Prince Harry describes Camilla as 'the villain' and claims her relationship with the British press is 'dangerous'

With Prince Harry's memoir Spare hitting shelves this week, the Duke of Sussex has been talking about royal life in two tell-all interviews which aired yesterday. 

Harry spoke to journalist Tom Bradby, who famously asked Meghan if she was okay during a royal tour in South Africa in 2019, for an interview which aired on ITV. He discussed why he has decided to open up about his life and his relationships with other members of the royal family, with some claims taking the world by surprise - from Prince William allegedly physically attacking him, to the fact that his older brother refused to talk to him at school. 

The Duke also spoke to Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS, airing just three hours later, where he went into more detail about experimenting with drugs to help him deal with the loss of his mother, and the fact that he hasn't spoken to William or his father, King Charles, 'in a while'. 

However, one of the most controversial moments came when Harry discussed his relationship with Camilla, Queen Consort. 

He told Cooper that he had described Camilla as 'the villain', claiming that she attempted to 'rehabilitate her image' following her affair with Charles by making close connections within the British press. 

Harry claimed: "She was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image."

Adding that he, along with William, had asked his father not to marry her, he continued: "We didn’t think it was necessary. We thought that it was going to cause more harm than good, and that if he was now with his person that surely that’s enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to?

"We wanted him to be happy and we saw how happy he was with her, so at the time it was OK."

In extracts from Spare, Harry claims that Camilla launched a 'campaign' to get the public on side by leaking positive stories to the media, saying: "Shortly after our private summits with [Camilla], she began to play the long game. A campaign aimed at marriage, and eventually the Crown, with Pa’s blessing we presumed.

"Stories began to appear everywhere in all the papers about her private conversation with Willie. Stories that contained pinpoint accurate details, none of which had come from Willie, of course. They could only have been leaked by the other one other person present."

Another excerpt, read out by Cooper during the interview, reads: "I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she would be less dangerous if she was happy."

When pressed about this, Harry told him: "Because of the need for her to rehabilitate her image, that made her dangerous. Because of the connections she was forging within the British press, and there was open willingness on both sides to trade information.

"And with the family built on hierarchy, and with her on her way to being Queen Consort, there were going to be people – or bodies – left in the street because of that."

Harry adds in the memoir that he felt Camilla 'sacrificed me on her personal PR altar'.

The Palace has not yet commented.

Spare will be released tomorrow, Tuesday 10th January.