Prince Harry has spoken out about an explosive row that took place behind the scenes within the Royal Family over his and wife Meghan Markle's decision to step back from royal duties and leave the UK.
During the final part of the pair's Netflix documentary series, the Duke of Sussex claimed that his brother Prince William had "screamed and shouted" at him during a meeting with their father, then Prince Charles, and their grandmother the Queen, to discuss his departure as a working member of the royal family.
Recounting the events that unfolded during the meeting at Sandringham in January 2020, Harry said: "It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in."
Harry said that he was given five options by his family members on how to proceed with his decision to quit his royal duties, ranging from "all in, no change" to "all out", and that he ultimately chose to be "half in, half out". He added of the Sandringham meeting: "It became very clear very quickly that that goal was not up for discussion or debate."
The Prince also said that a statement was put out without his permission claiming to be in his and William's name, which strongly denied a story in the papers reporting that there was a rift between the brothers due to William's "bullying attitude". This transpired to be what Harry was referring to when he said the family were "happy to lie to protect my brother" in the trailer for the second part of the Netflix series released earlier this week.
"I couldn't believe it," Harry said of the statement, which called reports of the fall-out "offensive and potentially harmful". The Duke added: "No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that.
"I rang M and I told her and she burst into floods of tears because within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother, and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us. So there was no other option at this point. I said, 'We need to get out of here.'"
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