Prince Harry has claimed that the royal family may be a “death cult”, saying that their lives “were built on death”.
Reflecting on his upbringing with brother William in his memoir, Spare, The Duke of Sussex wrote their brightest days were overshadowed by death.
Despite a number of scornful comments about the Prince of Wales, he does recall happy memories of his childhood with William, including the pair blasting partridges together on a shoot in Spain.
But even when Harry and his brother had a stronger relationship, he said that death haunted the family: “But now I saw that even our finest moments, and my best memories, somehow involved death.
“Our lives were built on death, our brightest days shadowed by it. Looking back, I didn't see spots of time, but dances with death.”
Windsor Castle is a “tomb, the walls filled with ancestors” and the Tower of London “held together with the blood of animals” Harry said, adding, “maybe we were a death cult”, according to the extract leaked in The Sun.
The comments come as Prince Harry defends his decision to publish the memoir, which lays bare rifts inside the royal family, saying it's an attempt to "own my story" after 38 years of "spin and distortion" by others.
Harry spoke to ITV network to promote Spare, which has generated incendiary headlines with its details of private emotional turmoil and bitter family resentments.
In the interview, broadcast Sunday, Harry accused members of the royal family of getting "into bed with the devil" to gain favorable tabloid coverage, claimed his stepmother Camilla, the queen consort, had leaked private conversations to the media and said his family was "complicit" in his wife Meghan's "pain and suffering."
He also repeated the claim that there was "concern" in the royal family about his unborn child's skin color after he married biracial American actress Meghan Markle, and said the British monarchy should address its attitudes to race.
Harry and Meghan first mentioned the incident during an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. They have not identified the family member who expressed concern.
Harry said the episode was an example of unconscious bias rather than racism, adding that the royal family needed to "learn and grow" in order to be "part of the solution rather than part of the problem."
"Otherwise unconscious bias then moves into the category of racism," Harry said. He said that "especially when you are the monarchy - you have a responsibility, and quite rightly people hold you to a higher standard than others."
He said a recent incident in which a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II asked a Black British woman where she was "really" from was "a very good example of the environment within the institution."
"Spare" explores Harry's grief at the death of his mother in 1997, and his long-simmering resentment at the role of royal "spare," overshadowed by the "heir" - older brother Prince William.
He recounts arguments and a physical altercation with William, reveals how he lost his virginity (in a field) and describes using cocaine and cannabis.
He also says he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan - a claim criticided by both the Taliban and British military veterans.
