Prince Harry interview with Tom Bradby
(Picture: ITV)So, Prince Harry has recorded another tell-all interview and it is set to drop on ITVX this Sunday night. The interview, in which his wife Megan does not participate, ties in with his upcoming memoir, Spare, which will be published on January 10.
Harry: The Interview will be 90 minutes long and is being billed by ITVX as seeing “the Prince go into unprecedented depth and detail on life in and out of the Royal Family”. The Duke of Sussex will be interviewed by British journalist Tom Bradby, who currently presents ITV News at Ten.
So who is Bradby, and why might Prince Harry have chosen him as interviewer? Here’s everything to know about the former royal correspondent.
What is his professional background?
Bradby has been working as a journalist since 1990. The 55-year-old broadcaster read history at the University of Edinburgh before joining ITN (which produces news shows for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) as an editorial trainee. He was quickly promoted, becoming a producer for Michael Brunson (then ITV’s political editor) just two years later.
Since then, Bradby’s roles at ITV have included being the network’s Ireland correspondent, Asia correspondent, royal correspondent and political editor. He has covered major events including the 2016 EU Referendum and the 2020 US Presidential Election. In 2015, he was made the presenter for ITV News at Ten, the network’s flagship news programme.
Bradby is also a novelist: he has published nine books since 1998. His first novel, Shadow Dancer, was turned into a 2012 film, which he scripted. Set in the Seventies during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the film starred Andrea Riseborough and Clive Owen.
Is Bradby a friend of the Sussexes?
Bradby has been described as a “friend” of the royal duo by the Standard and has known both Princes since the early Noughties when he became ITV’s royal correspondent.
During his four-year stint in the role, Bradby covered a number of major royal events, including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother (all of which took place in 2002).
He travelled with Harry and Meghan when they toured Africa in 2019, and he spent time with Harry back in 2004 during the Prince’s eight-week stay in the South African country Lesotho. Bradby then narrated the Prince’s 2004 BBC documentary, The Forgotten Kingdom – Prince Harry in Lesotho. When the Duke made a second documentary about Lesotho in 2016, Bradby interviewed Harry.
He was also reportedly an acquaintance of Prince William
When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge became engaged in October 2010, the couple apparently specifically chose Bradby to interview them. “Bradby is an old friend of the heir to the throne,” reported The Guardian at the time.
While it’s difficult to know just how well Bradby and Prince William knew one another, the then-Duke of Cambridge’s private secretary Miguel Head (who left his role after a decade in 2018) said: “The couple asked to record this interview specifically with Mr Bradby, whom they have both known for some time.”
You might remember him asking Meghan: Are you okay?
In 2019, Bradby travelled with Harry and Meghan during their 10-day tour of Africa for the ITV documentary, Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. At one point during filming, Bradby asked Meghan if she was okay. Meghan’s wide-eyed response was the first time that the Duchess of Sussex so openly admitted the turmoil she was feeling being both a mother and royal.
When Bradby asked Meghan about the impact of the pressure of the role on her physical and mental health, she responded: “Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m okay, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”
Then when Bradby asked, “And the answer is... would it be fair to say not really okay, it’s really been a struggle?” Meghan said, “Yes.”
His involvement with News of the World
Bradby was also reportedly the person who first brought Scotland Yard’s attention to the News of the World’s phone hacking of royal phone calls.
According to a 2006 article in the Guardian, Bradby had a private phone call with a Clarence House aide when he was a royal correspondent, which later became a diary story in the News of the World. This raised Bradby’s suspicions. The incident was taken to the police and turned into an eight-month investigation.
Will there be other interviews?
Yes. As well as conducting the ITV interview, Prince Harry has recorded a 60 Minutes CBS interview with Anderson Cooper.
But, by the looks of the two interviews’ trailers, the content will be very similar. For example, in the ITV interview preview, Harry talks about “leaking and planting” and that “they [the Royal family] feel as though it’s better to keep us somehow as the villains” while in the 60 Minutes interview preview he says, “Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately, there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife.”
Has The Palace responded to the upcoming interviews?
The Palace has not released an official statement on the upcoming interviews, but some royal insiders have reportedly been speaking to the press. According to The Daily Mirror, a royal insider said: “It all feels very repetitive. Harry’s constant sniping is rather draining and he knows full well it is highly unlikely they will engage in a tit-for-tat battle of words.”
