Prince Harry blew up a key part of his Oprah Winfrey narrative (2023)

principe harryThe book went into more detail than ever before about the breakup between him, Meghan and William.Kate Middleton- leave a slightly different impressionOprah WinfreyInterview.

Some central themes remain the same in both, including Harry's hatred of the media and his feeling that his family should have done more to help.

However, there are also some notable differences between the two reports about how the royal family's impressions of Meghan have changed over time.

Harry said this to Oprah in reference to a story.the crowns, his and Meghan's tour of Australia in 2018 sparked jealousy in the family, which led to their split. But in the book, he reveals that months before that trip, things were far from perfect behind the scenes.

Prince Harry's story in an interview with Oprah Winfrey

Harry told Oprah in March 2021 that "my dad, my brother, Kate and all the rest of the family were really welcoming to them at first", "but it really changed after the Australian tour, after our tour of Australia. South Pacific ".

"It was also the first time," said the prince, "that the family got to see how amazing she is at work. And it brought back memories."

So youdiscussed a story in The Crownin which Diana aroused Charles's jealousy during a successful tour of Australia.

Harry and Meghan's tour took place in October 2018 and came a month before another big moment in their real timeline, which they've talked about at length.

In November 2018,the daily telegraphbrought up a story suggesting that Meghan brought Kate to tears during a discussion about bridesmaid dresses in the days leading up to Harry and Meghan's wedding. The story later made the cover ofThe sun.

Meghan told Oprah that she was crying, not Kate, and that Kensington Palace should have denied the story. She said that, after a wave of hostile press in January 2019, she told Harry that she was having suicidal thoughts.

"After we got back from our Australian tour," he said. "We talked about when things really started to change when I found out we weren't protected.

"And it was during this part of my pregnancy that I started to understand what our greater reality would be like."

"I mean," he said, "they would go on record and deny the most ridiculous story to anybody, right? I'm talking about things that are super-artificial and inconsequential.

"But the narrative of making Kate cry was, I think, the beginning of a real smear. And they knew it wasn't true. And I thought, well, if they're not going to kill stuff like that, then what are we going to do?

Prince Harry's Storyspare part

Nospare partRelations between Harry and Meghan and William and Kate appear to have been strained from the start, but they certainly became an issue in June 2018, a month after Harry and Meghan's wedding and four months before their Australian tour.

By this point, things had gotten so serious that the couple met to discuss their mutual grievances at William and Kate's country home, Anmer Hall.

spare partHe says: "Meg later acknowledged the tension between the four of us and ventured that she might go back to her early days when she joined the family, a misunderstanding that went almost unnoticed.

"Kate thought Meg would want her fashion contacts. But Meg had hers. Maybe they got off on the wrong foot? And then, Meg added, it all got amplified with the wedding and those hellish bridesmaid dresses."

The meeting where Meghan expressed this tension makes it to the media five months before the story about the bridesmaids' dresses.

Kate, Harry writes, said she wanted an apology because before the wedding: "You spoke about my hormones.

spare partShe says: "Meg's eyes widened too. She looked very confused. I'm sorry I brought up your hormones. That's how I talk to my friends.

"Willy pointed at Meg. 'That's rude, Meghan. That's not what they do here in the UK.'

"'Please get your finger out of my face.'"

Harry says that at the end of the meeting, "we all hugged. Sort of."

Clearly, there were pre-existing tensions between the couple that weren't simply due to Meghan and Harry's lack of support in dealing with the hostile media, as she described it to Oprah.

Harry, Meghan and staff at Kensington Palace

The book also reflects on broader issues relating to the working environment at Kensington Palace and staff relations that arose in advance of the October 2018 tour.

In a segment that appears to have taken place in the summer of 2018, Harry writes: "Our team felt the friction, read the press and there were frequent discussions in the office. The pages were taken. The Cambridge team against the Sussex team. Rivalry, jealousy , conflicting agendas: everything poisoned the environment.

He described how there were "so many lawsuits from the press, so many bugs to resolve, and we didn't have enough people or resources", meaning that, in the end, "nerves were on edge, people were on edge" and "each comment was seen as an affront, as an insult".

spare partsays, “More than once an employee broke down at his desk and cried.
Willy blamed one person for all of this. Mega.

"He told me several times and got mad when I said I was out of line.

It is unclear what Harry means by "press narrative", as stories depicting Meghan as a "difficult duchess" would not reach the UK media until months later in December 2018.

Meghan's coverage, for example, in thedaily mailin the summer of 2018, it included some attacks on Meghan for alleged breaches of royal regulations, but unrelated to relations with the team.

Another major plotline was Thomas Markle's repeated hostile interviews about Meghan, against whom the Duchess had already filed her lawsuit.sunday mailthis led to Harry's family "constantly berating" him for doing something about it.

In other words, although Harry and Meghan haven't told Oprah about it, all these issues came up backstage in the summer of 2018, before the start of the Australian tour, which according to Harry made the family jealous and changed everything.

Prince Harry and Meghan's trip to Australia

The book overlaps with Oprah in her account of the Australian tour and says that Harry began to suspect that his family might turn against her while they were still away.

He wrote, "She was so brilliant that halfway through the tour I felt compelled... to let her know." "You are doing very well, my dear. Very well. You are making things very easy for yourself. That's how it all started... with my mother.

"Maybe I sounded crazy, paranoid. But everyone knew that Mom's situation only got worse as she showed the world, showed her family that she was better at touring, better at connecting with people, better at being 'real' than that he had a right to be, and that's when things really changed.

“We went home with jubilant greetings and jubilant headlines. Meg, the mother-to-be, the impeccable representative of the crown, was celebrated. Not a single negative word was written.

“Changed, we said. It finally changed. But then it changed again. Oh how it changed!

Then came a series of negative stories, including one that called Meghan the "Difficult Duchess".

Harry wrote: 'He is also said to have pressured our assistant to resign; in fact, Palace HR asked this assistant to resign after we showed them evidence that she had traded jobs with Meg for gifts.

“But since we couldn't speak publicly about the reasons behind the mage's departure, the rumors filled the void. In many ways, that was the real start of all the problems. Soon after, the 'Difficult Duchess' story was all over the papers."

Harry seems to put more weight on this story about Meghan's personal assistant, while Meghan's report to Oprah focused mainly on the dispute over the bridesmaids' dresses.

However, the Duke is opening up about this leak and how they had another lucid encounter with William and Kate on December 10, 2018, the day after the 'Difficult Duchess' storyline.

Harry says Kate started by acknowledging: "I know Meghan, I was the one who made you cry", but said the Palace would not correct the record because it would raise questions about what really happened.

The truth, he suggests, "would shame the future queen", so they continued to discuss where she came from.

Harry wrote: "The list of suspects got infinitely short. Finally, Willy sat back and admitted that, uh, while we were on tour in Australia, he and Kate went out to dinner with Dad and Camilla...he said sheepishly, I could having let it go. fight between the two couples...

"I put a hand to my face. Mega froze. A heavy silence fell. So now we know. I said to Willy, 'You more than anyone... should know...' He nodded."

Aggravating Factors in Harry and Meghan's History

Oprah's interview didn't make it clear who the couple thought to leak the story, while now they seem to blame Charles, Camilla, or someone on the King and Queen team.

However, there is a slightly odd dimension that ties into the theme of time and Harry's assertion that jealousy motivated everything to change.

By Harry's reckoning, Charles and Camilla wouldn't have found out about the dispute before the Australian tour, so it couldn't have leaked from them or their office before then.

So it's not clear why Harry thinks they were more motivated by jealousy than, say, simply shock, due to the Australian tour, when they found out about the incident.

The stories that criticize Meghan make no mention of consort to the King and Queen, so it's unclear why anyone would think this would boost her reputation.

Charles' own standing with the British public seemed to have been enhanced, not undermined, in the heat of Harry and Meghan's marriage.

In November 2017, it was liked by 47% of UK adults and disliked by 43%, giving it a net +4 rating. On November 14, 2018, two weeks before the storyline in which Meghan was accused of making Kate cry, 48% liked and 20% disliked, bringing it to +28.

Harry doesn't seem to delve into possible alternative explanations for the saga, for example that the report was leaked by a member of staff who simply didn't like Harry and Meghan due to the toxic atmosphere that Harry himself described.

This can be done for cynical reasons, seeking revenge, or in good faith, thinking that the media attention might lead to something being done about it.

It would hardly come as a surprise, given the blunt words Harry used to describe the palace's top officials. For example, a co-worker in the book is nicknamed "the wasp" because he was "slender, charming, arrogant".

"Because he seemed so small and reserved," says Spare, "you might be tempted to back off, to hold your own, and that's when he put him on his list."

"I didn't like these men," Harry went on, "and they didn't need me. They thought I was irrelevant at best, stupid at worst. Above all, they knew how I saw them: as usurpers. "

Harry's report to Oprah only makes sense if he doesn't see these other things as a problem, i.e. if the actual split only manifests itself in negative stories about him and Meghan in the media. However, it's hard to believe that the tearful staff would agree with him.

The prince is free to give his version of events, but - after confirming itspare partthat he may have sounded "paranoid" when he first mentioned jealousy; may help readers come up with a more coherent explanation of why family rivalry is the only possible explanation for leaks in an institution made up of people it seems to hate and others it doesn't. I seem to like him a lot too.

Other than that, the public opinion of Harry, Meghan, William and Kate in October 2018 was that they were the "fabulous four" working together in harmony.

Nothing was public knowledge about the toxic atmosphere Harry describes at Kensington Palace, the staff crying at their desks or the overt conversations with William and Kate.

Harry and Meghan may have legitimate reasons to object to press reports printed at the time, but they appear (according to the book) to be based on real-life incidents that were not invented by journalists or palace advisers.

And this will be news to a lot of people.