The Duke of Sussex spoke to ITV journalist Tom Bradby for the documentary ‘Harry & Meghan: An African Journey’. He said: “For me and for my wife, of course there’s a lot of stuff that hurts, especially when the majority of it is untrue. I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my Mum.”
On the topic of his rift with Prince William, Harry said “the majority of the stuff is created out of nothing”.
However, he did acknowledge that he and William were “on different paths” and hinted that “stuff happens”.
Both these assertions that the “majority” of coverage was a misrepresentation have been contradicted by the new biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex entitled ‘Finding Freedom’ by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
The book, which aims to show Meghan Markle and Harry’s side of the story, is widely believed to have been written with their support.
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Prince Harry in his interview with Tom Brady (left); Meghan Markle and Harry (right) (Image: ITV / GETTY)
Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie (Image: SKY NEWS)
While both the authors and the royal couple have denied direct involvement from the Duke and Duchess, around 100 people from their inner circle did speak to the authors, implying some level of cooperation.
Despite Finding Freedom therefore being an outlet for those who support Harry and Meghan, the book actually seemed to confirm many stories that were in the press, not falsify them.
The reports of a rift between Harry and William were true, as well as their apparent fall out with the rest of the family, courtiers and the press.
Individual anecdotes, like William’s warning to Harry not to go too fast with Meghan, also proved to be true.
Prince Harry’s interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby (Image: ITV)
Pod Save the Queen is hosted by Ann Gripper and features Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers.
Mr Myers pointed out that Finding Freedom actually shows that “90 percent” of the stories Harry and Meghan said were rubbish were actually correct.
Ms Gripper added that often their problem was not that the story was incorrect ‒ because actually they were correct ‒ just they “didn’t like the way it was presented”.
Mr Myers said: “It goes without saying that people don’t necessarily agree with everything that’s being said.
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There was a rift growing between Harry and Meghan and William and Kate (Image: GETTY)
“But I think one of the things that’s very very fascinating is that 90-odd percent of the stories over the last two years that Harry and Meghan have had an issue with have proved correct, and I think that’s a massive take from this.
“It was no doubt their disintegrating relationship with everyone in the royal household, whether that’s the family or the courtiers, but their relationship with the press was deteriorating to such an extent that that’s why they took the drastic action that they did.
“And the stories that we were writing have been proved correct and I think that’s a really big take from it.”
Ms Gripper added: “And I think quite often it seems like the story was correct but they didn’t like the way it was presented.
“Two different people can see a story very differently and present it very differently.”
She added that the book took every opportunity to “have a pop” at the media and implied that media coverage had only ever been negative, even though the coverage at the beginning of the marriage was overwhelmingly positive.
She posed that perhaps Meghan and Harry are the kind of people who, perhaps, only notice the bad stuff.
She said: “I think it’s fair to say that reading it as a journalist I found it very very difficult, it made me quite cross.
“Because every situation was an opportunity to have a pop at the media.
“I actually ended up swearing at the radio yesterday, I confess, when Omid was on the radio saying ‘show me this positive media coverage that there was’ ‒ and there was a huge amount of positive media coverage when Meghan joined the Royal Family.
“But I think if you are the kind of person who only sees the bad stuff ‒ yes maybe there were little things that were picked up on that she thought was unfair or they thought was unfair ‒ but if you are the kind of person who is going to remember the bad stuff rather than the good stuff, that seems a little bit what might have come through.”
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