The royal household’s senior advisers arrange a de facto “war room” to cope with any potential fallout from Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir, Page Six can reveal.
Top employees even mentioned the state of affairs at Sandringham Estate, the place the royal household gathered to have fun their first Christmas with out Queen Elizabeth.
Insiders say a plan was drawn as much as cope with the explosive revelations anticipated not simply from Harry’s e-book, but additionally in his US sit down with Anderson Cooper on CBS 60 Minutes tomorrow, which might be swiftly adopted by a UK interview on ITV, Good Morning America and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The royals and their employees racked their brains to give you each attainable story that Harry would come with in his tome — and have been stated to be effectively conscious he would recount his combat with William, the place he claims that his brother knocked him right into a canine bowl throughout a combat over Meghan Markle.
“He broke my necklace by grabbing me by the collar of my shirt … I fell on the dog bowl, it broke under my back and the pieces scratched me,” Harry wrote.
One extremely positioned insider advised us: “There were undoubtedly fears about what Harry was going to write, and in particular they were worried about the highly personal moments of their lives being retold.
“The King wanted to move ahead with the traditional ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude and follow in the Queen’s famous footsteps of ‘never complain, never explain’, but the Prince of Wales argued that perhaps the family should, in fact, go on the offensive and release a statement, much in the same way he said ‘We are very much not a racist family’, but he was overruled by his father.”
The UK Daily Telegraph additionally confirmed the palace was on a “war footing” forward of the e-book’s launch, including that after studying excerpts of the e-book, their worst fears weren’t realised.
Despite every thing, The Sunday Times of London reported that William is acutely conscious the royal household has to remain quiet. As one shut buddy of each brothers advised the outlet, “He (William) won’t retaliate, he never would, because he’s dignified and unbelievably loyal. William is a sitting duck because Harry knows he isn’t going to retaliate. How many shots can you take at a sitting duck?
“It’s cruel, cowardly and so sad for William to keep taking the punches. He’s keeping quiet for the good of his family and the country.”
Harry’s e-book “Spare,” might be revealed Tuesday world wide, however embarrassingly excerpts leaked to Page Six this week earlier than it mistakenly went on sale early in Spain earlier than being pulled off the bookshelves.
Among his shock claims, the Duke of Sussex, 38, talks of his rift with William, 40, drags his sister-in-law Princess Kate and divulges the ultimate phrases he stated to his grandmother shortly after she died in September. He additionally tells how he and William urged their father to not marry Camilla Parker Bowles.
He additionally detailed the tense Sandringham summit in early 2020 the place Harry tried to get his kinfolk to conform to a “half-in-half out” mannequin, the place he and Markle can be allowed to dwell overseas and be part-time royals. Her Majesty disagreed, prompting them to give up their senior royal roles and transfer to California.
William and Kate have been left “reeling” by the e-book, however regardless of this, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace officers won’t touch upon the e-book, identical to they refused to remark in regards to the Sussexes’ Netflix present Harry & Meghan.
Meanwhile, Page Six is advised the Prince and Princess of Wales, who made a visit to Boston in December, have turned down a protracted listing of prestigious interviews each within the United States and Britain to current their facet with all proceeds going to royal charities.
King Charles — who gave a disastrous 1993 interview to Jonathan Dimbleby — through which he admitted to dishonest on Princess Diana together with his now-wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, is believed to have advised all of the household that nothing good can come from talking out.
In a new trailer for Harry’s ITV interview with Tom Bradby, launched Saturday, he revealed the “guilt” he felt over not having the ability to cry in entrance of weeping mourners at Kensington Palace after his mom’s demise.
Prince Harry stated that it was not till he watched his mom’s coffin being lowered into the bottom on the Althorp Estate that he lastly shed tears.
He additionally stated that he thinks that William felt guilt as effectively about not crying alongside the crowds, saying: “Everyone knows where they were and what they were doing the night my mother died.
“I cried once, at the burial, and you know I go into detail about how strange it was and how, actually, there was some guilt that I felt, and I think William felt as well, by walking around the outside of Kensington Palace.
“There were 50,000 bouquets of flowers to our mother, and there we were shaking people’s hands, smiling. I’ve seen the videos, right, I looked back over it all. And the wet hands that we were shaking, we couldn’t understand why their hands were wet, but it was all the tears that they were wiping away.”
He provides: “Everyone thought, and felt like, they knew our mum, and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment.”
We have reached out to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for remark.
This story initially appeared on Page Six and is republished right here with permission.
Originally revealed as Royals arrange a ‘war room’ amid fears over Prince Harry’s memoir
