Prince of Wales following the funeral of their grandfather, Prince Philip.
As frustrated raised his hands in desperation to beg them to stop quarrelling, Harry said of the King: “His voice sounded hoarse, fragile. It seemed, to be honest, like the voice of an old man.”
A meeting was scheduled between the three men at Harry’s Frogmore Cottage home, on the Windsor estate, following the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral at Windsor Castle in April 2021.
Harry tells how he was left waiting on his own before they turned up, saying: “Finally I saw them. Shoulder to shoulder, advanced towards me briskly, they looked very serious, almost threatening.
“What more, I would say they were on the same wavelength.
“In normal circumstances I would say they would be talking about one subject or another but at that moment they seemed in symphony, conspiring.
He goes on to explain how he was seeking reconciliation with Charles and William after deciding to quit his royal role with wife Meghan and leave the family in March 2020.
Harry even references his emotions of meeting Charles and William as stirring the same emotions within him as the memory of walking behind the coffin of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, or serving on the front line in Afghanistan.
The Mirror has today obtained Harry’s memoir Spare from a bookshop in Spain, ahead of the release next Tuesday.
In one extract, translated into English, he says: “The Windsors had been at war for months. Intermittent feuds had occurred in our ranks for centuries but this was different. It was a full-on public rupture which threatened to become unrepairable.
“Therefore, although I had flown home only and exclusively to attend grandfather’s funeral, I had decided to take advantage of the trip to ask for that secret meeting with my elder brother Willy and my father to talk about how things were going. To find a solution.
“However, when I looked again at my telephone and the path in the garden, I thought ‘Maybe they have changed their minds, perhaps they’re not going to come.
“For half a second I thought about giving up and going for a walk alone in the gardens or returning home, where all my cousins would be drinking and telling anecdotes about grandfather.
“Finally I saw them. Shoulder to shoulder, advanced towards me briskly, they looked very serious, almost threatening. What's more, I would say they were on the same wavelength.
“In normal circumstances I would say they would be talking about one subject or another but at that moment they seemed in symphony, conspiring.
“A thought came to my mind, have we met to take a stroll or to mourn someone?
“I got up from my wooden bench, took a hesitant step towards them and smiled timidly. They didn’t respond. Breathe deeply, I said to myself.
“Apart from fear I found a type of hyperconnectivity and an enormous and intense vulnerability that I had experienced at other decisive moments of my life.
“Like when I walked behind my mother’s coffin. Or entered battle for the first time.”
He goes on to write: “‘Okay mum’ as I accelerated my pace, ‘Here we go, wish me luck’.
"We met in the middle of the path. ‘Willy, daddy, hello.’ “Harold”. Painfully lukewarm.”
Harry recalls exchanging comments about the weather, travel and sport and Prince Phillip’s funeral, which he describes as “trivial chat” and “more superficial impossible”.
He goes on to say: “Finally we got to the point.
“I tried to explain my point of view to them. I wasn’t very concise. To begin I felt nervous, trying to keep my emotions in check as I attempted to be succinct and precise.
“What’s more I had sworn to stop that meeting degenerating into another row. How it wasn’t long before I discovered that didn’t depend on me.
“My father and Willy had come looking for a fight. Every time I tried to offer a new explanation one of them would interrupt me.
“Willy in particular wouldn’t see sense. After interrupting me a few times, we began to insult each other, with the same accusations we had been making for months.
“Things got so heated my father raised his hands. 'Enough,' he said looking at our angry faces, “Please boys, don’t turn this my last years into a torment.”
"His voice sounded hoarse, fragile. It seemed, to be honest, like the voice of an old man."
Harry goes on to write: “I pointed at the gardens and the city beyond it, the nation, and said:
“'Willy, this was supposed to be our house. We were going to spend the rest of our lives here.'
“'You went, Harold.'
“'Yes, and you know why?'
“'No.'
“'You say you don’t know why?'
“'I really don’t.'”
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. One thing was to disagree about who was to blame or what could have been done so things turned out differently but for him to claim he had no idea about the reasons why I had left my birthplace, the country I had fought for and been ready to die for, my Mother Country.
"That he didn’t know why my wife and I took the drastic step of taking our son and leaving everything behind, home, friends, furniture, like souls the Devil takes! Seriously!
"I looked at the trees.
“'You don’t know?'”
“'Harold, I truly don’t.'”
"I turned towards our father, who was looking at me with an expression that said ‘I don’t either.’
“Wow, I thought. Perhaps it’s true they don’t know. Amazing but maybe true. If they didn’t know the reasons why I left maybe what was happening was they didn’t know me at all.
"Perhaps they had never really known me. The idea made me feel cold and a terrible loneliness but it also fired me up. I thought ‘I have to explain it to them.’
“How can I explain it to them?’ I can’t. It would take too long.
“Moreover it’s obvious they are not willing to listen. For the time being they’re not at least. Not today.”
