Prince Harry's memoir will not destroy or damage the monarchy no matter what accusations and claims may surface against The King, according to a royal biographer.
But the Duke Of Sussexes' autobiography may cause concern among courtiers over its potential attacks on "being in the shadow" of King Charles and brother Prince William.
Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton said the British royal family will put on a united front as Harry puts his life stories on paper with his book Spare and on camera for TV interviews.
The Sussexes have already made waves with claims about Royal life in the 2021 Oprah Winfrey feature-length interview and in their recent six-part docu-series.
Spare is released on January 10 with the former Army captain ready to open up in TV interviews on his past dramas with his father Charles, brother William and issues with Royal life.
Morton said: "Harry’s book will cause concern, and it will make headlines around the world, but it won’t destroy the institution.
"And if the institution is so weak that it can’t stand a ghostwritten book by a junior member, then it’s probably not worth keeping it… I mean, quite frankly, a book written by [a monarch], a future queen, Diana, and a book by the future King Charles are far more relevant and important than a book by, what is he now? (But) Sixth in line to the throne, who will be rapidly going down the hierarchy."
Morton continued: "The Royal Family are bracing for two things. They were bracing for the coronation coming up so, you get the sense of palace officials are on tenterhooks making sure that for King Charles, people aren’t reminded of his emotional hinterland as it were.
"And with Harry's memoir as well, they are concerned that will affect the way people perceive King Charles.
"I think people will be looking for headlines but rather like The Crown, once you actually read and once you see it, it’s more layered, more nuanced than the blaring headlines.
"So, we’ll have to get over the headlines before we get down to the nitty-gritty.
"But obviously, when you call the book Spare, there’s a clue in the title that it’s going to be about being in the shadow of his brother and similarly his relationship with his father.
"Because the ghostwriter John Moehringer specializes in father-son relationships."
Morton sees no problem with Harry earning money from his life story.
"Harry’s got every right to write his memoir. He’s not the first royal to do so, nor will he be the last. It goes back to Edward VIII. He wrote ‘A King’s Story’ in 1951, which was an international bestseller like this one’s going to be. And it upset the royal family.
"Diana wrote with me, ‘Her True Story’ – international bestseller, upset the royal family. [The former] Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales wrote his book with Jonathan Dimbleby where he criticized his parents. That was a big book and again, [it] upset the royal family."
Morton's past working with Princess Diana is featured in the latest season of Netflix’s scripted royal drama The Crown. He recalled the tough nature of writing a biography about Diana and Charles's marriage failure while he was entangled emotionally with now-wife Camilla Parker Bowles.
"The most difficult thing to deal with was Prince Charles’ relationship with Camilla.
"When we saw a lawyer, because in Britain the libel laws are very strict, the libel lawyer said to us, ‘How can you say that Prince Charles is having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles? Are you in the bedroom with them?' And then the next sentence was, ‘Mr. Morton, who do you think a judge would believe, you or the Prince of Wales?' So we told Diana that we couldn’t write about Charles’ relationship with Camilla. And she was furious because obviously, that was something that had really stained her life for the last 10 years.
"She let us read a couple of love letters… and postcards," Morton continued.
"And it left no doubt that Charles and Camilla were lovers. And then the lawyer came up with a bright sentence. He said, ‘Their secret relationship upset Diana.’ So you didn’t have to say they were having an affair. So we changed it to, ‘Their secret relationship.’ We put all that, the nature of the relationship with Camilla, in the book. So that’s an example of how difficult it was to get material in the book without attracting a lawsuit."
