After the publication of his memoir, Spare—which did not shy away from delving deep into Prince Harry’s life and, vis a vis, the royal family he grew up in—royal author Tom Quinn told The Mirror that King Charles has point blank asked his younger son to not leak any more royal family secrets and to stop divulging what happens in the royal family behind closed doors.
“Harry has been asked directly by his father not to write or say publicly anything further about the family or his brother [Prince William] that might cause trouble,” Quinn said. “And everyone knows that when a King asks you to do something, there are going to be consequences if you do not obey.”
In addition to Spare, royal family secrets were laid bare in Harry and wife Meghan Markle’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, as well as their 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan.
“Over the years that Harry has complained about his treatment by his family, he has had just one aim—to get an apology and to see his father and brother make amends,” Quinn said. “Harry just can’t see that complaining in private might work; complaining publicly just makes things worse and, in Harry’s case, that means more and more ties to his past being severed.”
The strain in Harry’s relationship with his father and brother escalated when he and Meghan stepped back as working members of the royal family in 2020 and subsequently moved to the U.S., where they are raising children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The continued distance between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family could ultimately trickle down and affect the kids, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said: “Children grow up and are innately curious about their heritage and background,” she said. “And when your heritage is one of the most famous families in the world, it will undoubtedly seem rather odd and perhaps sad that you hardly know or remember them.”
She added “Imagine Archie, aged 15, telling his friends ‘My grandpa is/was King! And my uncle is/will be King, too.’ But he hardly knew or met them. How sad.”
Harry has publicly said himself that he has enough material for a second volume of Spare—which in and of itself was 416 pages long—but Quinn told The Mirror that if another tell-all came from Harry’s pen, that would be the last straw for the King: “Publication of a new book with yet more revelations about fights and bullying would certainly put an end, finally, to Harry’s relationship with his family, even though there isn’t much of that relationship left, anyway,” he said.
A source speaking to OK said that Harry wishes to “put an end to the feud” and “regrets the way that things have turned out,” adding that he sees patching relations up with his family as the only way forward. “I think there’s no plan B for Harry,” they said. “Patching things up with his family is the only option. It’s finally hit home how difficult it will be to repair the damage caused by the various swipes at his family over the years.”
