Prince Harry, Prince William begged King Charles not to marry Queen Camilla
Prince Harry hasn’t held back in his criticisms of Queen Camilla, making a harsh judgment of her before their first meeting, as detailed in his memoir, Spare.
He provides insights into the encounter in his tell-all book, writing: “Willy went first. He’d bumped into the Other Woman, once, at the palace, but now he was formally summoned from Eton for a high-stakes private meeting.”
He then went on to liken his own introduction to Camilla as ‘like getting an injection’. “My turn came next. I told myself: No big deal. Just like getting an injection. Close your eyes, over before you know it.”
Harry further claimed that while Camilla had “made an effort” with William, she appeared “bored” when they met, claiming it was “pure formality” as he was not the heir or a major obstacle to the union.
Elsewhere in his book, Harry said that both he and William “begged” Charles not to marry Camilla, following the death of their mother Princess Diana.
“Despite Willy and me urging him not to, Pa was going ahead. We pumped his hand, wished him well. No hard feelings,” Harry wrote. “We recognised that he was finally going to be with the woman he loved, the woman he’d always loved.”
The Duke also documented difficult moments adjusting to his father’s new marriage. In one extract, Harry remembers wondering if Camilla would be cruel to him “like all the wicked stepmothers in storybooks”.
In the book, Harry also claims that Camilla converted his bedroom into her own personal dressing room as soon as he moved out of their former residence, Clarence House, when he was 28.
Harry has taken his criticism of Camilla even further with statements about her character, both in his book and in interviews. He has alleged that she had a calculated agenda to remedy her public image as the “other woman”, one that would pave the way for her marriage and eventual Queen Consort title.
“I had complex feelings about gaining a step parent who, I believed, had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar,” Harry wrote in Spare. “In a funny way I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she’d be less dangerous if she was happy?”
And during an appearance on 60 Minutes, Harry described Camilla as “dangerous” because of the connections she has with members of the media.
“There was open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street,” he told host Anderson Cooper.
