Prince Harry has claimed members of the royal family had “gone to bed with the devil” to rehabilitate their image.
Referring to the media as the “devil” in his latest interview, the Duke of Sussex touched on the veiled relationship between the royal family and the British tabloid press.
Asked by ITV’s Tom Brandy about the duke’s love for the royal family, Harry said: “I love my father. I love my brother. I love my family. I will always do. Nothing of what I've done in this book or otherwise has ever been to any intention to harm them or hurt them.
However, he continued: “After many, many years of lies being told about me and my family there comes a point where going back to the relationship between certain members of the family and the tabloid press, those certain members have decided to get in the bed with the devil, right?”
He alleged that members of the royal family did this to “rehabilitate their image.”
“If you need to do that, or you want to do that, you choose to do that. Well that is a choice,” Harry explained.
“But the moment that rehabilitation comes at the detriment of others, me, other members of my family, then that’s where I draw the line,” the duke continued.
In volume one of Harry and Meghan, Harry alleged that there was “leaking but also planting of stories” about the duchess to the British press, adding that “there’s a hierarchy of the family”.
He also compared the UK media’s treatment of Meghan with William’s wife, the Princess of Wales, claiming that the royal family “were never willing to tell the truth to protect us”.
“The family motto is ‘Never complain, never explain,’ but it’s just a motto,” he said.
Prince Harry and Meghan have faced fierce battles with the British press, most notably, Meghan’s lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday over printing a private letter she had sent to her father.
In their latest clash with the press, Prince Harry was among a group including Sir Elton John which launched legal action against the owner of the Daily Mail newspaper over phone-hacking allegations.
The action claims the individuals “have become aware of compelling and highly distressing evidence” they have been “victims of abhorrent criminal activity” and “gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers”.
Prince Harry successfully sued Associated Newspapers in the past, with a judge ruling in July that parts of an article in The Mail On Sunday were defamatory.
And in 2021 he accepted an apology and “substantial damages” over false claims he snubbed the Royal Marines after stepping down as a senior royal.
