Prince Harry Committed an ‘Unforgivable’ Slight, Royal Expert Says

There are a lot of factors keeping a rift open between Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family, but author Christopher Andersen says that the prince’s public commentary about Queen Camilla is a bigger deal than it gets credit for. Andersen wrote a biography of King Charles III titled The King, and he said that the king finds Prince Harry’s insults to the queen consort “unforgivable.” In an interview with Fox News, he said that the king and prince need to hash out this deep-rooted issue if there is any hope of reconciliation.

“I think people have to realize that the one thing that Charles finds unforgivable is criticism of Camilla,” Andersen said. “There’s no criticism of Camilla. And unfortunately for Harry… Harry said some pretty devastating things about her.” Andersen was referring to the prince’s memoir, Spare, as well as some interviews surrounding it where he criticized Queen Camilla’s approach to the British press. He said: “He made it clear that he felt she was… the villain in the piece. I think that still bothers the king, and I don’t know that it will be easy for him to [forgive]. I don’t think they’ll ever forgive Harry for that. [He’s] on his own.”

Prince Harry promised a “tell-all” with Spare, and he certainly didn’t hesitate to criticize his own family. He accused Queen Camilla of leaking private conversations to the media, reasoning that she wanted to trade valuable information in exchange for more favorable coverage of herself. He even implied that she needed a deal like this to shift public perception away from her history of infidelity.

Prince Harry reportedly felt that way long before he married Meghan Markle. He wrote about his father’s wedding to Camilla in 2005, saying: “I had complex feelings about gaining a stepparent who, I believed, had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar. In a funny way, I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she’d be less dangerous if she was happy?”

Andersen suggested that there are more personal issues between Queen Camilla and the king’s sons as well. He said: “We have to remember, he promised he would never make Camilla queen. And I think that’s one thing that still bothers both Harry and William. It’s unfortunate that Charles… promised he would never make Camilla queen. [He felt] that the way the people felt about Diana, they would never allow him to crown her by his side. But that’s exactly what he did. So, in that sense, I think both William and Harry feel a sense of betrayal to this day on that issue.”