Prince Harry has said stereotypes surrounding his wife were a barrier to Prince William and Kate welcoming Meghan to the family in his first of many TV interviews about his extraordinary memoir Spare.
The 95-minute ITV interview, in which the duke has said he "doesn't recognise" his father King Charles III and brother, and that others have asked how he could ever forgive them, has just aired in the UK ahead of this book officially going on sale on Tuesday.
Harry has also spoken of his claims that William floored him during an argument in 2019 in the interview, and tells interviewer Tom Bradbury that he "would like to get (his) brother back".
Bradbury began the interview by asking Harry why he decided to write the memoir, to which he responds: "Thirty-eight years of having my story told by so many different people, with an intentional spin and distortion".
"It felt like a good time to tell my story and own it for myself," he said.
'I don't recognise my father and my brother'
Prince Harry has spoken about the fractured relationship with his father and brother, telling told Bradby he "doesn't recognise" them at the moment.
"I think there's probably a lot of people who, after watching the documentary and reading the book, will go, how could you ever forgive your family for what they've done?
"People have already said that to me. And I said, forgiveness is 100 per cent a possibility because I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back. At the moment, I don't recognise them, as much as they probably don't recognise me."
But Harry has said he wants "accountability" as well as reconciliation.
"Though I would like to have reconciliation, I would like accountability, I've managed to make peace over this time with a lot of things that have happened," he told Bradby.
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"But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to let it go. I've made peace with it, but I still would like reconciliation. And not only would that be wonderful for us, but it would be fantastic for them as well."
He went on to add: "I see a lack of scrutiny to my family towards a lot of the things that have happened in the last year."
He said he hoped they would read his book, but did not believed they would.
"I don't think my father or brother will read the book. I really hope they do, but I don't think they will," he said,
"And with regard to this interview I don't know whether they'll be watching this or not, but what they have to say to me and what I have to say to them will be in private, and I hope it can stay that way."
'They have written countless books' via the media
Bradby asked how Prince Harry could want responses to his book kept in private after he had aired so many private moments via the memoir.
The duke replied: "The level of planting and leaking from other members of the family means that in my mind they have written countless books – certainly millions of words have been dedicated to trying to trash my wife and myself to the point of where I had to leave my country."
"The distorted narrative is that we wanted to leave to go and make money."'
At the beginning of the interview, Prince Harry said he was "fearing" for his life as he left the UK with wife Meghan and son Archie in 2020.
The 'fab four'
Prince Harry has said the idea of him and his wife Meghan Markle being the "fab four" with the Prince and Princess of Wales was "something the British press created", which "created competition" between the two couples.
"The idea of the four of us being together was always a hope for me. Before it was Meghan, whoever it was going to be, I always hoped that the four of us would get on.
"But, very quickly it became Meghan versus Kate. And that, when it plays out so publicly, you can't hide from that, right?
"Especially when within my family you have the newspapers laid out pretty much in every single palace and house that is around."
The duke said he didn't think his brother and sister-in-law expected him "to get into a relationship with someone like Meghan, someone with a very successful career".
"Some of the ways my brother and sister and law were acting and behaving, that stereotype was causing a bit of a barrier: American, Actress, divorced," he said.
He also told Bradby about the infamous pre-wedding spat between Kate and Meghan.
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"Meghan was the one left in tears," he insisted. "What I still to this day, don't know, was what point it was twisted. They were more than happy to put out statements for less volatile things."
He also made reference to a peace meeting between the four held after the 2018 royal wedding.
Prince Harry admitted the discussion did not go the way he had anticipated, with Kate quietly seething over Meghan's jibe about Kate having a "baby brain".
Harry wrote Kate was "gripping the edge of the seat so tightly her fingers were white" during the "awkward" meeting about their frosty relationships.
He went on to tell Bradby that William "parroted" some of the worst tabloid cruelty written about Meghan in the early stages of their marriage.
"'Meg's difficult', he alleged William said. 'She's rude, she's abrasive'."
'Harry and William didn't want Charles to marry Camilla'
Prince Harry has said he and Prince William told their father not to marry Camilla, the Queen Consort.
He recalled them saying, "Please don't marry her, just be together".
"William and I wanted our father to be happy and he seemed to be very, very happy with her. We asked him not to get married. He chose to and that's his decision. But the two of them were and remain very happy together," he said.
Prince Harry added he is now genuinely at peace with their marriage.
Struggles growing up
Prince Harry has spoken about how his memoir reveals his struggles growing up, and his father taking responsibility for them.
"Over dinner one night at Highgrove, Pa and I spoke at some length about what I'd been suffering," the memoir reads.
"I gave him the particulars, told him story after story. Towards the end of the meal he looked down at his plate and said softly "I suppose it's my fault. I should have got you the help you needed years ago".
"I assured him that it wasn't his fault, but I appreciated the apology."
The book also analyses Charles as a father.
"He'd always given an air of not being quite ready for parenthood: the responsibilities, the patience, the time. Even he, though a proud man, would have admitted as much. But single parenthood? Pa was never made for that. To be fair, he tried," he wrote in Spare.
Touching on the topic, Charles spoke of his affection for Charles during the interview with Bradby.
"Of course, he's my father. I will always love him."
The duke has told how he took drugs, including cocaine, magic mushrooms and marijuana, as a teenager at a country house in his memoir.
Losing his mother
The duke has spoken about his mother Princess Diana's premature death in 1997 after she was in a car crash in a Paris tunnel.
He has told how King Charles III broke the news to him as a child.
"Mummy's been in a car crash," Harry recalled. He thought, "No, no no."
He said he remembers his father telling him: "They tried, darling boy. I'm afraid she didn't make it."
"His voice was soft. He was in shock, it seemed. 'Oh, hospital?' 'Yes, with a head injury.' Did he mention paparazzi? Did he say she'd been chased? I don't think so. I can't swear to it, but probably not."
Harry went on to say he believes "there's a lot of things that are unexplained" about how her death occurred.
He said he requested he be driven through the tunnel at the same speed as his mother travelled.
"When you've actually experienced the same thing, which you assume your mother's driver was experiencing at the time, then it's really hard to, I guess, understand how some people have come away with the conclusions of that night. And that the people that were predominantly responsible for it, all got away with it."
The interview has aired three years to the day since Harry and Meghan announced they would be quitting their royal roles.
Much of the contents of Harry's memoir have already been leaked to the media after the Spanish version was released five days early.
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