Prince Harry Tells Oprah Winfrey His Brother William ‘Can’t Leave’ Royal Family ‘System’

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got candid about their decision to leave the royal family during their recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired on CBS on Sunday night. One of the multiple topics covered during the discussion was Harry’s relationship with his brother, Prince William, who Harry said is “trapped within the system” of the royal family.

“The feeling is that it was our decision and therefore the consequences are on us,” Harry explained. “It’s been really hard, because I’m part of the system with them, I always have been, but I am very aware of this that my brother can’t leave that system, but I have.” He later shared that he loves William “to bits.” “He’s my brother. We’ve been through hell together. We have a shared experience, but we were on different paths,” he said, adding that William “[doesn’t] get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that,”

“The relationship is space at the moment,” Harry said later. “And time heals all things, hopefully.” The soon-to-be father of two added that he has no regrets about his and Markle’s choice to leave the royal family and that he is “really proud of us.” Since Harry and Markle’s relationship was reported in 2016, Markle has been barraged with criticism, a significant amount of which has been racially charged. During their interview with Winfrey, Harry cited that racism as a “large part” of why he and his wife decided to leave the family.

The 36-year-old recalled a fundraiser for his charity Sentebale, where someone at the dinner said to him, “Please don’t do this with the media. They will destroy your life.’”

“This person is friends with a lot of the editors. And I said, ‘So just to elaborate what do you mean by that?’ Obviously I knew,” he said. “He said, ‘You need to understand that the U.K. is very bigoted.’ And I stopped and I said, ‘The U.K.’s not bigoted — the U.K. press is bigoted, specifically the tabloids. Is that what you mean?’ And he goes, ‘No, the U.K.’s bigoted.’ And I said, ‘I completely disagree.’ But unfortunately if the source of information is inherently corrupt or racist or biased, then that filters out to the rest of society.”

Harry also shared that after their step back, he and Markle lived off of the inheritance he received from his late mother, Princess Diana. “I’ve got what my mum left me and without that, we would not have been able to do this,” Harry said, adding, “I think she saw it coming.”