Prince Harry made a telling gesture that hinted how he really feels about the Princess of Wales in his ITV chat, a body language expert has said.
Harry spoke to ITV’s Tom Bradby for the first of four primetime interviews about his controversial memoir Spare which aired ahead of the book’s launch on Tuesday.
In the interview promoting the headline-hitting autobiography, Bradby said the impression was that his brother William and sister-in-law Kate did not get on “almost from the get-go” with his wife Meghan, to which Harry replied: “Yeah, fair.”
Speaking about his wife, Harry suggested there was a lot of “stereotyping” that even he was “guilty of” at the beginning of his relationship.
And according to body language expert Judi James, Harry gestures were often conflicting, but his features "softened" when talking about Kate.
She told the Mirror: "There was an air of tragedy about Harry’s body language during this long and deeply revealing interview. He ended with verbal assurances that he was ‘the happiest I have been’, and that he had ‘made peace with a lot of what’s happened’. In true US style he claimed to be in a ‘good head space’ and that any discussions with his family now wouldn’t leave any ‘lingering’ thoughts.
"But the man we watched up to this point used conflicting body language signals that made many of his emotions still look rather raw. His gestures and his sound-bites and the way he swerved away from some more difficult topics or used non-specific claims suggested anger, resentment and righteousness. But there were also moments when he leaked out more spontaneous signals of love and even humour and fun.
"There was a rather robotic recitation of ‘I love my father, I love my brother, I love my family’ but when he spoke of his father he appeared close to tears. His account of growing up with his brother regurgitated signals of fun and loyalty and when Kate’s name was mentioned his features softened and his eyes wrinkled into an affectionate-looking eye-smile.
"Even the now infamous dog-bowl ‘fight’ showed conflicting emotional responses. The scene itself was read out over photos of the pair but when we saw Harry we saw an anxious and awkward-looking hand rub and an eye cut-off ritual where he looked up in what could have been an avoidance of eye contact.
"His shrugs suggested he was making light of it and his winding hand near his chest mimed a ‘level of frustration’. But then he went into detail of seeing William’s ‘red mist’ and his eyes widened as though he was acting out an actual fear response."
Meanwhile, Judi notes that one moment, where Harry appeared to squirm was when he recounted being at Prince Philip's funeral.
She added: "The saddest section was the account of the brother’s conversation at Philip’s funeral, which Tom described as ‘heart-breaking’. Harry seemed to squirm in his seat but again we saw the conflicting messages because he used the word ‘but’ to defend his own ‘truth’, saying ‘it’s incredibly sad...but’.
"Despite Harry’s claims to be ‘at peace’ some of his body language rituals towards the end, when Tom became more challenging, looked suspiciously like signals of power, strength and fight.
"At one point he banged his fists towards his chest, miming punching or chest-banging as he spoke of ‘My own story’. He also thumped his fist onto his knee and slapped one palm onto his thigh.
Asked about how he thought his father and brother might feel if they were watching, Harry swerved away from empathetic thinking and said ‘I don’t think they’ll read the book’.
"He looked overall like a man craving the love of his father and brother, whose memories triggered the child state, but also a man carrying huge resentments for the many people who he feels have done wrong to him, his beloved mother and his wife. And it was these contradictory messages that made Harry’s body language difficult to watch and ‘heart-breaking’ at times."
