Although Prince Harry and Prince William had a fortunate upbringing, it was also an extremely difficult one, in part because they both lost their adored mother, Princess Diana, when they were still very young.
Then-Prince Charles, their father, was having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles at the time. Later, the two got married; Camilla will succeed to the throne in May.
It’s reasonable to assume that over the years, Camilla and Harry haven’t always gotten along. Despite the fact that Harry and his wife Meghan have left the royal family and their rumored decades-old rivalry, it seems that Harry still has many strong feelings toward his stepmother.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, Harry has lashed out at Camilla, accusing her of leaking stories about his family to the British media, among other things.
These days Camilla’s reputation with the British public has now greatly improved, but the reality is that her entrance into the Royal Family was more than just a tad controversial.
When news of her affair with Charles broke, it didn’t take long before a veritable media storm developed.
According to Prince Charles’ authorized biography, as quoted by Town & Country, their affair started in 1986. Charles was still married to Princess Diana then, and she found out about it.
In 1989, Diana confronted Camilla over the affair, telling her to back off.
“I know what’s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that,” Camilla recalled Diana saying.
“[Diana] said to me: ‘You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world falling in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?’”
“So I said, ‘I want my husband.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot,’” Diana said, as per Camilla.
Harry and Camilla’s relationship
The public had a hard time accepting that Charles and Diana had divorced. Another person reportedly felt the same way as Queen Elizabeth herself.
In 2018, investigative author and journalist Tom Bower claimed that, at first, the Queen didn’t want any interaction with Camilla.
At the time of Diana’s passing, there was an ongoing campaign to “introduce” Charles and Camilla’s relationship to the public. However, that was abandoned in the wake of Diana’s passing.
The public perception of Prince Charles and Camilla as a couple continued to grow over time. Even Prince William and, of course, Prince Harry were introduced to the future Queen Consort in 1998.
There has been plenty of drama in Camilla and Harry’s relationship, and it is said that it is very difficult right now. Harry has utterly established that with the publication of his autobiography, Spare.
When Princess Diana went tragically in Paris, Prince Harry was just a few months away from turning 14. When she was placed to rest, he and William had to follow her coffin, which they later regretted.
With her passing, the brothers were left without a loving mother who had always made sure to raise them just like normal children. They got a stepmother in Camilla, though she and Harry clashed.
Harry, of course, missed his mother dearly. When he met Camilla for the first time, it was said to have been “awkward and tense.”
“I think the relationship between them all is warm now but if I’m honest, it wasn’t then. I think they found it hard,” a palace source told royal biographer Penny Junor, author of Prince William: Born to be King.
“To be fair to Camilla, she never tried to be mummy but she was the ‘other woman’ and she was there and taking daddy’s time.”
At the same time, other royal experts also paint a picture of Harry and Camila not getting along initially.
In her book The Palace Papers, royal author Tina Brown wrote that Harry “unnerved” Camilla.
“When the younger boy was eventually prevailed upon to be in the presence of Mrs Parker Bowles, he unnerved her with long silences and smouldering, resentful stares,” she quoted a courtier saying.
Moreover – when it was announced that Camilla was to become Queen Consort – Brown claimed that Harry wouldn’t accept it.
“William has accepted Camilla in terms of what she means to his father. He’s been grown-up about it.
“My father loves this woman, I can’t fight it, so I won’t,” she said.
Harry slams stepmother Camilla in bombshell interview
“Harry, on the other hand, can’t stand Camilla, he doesn’t want Camilla to be Queen, he’s very angry that it’s happening. He has not made his peace with it, and he probably never will.”
Harry and Camilla’s relationship has undoubtedly had its ups and downs. In 2005, when he turned 21, he said that he and his brother William “loved her to bits” and thanked her for making his father, King Charles, very happy.
At the same time, however, tensions between them have continuously resided. As a friend of the brothers once said, they have never been incredibly close to her.
Relationships between Harry and Meghan and the Royal Family were strained after they departed the UK. Of course, Camilla is one of those who has a good reason to resent the couple’s openness; some have feared that Harry might reveal shocking details about her in his memoir Spare, which was published on Tuesday. That did in fact prove to be the case.
Harry conducted interviews with both British and American networks prior to the publication of his book. He discussed a variety of topics, including how upset he was by Meghan’s treatment and his mother’s passing.
During the interview with 60 Minutes, Harry continued to take swings at the Royal Family. Camilla, the Queen Consort, came under heavy fire.
Harry says Camilla was “dangerous”
Harry accused Camilla of leaking stories about the family to the British media, which he claimed was a part of her campaign to “rehabilitate her image.”
Moreover, Harry revealed that he and his brother, Prince William, had asked their father, King Charles, not to marry Camilla. However, in the end, they changed their minds.
“We didn’t think it was necessary, we thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person. That – surely that’s enough,” Harry told 60 Minutes. “We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her.”
Harry added that Camilla was “dangerous” as she had been cast as a “villain” by the British media because she had a part in Charles and Diana’s collapsed marriage.
“That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. And there was open willingness on both sides to trade of information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen Consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that,” Harry said.
“If you are led to believe, as a member of the family, that being on the front page, having positive headlines, positive stories written about you, is going to improve your reputation or increase the chances of you being accepted as monarch by the British public, then that’s what you’re gonna do.”
“I don’t look at her as an evil stepmother”
In another interview with Good Morning America, Harry said he hasn’t spoken with his stepmother in a long time.
“I love every member of my family, despite the differences, so when I see her, we’re perfectly pleasant with each other,” he said.
“She’s my stepmother. I don’t look at her as an evil stepmother. I see someone who married into this institution and has done everything that she can to improve her own reputation and her own image, for her own sake.”
Although not everyone shares Harry’s opinions on Camilla, the Palace has not made any comments regarding his book or his assertions.
Jenny Bond, a royal authority, argues in a column for INews that Harry should examine himself in the mirror because he is acting just as Camilla was accused of doing. Additionally, she thinks that Charles, the monarch, undoubtedly has a “red line” that Harry may have “crossed.”
Moreover, Bond believes King Charles has not watched his son’s interviews or read the book. However, he “will have been told” about the attack on Camilla and will most likely “be looking for an apology.”
“Positive stories were given to the media about Camilla: that she was warm and kind, a soulmate for Charles. But, in my experience, there were no negative stories given about any other member of the family in some kind of tit-for-tat agreement,” Bond wrote.
Royal expert says Harry is “lacking in self-awareness”
“On some points, Harry is simply wrong. Camilla did not leak details of her first meeting with Prince William. It was inadvertently mentioned by her personal assistant, who told her husband, who played tennis with someone associated with the Murdoch press. The personal assistant was mortified and subsequently resigned.”
She added: “For all his years of therapy – which has a valuable and legitimate place in the life of anyone who has suffered trauma – the Duke of Sussex seems astonishingly lacking in self-awareness. He says nothing in his book was intended to hurt or harm his family. Just read it, Harry. He says he wants reconciliation but insists any conversations will have to be private. What about all the private conversations you’ve just leaked in your book, Harry?”
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