The Duke of Sussex has revealed that he has enough material to write another book, having held back disclosures for which the King and the Prince of Wales would not “ever forgive” him if they were made public.
In an interview with Bryony Gordon of The Telegraph, Prince Harry said the original transcript for his book, Spare, was twice the length of the final draft.
He admitted a lot of the detail that was eventually edited out concerned interactions with both his father and his brother.
The revelation is likely to leave the Royal family deeply concerned about future disclosures, with Buckingham Palace sources noting that he might be forced to write further books for financial gain.
Prince Harry said: “The first draft was different. It was 800 pages, and now it’s down to 400 pages. It could have been two books, put it that way. And the hard bit was taking things out.”
He added: “There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.”
He admitted he had struggled at times to determine what to include and what to leave out following 50 Zoom calls with his ghostwriter, aware that, within his family, writing a book was “an absolute no”.
Prince Harry – who has accused Palace staff of lying to protect his brother Prince William – claimed that the media had “a s— tonne of dirt about my family, I know they have, and they sweep it under the carpet for juicy stories about someone else”.
He said he knew he was “going to get trashed” for anything he included about his family, but insisted that it was impossible to tell his story without their inclusion.
The Duke also revealed that he felt “responsibility” to reform the monarchy for the sake of Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four. “I know that out of those three children, at least one will end up like me, the spare,” he said. “And that hurts, it worries me.”
He admitted that the notion frustrated Prince William, adding: “He has made it very clear to me that his kids are not my responsibility.”
Regardless, he said he liked to “fix” things and was approaching his mission with “long-term, strategic thinking”.
“This is not about trying to collapse the monarchy – this is about trying to save them from themselves,” he claimed. “I know that I will get crucified by numerous people saying that.”
Gordon spent several hours with the Duke and Duchess at their home in Montecito, California, ahead of the book’s publication and, as revelations from the memoir first emerged online, witnessed his disappointment as it was scrutinised.
The meeting came ahead of a series of interviews broadcast over the last week amid a publicity blitz that resulted in the book selling a record 1.4 million copiesacross the UK, US and Canada on Tuesday, its first day of publication.
The Duke demanded the Royal family apologise to Meghan and used the interview to address them directly, saying: “Because you know what you did, and I now know why you did it. And you’ve been caught out, so just come clean and then we could all move on.”
He said that “if people had listened” when he had raised the alarm they would not be in this position, adding: “That’s the saddest part about it – it was all so avoidable. But they just couldn’t help themselves.”
He likened his family’s silence on the entire furore to abuse.
Prince Harry said he genuinely wanted his brother and his father back in his life. His “technique”, he suggested, was to completely curtail the relationship between the Royal family and the press and, by doing so, protect them.
“When you’re trying to change an institution, and fundamentally the media landscape, that is not a small task,” he added. “The scale of the challenge is enormous, and I have to be able to protect myself mentally and emotionally throughout that process.”
He admitted he did not understand why it was considered so “shocking and outrageous” for him to tell his own “truthful” side of the story, but vowed to continue “the good fight” in standing up for Meghan “and other women” and encouraging other men to do the same.
“If you don’t lead by example, what is the point in living?” he asked.
The Duke said he had tried to explain to his family that the decisions they were making were going to reflect badly on them, not least when it came to his wife.
“I couldn’t get through to them,” he said. “It wasn’t that I gave up, but I do feel as if I failed in that instance, trying to bring them with me.”
He suggested that although his family might not like him at the moment, they would thank him in a few years for talking so openly about trauma.
Meanwhile, the Duke described how, as he got older, Prince William “went completely silent and completely shut down” over their mother’s death.
For his part, he said it was only after taking ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic, that he realised it did not matter that he had not cried and that his mother just wanted him to be happy.