Princess in Love - English Version (Book 1)

Chapter 24: Meghan and Harry (Documentary) and interviews

Prince Harry interview by Anderson Cooper – 60 minutes

Prince Harry may have "stepped back" from his royal duties in 2020, but he and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, certainly haven't stepped away from the spotlight. Just last month they appeared in a six-part Netflix documentary about their relationship and their decision to leave their royal lives behind. But now, the 38-year-old Prince Harry is telling his own story. In a new memoir, coming out Tuesday called "Spare" -- a nod to his backup role in the line of succession. The book is a stunning break with royal protocol. It's a deeply personal account of Prince Harry's decades-long struggle with grief after the death of his mother Princess Diana, and a revealing look at his fractured relationships with his father, King Charles, his stepmother, the Queen Consort Camilla, and his brother, Prince William, the heir to his spare.

Anderson Cooper: You write about a contentious meeting you had with him in 2021. You said, "I looked at Willy, really looked at him maybe for the first time since we were boys. I took it all in, his familiar scowl, which had always been his default in dealings with me, his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own, his famous resemblance to Mummy which was fading with time, with age." That's pretty cutting.

Prince Harry: I don't see it as cutting at all. Um, you know, my brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything I've written, anything that I've included is ever intended to hurt my family. But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.

Anderson Cooper: I think so many people around the world watched you and your brother grow up and feel like you two were inseparable. And yet in reading the book, you have lived separate lives from the time your mom died.

Prince Harry: Uh-huh (AFFIRM)

Anderson Cooper: Even when you were in the same school, in high school...

Prince Harry: Sibling rivalry.

Anderson Cooper: Your brother told you, "Pretend we don't know each other."

Prince Harry: Yeah, and at the time it hurt. I couldn't make sense of it. I was like, "What do you mean? We're now at the same school. Like, I haven't seen you for ages, now we get to hang out together." He's like, "No, no, no, when we're at school we don't know each other." And I took that personally. But yes, you're absolutely right, you hit the nail on the head. Like, we had a very similar traumatic experience, and then we-- we dealt with it two very different ways.

Anderson Cooper: William had tried to talk to you occasionally about your mom, but, as a child you could not-- you couldn't respond.

Prince Harry: For me, it was never a case of, "I don't want to talk about it with you." I just don't know how to talk about it. I never ever thought that maybe talking about it with my brother or with anybody else at that point would be therapeutic.

In August 1997, Harry and William were vacationing in Scotland with their father. Harry was 12, William, 15. They were asleep at Balmoral Castle on August 31st, when Harry was awakened by his father who told him his mother had been in a car crash in Paris.

Anderson Cooper: In the book you write, "He says, 'They tried, darling boy. I'm afraid she didn't make it.' These phrases remain in my mind like darts on a board," you say. Did-- did you cry?

Prince Harry: No. No. Never shed a single tear at that point. I was in shock, you know? Twelve years old, sort of 7:00-- 7:30 in the morning early. Your father comes in, sits on your bed, puts his hand on your knee and tells you "There's been an accident." I-- I couldn't believe.