In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” also airing Sunday, Harry attacked Buckingham Palace for what he said were negative media leaks against him and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. He holds the royal family responsible for the bitter feud being played out in the public eye, he said.
Buckingham Palace declined a request for comment.
Harry’s comments come on the heels of “Harry and Meghan,” a Netflix documentary released in December that took aim at Buckingham Palace, including allegations against Harry’s father, King Charles III, and brother, Prince William, the heir to the throne. Charles’s coronation is set to take place in May at Westminster Abbey.
Although the trailer suggests a desire by Harry for reconciliation, his remarks imply that family relations may be at a point of no return.
“Can you see a day when you would return as a full-time member of the Royal Family?” Cooper asks Harry in a short excerpt posted by CBS News.
Harry and Meghan have criticized the royal family for not supporting them and for allegedly sabotaging them with stories planted in the media. The couple have also aired their grievances to millions of viewers across the world — from an interview with Oprah Winfrey to their Netflix show.
Some critics are skeptical about whether the upcoming interviews will offer new insight.
Daniela Relph, the BBC’s royal correspondent, wrote that the themes of the interviews are “largely what we’ve heard,” and so far the story has been “from the perspective of Harry and Meghan.”
“With no comment from Buckingham Palace, it is difficult to present another side of the story,” she wrote.
The family last appeared together at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September, sparking speculation over a possible rapprochement. Charles acknowledged the couple in his first national address. “I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas,” he said.
But the tone of Harry’s interviews suggests otherwise.
“They have shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile,” Harry said in the ITV interview, which was filmed in California, where the couple lives with their two children.
“They feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains,” he added.
On “60 Minutes,” Cooper questioned Harry about the couple’s decision to go public with their differences with Buckingham Palace.
“Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately, there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife,” Harry replied.
There comes a point when “silence becomes betrayal,” he added.
The interviews are expected to generate publicity for Harry’s memoir, which is scheduled to be released Jan. 10. Its publisher, Penguin Random House, says it is a “landmark publication” written with “raw unflinching honesty.”