Prince Harry claims Queen Consort Camilla launched a “campaign” to marry his father, now King Charles, in his new book Spare.
Harry narrated an excerpt from the now-leaked memoir during the broadcast of his ITV interview with Tom Bradby on Sunday (8 January).
The book is scheduled for release on Tuesday (10 January) but extracts from it were published by the UK press after it was accidentally put on sale in Spain, five days before its official launch date.
During Harry: The Interview, the Duke of Sussex read out a section about Camilla’s relationship with Charles from the ghostwritten autobiography.
Harry writes that while he and William “supported” their father’s relationship with Camilla and “endorsed” her, they asked him not to marry her.
“He didn’t answer. But she answered. Straight away. Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to play the long game,” Harry’s narration continues. “A campaign aimed marriage, and eventually the Crown, with Pa’s blessing we presumed.”
When Bradby suggested Harry was “pretty consistently scathing” towards Camilla, the duke replied: “There’s no part of any of the things that I’ve said [in the book] that are scathing towards any member of my family, especially not my stepmother.
“There are things that have happened that have been incredibly hurtful, um, some in the past, some current,” he continued.
The Independent has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.
Elsewhere during the interview, Harry told Bradby the reason he left the UK with wife Meghan Markle in 2020 was because he doesn’t want “history to repeat itself” and end up a “single dad”.
He also suggested members of the royal family had “gone to bed with the devil” to rehabilate their press image.
Harry’s sit-down with Bradby comes two days before the release of Spare, which includes several shock revelations about the royal family, the duke’s use of drugs, and his military service in Afghanistan.
A biographer of King Charles argued that it could ultimately put the “the status of a significant institution of state” at stake.
Harry: The Interview is available to stream on ITVx. Follow live updates here.
