Prince Harry says William ‘bullied’ him out of the royal family: ‘It was terrifying’
The second half of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s controversial documentary “Harry & Meghan” is now streaming on Netflix – and in it, Harry makes the explosive claim that his brother William “bullied him” out of the royal family, and that his father Charles “lied” and may have leaked stories about the couple to the press.
In the final three episodes of the docuseries, which features Harry, Meghan, and their friends speaking out about everything from their wedding to their step back from royal life, to their life in California with their kids, Harry said that after the couple’s plans to leave the UK hit the press, there was a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at her home Sandringham. William and Charles were also present, and things got heated, according to Harry.
“It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that weren’t true and my grandmother quietly sit there and take it all in,” Harry said in the doc, without elaborating on exactly what they were saying.
“Once I got in the car, after the meeting, I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and my brother’s name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang [Meghan] and I told her and she burst into floods of tears. Because within four hours, they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us,” he said.
The first three episodes of “Harry & Meghan,” which premiered last week as Netflix’s biggest documentary debut ever, with an estimated 28 million households tuning in, focused more on Markle’s family, the couple’s first meeting and courtship, and Markle’s experience with the British press. It also featured Harry reflecting on his “shame” about the Nazi uniform costume incident. The second three episodes focus more on Harry’s family, and the couple’s move to California.
In the second half of the “Harry & Meghan” docuseries, Harry also alleges that both his father and brother leaked stories about the couple to the media, and also “traded” stories (which, as he explains, is when a member of the royal family offers the press a story on a different member, in order to try to extinguish stories about themselves). Harry said that he and William swore to never do this practice of “trading” stories, but William broke that promise.
“To see my brother’s office copy the very same thing we promised the two of us would never ever do, that was heartbreaking,” Harry said, without specifying what stories William may have been trying to quash about himself. Previously, there have been rumors of Prince William having an affair, but those have been blasted as “false speculation.”
Harry also implicated King Charles in leaking the story to the media that Harry and Meghan wanted to move to Canada. That story was broken by The Sun in Jan. 2020. According to Harry, the detail about the couple’s willingness to leave behind their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles was, “the giveaway that it had been leaked.”
Harry concluded about the royal family, “I’ve had to make peace with the fact that we’re probably never gonna get genuine accountability or a genuine apology.”
